Step two: Choose your thoughts

The next step involves choosing not to overthink. If I believed this was possible, I would simply do it, rather than read a 330-page book on the subject. But Dr Hibberd has a wise analogy about standing at a train station: “You wouldn’t jump on the first train you saw and let it carry you off without any idea of where you were going. You would observe the trains, check the route and choose where you want to go,” she says. “When you automatically react and mindlessly engage with overthinking, it’s like stepping on a train without any idea where it’s going.” So now I’m sitting, suitcase at my feet, listening for the announcement as to how I get on the right train.

First, she suggests having a phrase you say to yourself when you’re overthinking that will turn on the red stop signs in your mind: No, I don’t do that anymore or I’m not getting into this right now. But she also acknowledges that some trains of thought require a more robust barricade, and I agree.

One tip is to physically stop yourself from overthinking. Doing one task at a time, she says, keeps your mind thinking of only one thing at a time. I have never done this. I typically flit between writing articles, emailing, creating to-do lists, attempting admin, messaging my friends and tidying my home, all at the same time. With my blocks of attention so worn down, it is not a surprise that overthinking slips into the cracks.

During a particularly spiral-inducing morning, I set myself a challenge: two hours of writing – no phone, no emails, no ‘Oh, I’ll just quickly do this one thing I’ve been putting off for weeks.’ Every time I think of something that isn’t the feature in front of me, I pull my eyes back to the screen and direct my attention to the words. Within two hours, I’ve written an article that would have otherwise taken me the whole day. But more importantly, I haven’t spent that time drowning in my own thoughts; I’ve simply completed the task I needed to do.

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