Analysis Paralysis is a stage where you can’t make any progress becoz you bog down too much in minute details, all the time tweaking, brainstorming, researching and … anything but just getting on with it. Sounds familiar ???
Well its something which I see people struggle with and at times I am a victim to this too. I guess all this happens out of a fear for failure, partly coz the mill-manufacturing of ideas doesnt end, perhaps because most of the time we think we are a geek.
A very worst case scenario for this can be seen at the entreprise level. At times this can be very fatal. Believe me.
I think it is always better to start off with something and then improve on it rather than spend an age thinking, agonising, planning for the perrrfect finished product. The best way to go about it is prioritize elements in stages - alpha, beta, pre-launch and post launch.
This is not about dropping to low standards or setting your sights low. Its about identifying things which are needed from the word GO, items that need analysis, and items which can be fixed later on.
While it is perfectly normal to want to spend time thinking about the project, understanding the requirements, especially the one which has an element of risk, but then there comes a point where any more thinking is counter-productive and you need to start making some progress than just dreaming about how to go about doing it
In programming world it is always about setting top priorities right, the stuff that demands extra care, and stuffs which will be difficult to refactor later.
We encounter n number of expert procastinators in day to day life. Not to forget I too am n Ace Procrastinator. So, what are the reasons that lets us define the lazy git of sorries and excuses besides working. I figured out that this so deadly analysis paralysis is often a successor of the learned behavioral approach which we are accustomed to, for years. Why do we analyse it so much? Either it has been proven fruitful to do so or not enough planning has caused too much chaos at occasions and you want to be cautious all the time or is it that we just want to stay away from the hands on job.
Failure to plan is planning to fail. Planning is good but too much of it can be as crippling as not enough. Even after all the so called required analysis and perfect decisions, when the analysis meets reality, the projects fail. Everything was so right, suddenly an alien from outer space comes out of its dungeon and defeats all your quality planning tactics. No amount of thinking could have predicted that. The unseen remains. So, thinking on your feet is often as important as any amount of analysis but we need to make sure that we define the scope well and plan accordingly, doing things in phases than getting tempted and flying around with personal jet-packs on our back.
Its a good idea to partner somebody or take a second opinion of someone a lil more reckless and get us used to making decisions. Prioritize the elements, do it one by one, easy or hard, doesnt matter but gain some momentum.
Hey !! it works .. this is how i managed to defeat procrastination and started to write my blog.
Now, Stop thinking n start doing something.
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Procrastination Definition
April 19th, 2008