‘Everyday’ Intelligence: Don’t Overcomplicate

I believe that it is only fair to start today’s entry by saying that it took me about half an hour to think of a name for the article and another fifteen minutes to come up with a ‘proper’ way of beginning it.

The above is, of course, a clear- cut example of unnecessarily overcomplicating what seems to be quite a simple and straightforward activity, namely, writing a six- hundred word article that will be neither marked nor evaluated in any formal way.

In fact, I came up with the topic for today on Monday which meant that I had about five days to think about what I wanted to include and discuss.

Yet, even though I did do that, it still took me some forty- five minutes to even begin writing it up.

Why was that, you might ask?

It was mainly because I failed to appreciate the simplicity of the task and threw in a myriad of unnecessary factors which I tried to analyze, dwell upon and perfect.

For instance, I thought that the way in which I write the article might have an impact on some of the readers and thought about being more subtle by avoiding my usual bluntness and sarcasm.

Then, as I started thinking about it more and more, it occurred to me that I shouldn’t do that because most of my readers were, in fact, reading my articles BECAUSE of my bluntness and sarcasm.

Thankfully, at one point I realised that I was going around in a vicious circle and thought to myself:

‘Ah, to Hell With It!’

Moving away from the above, I should like to use my remaining three- hundred words to try and explain the sheer pointlessness of overcomplicating things.

Overcomplicating is much like trying to hitchhike without a towel; it must NEVER EVER be done.

The mainstream reason for that is that you are wasting precious time; time which can be spent on other much more useful activities. I mean, think about it, I could have spent those forty- minutes on cooking lunch or having a cup of coffee in the ever- so- rare-in- England Sun.

Some may say that we tend to overcomplicate because, at school, we have been taught to always think before we act; measure twice, cut once.

However, I don’t remember anyone telling me to OVERTHINK. Overthinking does not normally lead to acting because, having thought about ‘all of the possible options and scenarios’, we end up being too scared to do anything.

Also, it must be noted that we were told to measure twice and not TWO- HUNDRED times; mainly because if you do the latter, you won’t have any strength, desire or time to cut at all and all you’ll end up with a lot of measurements and no end product.

Leaving the above aside, I’ve got to say that, especially in today’s world, actions speak louder than words.

That’s exactly why you should stop analysing any issues or ‘problems’ in detail and start acting on them.

It’s a very cacophonous world out there and it is getting increasingly difficult to be heard; but not if you’re louder, not if you act.