# On Option Paralysis - The Thing You Actually Do

Introduction
------------

I recently encountered a problem in my life I found interesting. I noticed that I was fairly unfit, that my energy levels were lower than I wanted them to be, and so I was considering starting to exercise more as a solution to this. And I knew that exercise is ridiculously important to longevity and general health, and had been thinking about this for at least the path month.

So I brought up this issue with my coach, and it became obvious to me that I’d never actually _done_ anything about this - it felt aversive, and I felt highly reluctant to take any action. And when I introspected on where that reluctance came from, it turned out to be coming from a desire to find the _optimal_ form of exercise. And because I am deeply confused about the science behind exercise, there were many different options for how to get into it, and it wasn’t obvious what the best one was, I was caught in analysis paralysis and procrastinating about it. And her advice for this problem was **“the best kind of exercise is the one you actually do”**.

I knew on _some_ level that I was making an error, but I thought this articulated it excellently. Most of the value comes from doing _any_ exercise, and finding optimal forms, durations etc should not be the priority. And since seeing it like this, the problem has felt basically solved! I decided to pick Couch to 5K as an obvious and available exercise plan, and have [systematised doing it](https://www.neelnanda.io/blog/mini-blog-post-19-on-systems-living-a-life-of-zero-willpower) 3 times a week: I have a clear time in the mornings to do it, reminders, and owe a friend of mine £20 for each session I miss (for bad reasons). And at this point, it now feels like the default action is to do some exercise, I’ve kept it up for the last month, and this is no longer a burning priority.

When articulated like this, the problem feels _obvious_. But this is also _deeply weird_. I procrastinated for months on a problem, found a slight change in perspective, and near instantly solved it to my satisfaction, to the point where the solution now feels like the default action. And getting better at resolving problems like that sounds like a major win!

This kind of perfectionism-induced procrastination and analysis paralysis is an example of a far more general problem in my life, and in the lives of the people around me. In this post I’m going to dig into to _exactly_ what the error is and where it comes from, how to identify it in practice, and then how to find **the thing you will actually do**.

The Error
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This problem comes up _everywhere_ in my life when I actually look for it, and the lives of my friends:

*   When I started blogging, I spent about a month procrastinating, as I tried to find the _optimal_ blogging, the _optimal_ style, the _optimal_ things to write about. Until I eventually solved it by committing to running with Squarespace, and making a daily commitment, so the default action shifting to _doing_ things

*   Fortunately, this made my original motivation of blogging - overcoming procrastination - feel _way_ more justified!
*   I’ve so far talked about 5 friends of mine into starting blogs - this problem has come up with all of them!

*   Accordingly, [my advice if you want to start blogging](https://www.neelnanda.io/blog/27-retrospective) is to just do it! Start making a blog on Medium, it’s exceptionally low effort, and just copy your posts over to somewhere else if you ever decide to switch.

*   When deciding which posts to write, I feel averse to writing ambitious posts, on topics I understand less well. I feel like I should only start a post if I have a _clear_ view, even though by far the most valuable posts are the ones that clarify my thoughts
*   When I identify a problem, and come up with a vague way to fix it, but there are many details, and I can’t see how to perfectly resolve all of them

*   Eg, it took me several weeks to implement my solution to [meaningful rest](https://www.neelnanda.io/blog/29-meaningful-rest)

*   I’ve been procrastinating trying online dating for a while - there’s _obviously_ massive upside risk, but so many questions: how to write a bio, which platform, which persona to affect, initiating conversations, etc
*   More generally, basically _anything_ that has [strong upside risk](https://www.neelnanda.io/blog/33-upside-risk) triggers this - there’s vagueness, and high-uncertainty, and I want to _clarify_ it

The core problem here is one of **perfectionism**. I want things to be _optimal_. I’ve **anchored** myself to a perfect outcome, and anything that falls short of it is a **clear** and **visceral** cost. And thus I fall prey to [the illusion of doing nothing](https://www.neelnanda.io/blog/mini-blog-post-15-the-illusion-of-doing-nothing), and this feels _safe_.

And this is _clearly_ an error! Often, [my standards are far too high](https://www.neelnanda.io/blog/35-standards), and the “perfect” outcome is utterly unrealistic. And, even if it is _attainable_, [I am still failing to optimise correctly](https://www.neelnanda.io/blog/mini-blog-post-9-what-it-means-to-optimise). I’m failing to account for **opportunity costs** \- everything _else_ I could do with the time I spend obsessing, tweaking and perfecting - and **computing costs** \- all of _energy_ I spend thinking about it, the draining stress and anxiety.

