Analysis Paralysis: The Stealthy Productivity Killer and How to Overcome It

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Analysis paralysis can be disastrous for productivity. It’s a common misconception having more information about something, the more likely it is that we will make better decisions. What tends to happen instead is we come paralysed to the point of giving up.

Later, we’ll discuss how analysis paralysis impacts productivity and share tips to help you avoid falling victim to it.

First, though, let’s find out what analysis paralysis is.

What is Analysis Paralysis?

The best way to explain analysis paralysis is to illustrate it through an example.

So, imagine you’re looking for a time-tracking app. You know what you’re after. You want an app that’s colourful, simple, and easy to use, so you’ll want to use it daily to mark tasks as complete. You’re after an app that will reward you with a dopamine hit when you use it to keep you motivated.

The trouble starts when you begin your search. Soon enough, you find yourself analysing every little detail of each one and finding fault with every single one of them. Thus, you are ultimately unable to decide which to go for because you over analysed each and found imperfections. That is analysis paralysis in action.

Perhaps it is better to choose an app without overthinking it to see how you get on with it. If it doesn’t suit your needs, you can always try another.

If you want to find a fantastic time-tracking app, check out ‘The 7 Best Time Tracking Apps for 2022’ for our recommendations.

Here’s a distillation of the cycle you might go through if you fall victim to analysis paralysis during an app search.

• You spot an app in the search results for the term ‘time tracking apps.’
• You’ll look at the screenshots and skim-read a few reviews.
• You then re-read the reviews with the lowest scores to make sure you’re aware of any downsides.
• You then decide to go back and look for another app.

This process repeats until you give up and tell yourself you’ll leave that decision for another day.

Analysis paralysis can strike at any moment. You may experience it when you’re deciding which restaurant to go to, a relatively trivial decision, or when deciding which bank to open an account with and which house to buy — both more important choices with more far-reaching consequences.

In a TED talk on the paradox of choice, Barry Schwartz argued analysis paralysis is more common in the modern era because we are not faced with an overabundance of choices, and thus it has become more difficult to decide on a single option because we fear making the wrong choice.

The more choices we are presented with, the more likely it becomes that we’ll suffer analysis paralysis.

Now we know what it is, it’s time to explore how analysis paralysis can affect productivity.

How Analysis Paralysis Affects Productivity

As illustrated above, analysis paralysis makes it nigh on impossible to make a decision. Whenever we get caught in this cycle, we may end up putting off important, sometimes even crucial, decisions. This can cause:

• An unnecessary drain on your mental energies.
• Fear of failure.
• Procrastination.
• Feelings of inadequacy and decreased self-confidence.

All of these can damage your productivity because no normal person could remain efficient and effective while under the influence of analysis paralysis. If you want to find out about habits that can become forms of procrastination check out this post.

You may just be striving to always make the most informed decision possible, but analysis paralysis is one of the most debilitating things that can happen. If it’s not dealt with in a timely manner, it can quickly cause a huge amount of stress.

The question then arises of what we can do to overcome it.

How to Overcome Analysis Paralysis  

The tips given here are designed to help you get out of a hole, and are short-term solutions to this problem.

Remember the Purpose of Analysis

Analysis is not bad in itself. It has a purpose. The trouble starts when you introduce elements of uncertainty, indecisiveness, and fear that it can mutate into analysis paralysis.

When trapped in its clutches, we should remember what analysis should be used for.

Analysis can:

• Help us examine information, to look at a problem or task from several angles and perspectives to find the best possible way to deal with it. We also use analysis to find evidence to support our assumptions or assertions.
• Explain the reasoning behind our choices. Sometimes this can help us persuade others and convince them of something.
• To help track performance, test a specific product or service feature, understand market movements and make better, more informed decisions on important issues in life, work, and business.  

If you’re not using formal analysis as a crutch or to obstruct something or someone, it can be incredibly useful. Reminding ourselves of what analysis is for can help you overcome analysis paralysis, move forward, and remain productive.

Ask for Help

When you start overanalysing things, it can be difficult to step back and gain perspective. The best way to deal with this is to ask for help, to get yourself out of a hole. You can consider the advice of someone you trust and see how they would handle the situation you’re in.

For advice on this, see ‘The Art of Asking for Help’.

Compromise

Find a compromise between two equally valid but conflicting ideas, choices, or approaches. If you’ve weighed the pros and cons of each choice or set of choices before you, simply pump for one, and use the other as a backup option if the first doesn’t work out.

Ask Yourself 4 Simple Questions

When all else fails, it’s time to step back and regroup. You can get yourself back on track by answering 4 questions.

1] How important is this decision?

2)  Do I need to make this decision immediately.

3) Does the outcome of this decision affect someone other than myself?

4) Does this decision have the potential to cause problems?

If you can answer these questions honestly, you can gain a sense of perspective that will help you move beyond analysis paralysis and get on with life.

Next, let’s find out how to prevent it.

How to Prevent Analysis Paralysis

If you can prevent analysis paralysis entirely, you will be much better off, so here are the best tips we could come up with to help you do just that.

Learn to Recognise It

This is more than half the battle. If you can spot the danger of this paralysis before it rears its ugly head, it has no chance.

Some hints that analysis paralysis may come up could include:

• Spending a long time researching and finding information to help you decide on something trivial.
• Opening too many Google tabs that are all about the same subject.
• Obsessing over information during your free time.
• Having s list of pros and cons that’s over 10 items long.

Manage Your Research Time and Rate the Importance of Your Decisions

Give yourself a cut-off point when you’re engaged in research. If you reach that cut-off point, you must stop and make a decision.

Make decisions in order of importance. Make a list of everything that needs to be done and then rate them from 1 to 5. Tasks rated 1 are the most important or urgent decisions you must make.

You can schedule your research time by:

• Using time blocking.
• Breaking down your research into smaller chunks.
• Prioritising your research tasks.

If you can stave off analysis paralysis, you can become much more productive.

Wrapping Up

Analysis paralysis is a major cause of procrastination. Not only is productivity impacted by wasting time, our mental energy and self-confidence both take a big hit. Luckily, they are ways we can get ourselves out of the cycle. We can do smarter research, manage our time well, ask for help and prioritise like a pro.

Try to discover your what triggers analysis paralysis in yourself, and you will have a much better idea of the situations in which it might happen, and how to prevent and overcome it. If you can do that, you’ll be able to stay on top of things and remain productive.

Good luck!