Paralysis of Analysis

"My name is Kijana Woodard and I'm addicted to Analysis".

I admit it. I've come clean. I have an unhealthy addiction to analysis and often am paralyzed by indecisions. My personality leads to find "the best" way of doing something. Unfortunately, "the best" is a very tricky adjective to apply to many things and situations.

What I do is sit and think...and think...and think. I think long and hard and turn the problem over in my head. Around and around. I look at it from multiple angles hoping to get everything in my head just right before I "do" anything at all. I mean, I wouldn't want to "waste time" right.

Too many times, I find I end up doing nothing. In writing this blog entry, I sat for ten minutes "thinking" about different openers and an outline of content. I am addicted to analysis.

The ironic part is, my personality is such that once I've figured out the problem completely, I'm immediately bored and my motivation implementing my solution drops dramatically.

I'm trying a new solution: GTD. Getting Things Done. Just Do It. Whatever buzzword is applicable is better than nothing.

The simplest example I can think of (off the top of my head - sweet) is needing to go to an appointment. If you get to the appointment on time, they give you $200. If they like you, you get an additional $100. You have to leave in five minutes to have any hope of making it on time. You need pants. Which are the "perfect" pants to make the right impression? Hmmm, this grey pair is a classic. Oh, but khaki would present a casual flare. STOP!

Maybe one option is 80% better than another. Pick it. There may be an option that it 5% better than that and be "the best", but if you're late or never it's 100% worthless.

I hate to say this. It's better to get something even substandard finished than to have the perfect solution locked in your head. Besides, once it's out there, you can always perfect it later, if it makes sense to do so.

I am addicted to analysis. Even as I write this, I'm cringing at having put spaces between each paragraph. Did I use the right words? Is it too long? Blah, blah blah. It's done.