From another perspective, this is an error of _[prioritisation](https://www.neelnanda.io/blog/mini-blog-post-17-prioritisation-part-2-achieving-goals)._ I’m pouring all of my effort into optimising the final details of a task, which represent maybe 20% of the value. But the _vast_ majority of the value, perhaps 80%, comes from doing _anything_ at all! There’s no upside to doing nothing. So I pour all of my effort into the final part and neglect the thing that actually matters, rather than [learning to 80/20 it.](https://www.neelnanda.io/blog/mini-blog-post-22-the-8020-rule)

Identifying
-----------

By _far_ the most important step here is to **identify that this is a problem**. Lest you be eternally caught in the trap of things not feeling **urgent**_,_ costs feeling **salient** and **painful**, and not seeing all the value you’re throwing away. I think there are some common risk factors here:

*   The feeling of **perfectionism** \- if you tend to be a perfectionist, if it feels really important that something is done _right_, even if you can’t quite put your finger on what that means
*   When there are many **options** \- a large, unbounded solution space, where there is no obvious Schelling point
*   **Uncertainty** \- It’s hard to tell which option is the _best_.

*   There’s room to research, ask for advice, and try to gather more information, and this feels _productive_ \- further incentive to put things off
*   There’s a perception of risk from choosing the wrong option - it feels _important_ to get it right, else you lose out

*   All of the risk factors of **[macro-procrastination](https://www.neelnanda.io/blog/32-macro-procrastination)** \- not having deadlines, not having any clear accountability mechanisms. It never feels _high_ cost to push this out into the future

**Exercise:** Set a [5 minute timer](https://www.neelnanda.io/blog/post-28-on-creativity-the-joys-of-5-minute-timers), and generate examples of this for _you_. What are you currently being a perfectionist about, and missing out on?

Even better than just _identifying_ the problem is to ensure it feels **important** \- that when you notice it, alarm bells start ringing in your head, it feels worth _doing_ something about. If it’s a frequent enough occurrence in your life, and you have enough examples, I recommend trying [Noticing](https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/GLPaZamxqkx7XJbXv/the-skill-of-noticing-emotions) on it

Solving
-------

So, you’ve identified that this is a problem in your life. You feel motivated to do something about it. What can you actually _do_?

*   The core insight here is to put a major emphasis on **action**. The core mistake here is being caught by option paralysis, not doing anything, and thus missing out on most of the value. In order to find the thing you will actually do, you need to first become willing to **actually do things at all**
*   To create a sense of urgency, it can help to quantify the _costs_. How much time and energy is this losing you?

*   It often helps to put those costs into _context_. Eg, I know that I can write a blog post in 2-3 hours. So if I spend 10 hours agonising over fine details, I’ve sacrificed 4 blog posts for this! And that feels _far_ more visceral
*   Another framing: Are you surprised if it’s 2 months from now, and you still haven’t done this? And if not, are you OK with that?

*   The implicit question you’re asking is “should I do this now or later”, but often the _real_ question is “should I do this now or **never**”

*   I outline my thoughts on various other ways to create urgency in my post on [general procrastination](https://www.neelnanda.io/blog/mini-blog-post-24-on-procrastination-the-art-of-shaping-your-future-actions)

*   It’s harder to do this by applying mental force to yourself, so I find it valuable to try to orient towards intrinsic motivation

*   Orient towards **[excitement](https://www.neelnanda.io/blog/mini-blog-post-11-live-a-life-you-feel-excited-about)**. How could doing this thing be _awesome_? Flesh out a concrete picture where it goes well
*   Try to build it into your self-image. Strive to become a [Person who Actually Does Things](https://www.neelnanda.io/blog/become-a-person-who-actually-does-things). Think about how overcoming procrastination can get you closer to the kind of person you want to be

*   This is fundamentally a problem of **option paralysis**, and not having a clear next action. So how can you find a **default next action**?

*   What is the _obvious_ solution? Once you’ve come up with one, just do it! Life is too short to obsess over fine details
*   Assume that you just get it done - within a few weeks you feel totally comfortable with it, and your anxiety and analysis feels silly in hindsight. What happened?
*   [Set a 5 minute timer](https://www.neelnanda.io/blog/post-28-on-creativity-the-joys-of-5-minute-timers) and generate ideas. At the end, pick your favourite by gut feel and _run_ with it!
*   Ask a friend for advice, and go with _their_ gut feel. It’s far easier to escape the trap of analysis paralysis from the outside!

*   Bonus if you can then use that friend for accountability!

Conclusion
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If this post resonates, think about where you can apply this in _your_ life.

Where are you currently misallocating effort, and missing the forest for the trees? What are you being a perfectionist about? What are you putting off until it feels just right?

What is this _costing_ you? What _else_ could you being doing with this effort? What are you missing out on?

And, when you’ve found something, **realise that you are procrastinating about it**. Why do you want to take **action** on this? What is a next step that you could actually _do_? And what is something you could do, **right now**, to make that the **default next action**?