Thinking turns what you know into concrete action. Overthinking makes you reopen the decision so you never have to test it.

A friend was laughing at me for becoming a tech bro because I'm doing cold plunges 3–4 times a week. I hate to admit it, but the cold plunge has taught me how to distinguish between thinking and overthinking.

Before, I thought if you thought for too long, it's overthinking. But actually, they are fundamentally different.

Thinking has a purpose. It helps you do something at the end of the thinking.

Overthinking has a trap. It keeps you busy, making you feel productive. But all it does is loop forever so you don't act.

Overthinking keeps you rehashing your decisions so you never find out what happens next. If you find yourself overthinking something low-risk and reversible, here's a 4-part process to step out of it:

1/ commit to doing something (hard).

If you have something you want to do, the first step is to commit to it. Block it on the calendar. Actually show up. Usually, putting some money on the line helps.

That's how I committed to the cold plunge. I paid, blocked my calendar, and showed up for that first session. When my brain tried to back out of it, I kindly but firmly told myself, I'm not the type of person who backs out. (Yes, the moral kidnapping also helps! Try it.)

2/ know how you're going to do it.

This is key. Make it easier on yourself by having a framework you'll follow.

For the cold plunge, I learned a simple sequence to follow. Wait for the timer to beep and I'm done! This sequence gives me something concrete to follow so I don't need to think.

That is why frameworks are awesome! They reduce the number of decisions you have to make in the moment, which lowers the chance of overthinking.

3/ do it.

Once I begin the sequence, my only job is to follow it. I don't evaluate whether the framework is perfect while I'm using it or look for a better technique while standing beside the cold plunge.

The point is not to do it right. Not yet. The win is simply I did it! Just like you don't write and edit at the same time, you don't do and evaluate at the same time. Just do it.

4/ evaluate afterwards.

Now that you've done the thing a few times, you can evaluate. It's like a science experiment. Collect some data before determining if your experiment worked.

For the cold plunge, after doing this a few times, I noticed that some breathing exercises left me feeling more clear-headed than others.

This is when thinking becomes useful again. Now that I have a real experience to evaluate, I can make changes and see whether they get me closer to the ideal result.

Chris Do makes a similar point about learning: follow a teacher's method before changing it. It doesn't mean their plan is 100% correct. It doesn't need to be! Its value is in making it easier to do. So you have a framework you can follow long enough to produce a result.

Once you have completed one iteration, you can decide what worked, what didn't, and what you want to change. Before that, the thinking is hypothetical.

That is the difference between thinking and overthinking!

Now I know the difference, I can better catch myself overthinking and snap out of it. I now try to close the thinking loop by focusing on the action that can get me started.

For anything low-risk and reversible that you want to do, commit to doing it. Know how you're going to do it. Do it. Then reflect.

I'm committing myself to a 1 to 1 thinking vs doing ratio. No more endless overthinking!

Join me in monitoring and adjusting your thinking vs doing ratio if you're an overthinker too :)

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