You decide, then decide again

In short

“Re-deciding” is a mind pattern: a tendency that repeats, not a fixed fact about you. The decision has been open in a document since last week.

What it looks like

The decision has been open in a document since last week. You do not decide; you re-open. The same question comes back at midnight with no new facts, and the answer gets put off again. One more round of thinking feels careful and costs you nothing at the time. You pay for it in evenings, and in choices you never got to make. It may help to give each decision one page of real options and a closing date, then stop. The care is real and worth having. The extra is everything that happens after the answer has already arrived.

Related mind patterns

• 

  You brace for the worst

  The message says “can we talk later?” and you spend the afternoon drafting the bad version.

• 

  Your attention is everywhere at once

  You open the laptop to finish one thing and forty minutes later you are somewhere else.

• 

  You know how you feel, not what to do

  Asked why you chose it, you go quiet: the reason is there, just out of reach.