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There are lots of great answers from a problem solving perspective. But anxiety and paralysis are also psychological and shouldn't normally be involved in probl

There are lots of great answers from a problem solving perspective. But anxiety and paralysis are also psychological and shouldn't normally be involved in problem solving. Anxiety about problems often leads to rumination, which causes more anxiety. It can be a bad feedback loop. In a rumination cycle, people generally don't seek out new information, so their mind spends time analyzing and re-analyzing the same incomplete information. Lots of tricks on this thread really come down to ways to trick yourself into systematically getting more information. But I think it's also worth taking a step back and looking at the anxiety as a "problem" in itself that can be solved. And as a psychological problem it's amenable to all sorts of treatments like exercise, therapy, etc. So don't forget to take care of your brain! That said, one of my personal favorite strategies when I find myself ruminating is to put the problem aside and do some curiosity-driven learning that's adjacent to the problem. It both gives me more information and makes my brain feel less antagonism toward the topic. I usually find this is enough to get unstuck.

phkahler 3y ago
>> Anxiety about problems often leads to rumination, which causes more anxiety. It can be a bad feedback loop. In a rumination cycle, people generally don't seek out new information, so their mind spends time analyzing and re-analyzing the same incomplete information. I once got in that cycle, ruminating on possible interpretations of a situation. It can really bring you down. I noticed that each of my possible interpretations produced a different (strong) emotional response and concluded that was driving a "need to know". There is a thing in psychology called "intolerance of uncertainty" and for me the emotional uncertainty was driving the rumination. So when ruminating, ask yourself "why is this so important to me?" If you can't answer that, get some distance from it before the rumination bring you down. In my case I knew that the answer to "why is this important to me?" was itself very important to understand so I kept at it until I had my answer to that.
m463 3y ago
"analysis paralysis" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analysis_paralysis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analysis_paralysis

phkahler 3y ago

>> Anxiety about problems often leads to rumination, which causes more anxiety. It can be a bad feedback loop. In a rumination cycle, people generally don't seek out new information, so their mind spends time analyzing and re-analyzing the same incomplete information. I once got in that cycle, ruminating on possible interpretations of a situation. It can really bring you down. I noticed that each of my possible interpretations produced a different (strong) emotional response and concluded that was driving a "need to know". There is a thing in psychology called "intolerance of uncertainty" and for me the emotional uncertainty was driving the rumination. So when ruminating, ask yourself "why is this so important to me?" If you can't answer that, get some distance from it before the rumination bring you down. In my case I knew that the answer to "why is this important to me?" was itself very important to understand so I kept at it until I had my answer to that.

m463 3y ago

"analysis paralysis" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analysis_paralysis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analysis_paralysis