The Hidden Cost of Overthinking
Going Back and Forth Is Way Worse Than Making a "Wrong" Decision
Not making a decision is often the worst decision of all.
There’s a steep price you pay when you just can’t decide.
Imagine you just unloaded your dishwasher. You’ve put plates where they need to go and neatly arranged the glasses, and as you are about to put the forks, knives, and spoons away, you decide to take all of that stuff you just put away off the shelf and reorganize it.
You repeat this process 3 more times.
Put the dishes in, pull them out, and reorganize.
Total madness, isn’t it?
Thats’ exactly what you do to your brain, when you get stuck in decision paralysis, overanalyzing every possible outcome, afraid of making the "wrong" choice.
The Cost of Not Deciding
Second-guessing yourself drains mental energy.
Every time you revisit a decision, your brain reprocesses all the pros and cons, wasting precious cognitive resources that could be used elsewhere — just like in that reorganization of the dishes — what a waste. Instead of moving forward, you’re spinning your wheels, exhausting yourself without making progress.
But the worst part? Going back and forth between all the options. Flip-flopping.
It actually happened to me last Wednesday. Basically, I was deciding whether to commit to a new coaching offer. One day, I convinced myself it was the perfect next step. The next, I worried it wasn’t the right time. By Friday, I was mentally exhausted from overanalyzing — and still hadn’t made any progress. That’s when I realized I was stuck in a loop, draining my brain’s resources.
I was just wasting time while my mind kept running in circles, just spinning me into frustration!
And since I’m a coach using neuroscience-backed strategies, I decided to freshen up my memory on how that actually looks like in my brain, and what can I do about it.
What Was Happening in My Flip-Flopping Brain
My brain was stuck in processing mode, instead of moving on to execution mode. Here’s the neuroscience of what was happening inside.
1. The Prefrontal Cortex: The Brain’s Decision-Maker
The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is responsible for logical reasoning, weighing pros and cons, and making decisions. When I evaluated my choices, my PFC engaged in cognitive load processing — essentially holding multiple options in my working memory, comparing them, and predicting outcomes.
Typically when the decision is made → The PFC processes the choice, organizes the next steps, and frees up mental space.
But because I kept second-guessing → My PFC remained overloaded, holding onto multiple possibilities instead of executing a plan. This typically leads to mental fatigue, and in my case also frustration, and explosive irritability with hair-like trigger.
Imagine the PFC like a computer's RAM — if there are way too many programs running, everything slows down — and sometimes even crashes.
2. The Anterior Cingulate Cortex: The Flip-Flop Zone
The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) detects conflicts between choices. Because I was unsure, the ACC was fired up, signaling that more analysis was needed. This is helpful in real danger (like if you’re deciding whether to escape a burning building), but harmful when used for non-life threatening decisions, like the one I was facing.
Frequent flip-flopping overstimulates the ACC, which is relly really bad, because that keeps the brain in a loop of doubt instead of action.
Over time, this creates "decision fatigue," making future choices even harder.
The result? Instead of feeling confident, the brain is literally trained to become more hesitant and uncertain.
3. The Stress Response: Cortisol and the Brain's Energy Drain
Every time I revisited my decisions, my brain released cortisol, the stress hormone. While cortisol is useful in short bursts (again, to help respond quickly to danger), chronic activation from overthinking can lead to:
Increased mental exhaustion
Reduced working memory capacity
More difficulty making future decisions
Over time, this stress response can even shrink the prefrontal cortex, making it harder to think critically and execute decisions effectively.
Shrinking my brain is definitely not something I would want to do long-term!
4. The Reward System: Why Action is the Cure
This was the key to getting myself unstuck, and stopping to waste my precious energy.
I just had to decide.
The brain’s dopamine system rewards progress and forward motion. When I finally made a decision and acted on it, my brain released dopamine, reinforcing the behavior and making future decisions easier.
Deciding and moving forward = Dopamine boost → More confidence and momentum.
Indecision and backtracking = No dopamine → More stress and uncertainty.
This is why taking any step forward often feels better than staying stuck.
The Neuroscience-Backed Solution: Decide, Go, Reiterate
Whenever you find yourself stuck in decision paralysis, overanalyzing every possible outcome, and afraid of making the "wrong" choice, do what I did. It will help you avoid that cognitive drain of overthining, by leveraging how your brain naturally works:
Set a time limit for decisions – Give your PFC a deadline to process the options and commit. I gave myself an extra weekend and two walks in nature.
Trust your brain's first conclusion – Your intuition is often backed by subconscious pattern recognition, it’s also called a gut feeling.
Move forward and collect data – Your brain learns best from experience, not endless analysis full of guesstimates.
Reassess after a set period (a week, a month, a quarter) – This prevents unnecessary back and forth while allowing adjustments. And it doesn’t mean your decision is final and set in stone. You can always change your mind if the data supports it.
So, Make the Decision and Free Your Mind
Instead of being a madman — or a madwoman — and reorganizing the same dishes over and over and over and over again, just make that imperfect decision in the allocated timeframe, following your gut, with the understanding that you’ll be able to change your mind, if that makes sense later on.
The key isn’t to find the “perfect” choice — it’s to make a decision, take action, and adjust along the way. Our human brains thrive on forward momentum. And when you take action, you’ll be rewarded with clarity, confidence, and a dopamine boost that makes the next step easier.
So, next time you catch yourself stuck in a loop, ask: Am I putting the same dishes away for the fourth time? Or is it time to close the cabinet and move on?
Trust your decision, take the action, and see what happens.
Your energy is better spent elsewhere.