How to Stop Overthinking Your Decisions

How to Stop Overthinking Your Decisions

From The Innovators Studio with Phil McKinney by Phil McKinney

January 28, 2026 · 14 min · Season 20 · Episode 38

About this episode

This episode discusses how overthinking can hinder decision-making and introduces a framework to help listeners make decisions more effectively.

You've got a decision you've been putting off. Maybe it's a career move. An investment. A difficult conversation you keep rehearsing in your head but never starting. You tell yourself you need more information. More data. More time to think. But you're not gathering information. You're hiding behind it. What looks like due diligence is actually overthinking in disguise. The certainty you're waiting for doesn't exist. It won't exist until after you decide and see what happens. I call this mindjacking: when something hijacks your ability to think for yourself. Sometimes it's external. Algorithms, experts, crowds thinking for you. But sometimes you're the one doing it. That endless research? It feels like diligence. It functions as delay. You're not being thorough. You're mindjacking yourself. Today, you'll learn a framework for knowing when you have enough information, even when it doesn't feel like enough. Because deciding before you're ready isn't recklessness. It's a skill. And for most people, that skill has completely atrophied. The Real Cost of Waiting At a California supermarket, researchers set up a tasting booth for gourmet jams. Some days, the display showed 24 varieties…

People in this episode

Host: Phil McKinney

Topics covered

  • decision making
  • overthinking
  • mindjacking
  • information overload
  • self-improvement

Keywords

  • decision
  • overthinking
  • mindjacking
  • information
  • framework
  • self-improvement
  • diligence

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