You've been staring at the same decision for three hours. You've replayed that conversation from last week seventeen times. You've imagined six different worst-case scenarios for something that hasn't happened yet and probably never will. Welcome to overthinking — the mental prison that feels productive but produces nothing except exhaustion and anxiety.
Here's what makes overthinking so insidious: it disguises itself as problem-solving. Your brain tells you "I'm figuring this out" when what it's actually doing is running the same loop over and over, generating more anxiety with each cycle but never arriving at a solution. According to psychologists and neuroscientists who've appeared on The Diary of a CEO, this isn't a thinking problem. It's a feeling problem — and the solution isn't more thinking.
Before you can stop overthinking, you need to understand why your brain does it. Multiple DOAC guests — particularly Dr. Ethan Kross and Andrew Huberman — have explained the neuroscience, and it starts with a brain network most people have never heard of.
Your brain has a default mode network (DMN) — a set of brain regions that activate when you're not focused on a specific task. When you're sitting idle, commuting, lying in bed, or doing anything that doesn't require active concentration, the DMN takes over. And what does it do? It thinks about you — your past, your future, your social standing, your problems, your mistakes.
Evolutionarily, this made sense. When our ancestors weren't hunting or foraging, it was useful for the brain to review past threats ("that watering hole had a predator"), plan for future ones ("we need to store food for winter"), and evaluate social dynamics ("is the tribe leader angry at me?"). This background processing kept people alive.
The problem: in modern life, the DMN applies this same survival-level analysis to non-survival situations. That email from your boss? Your brain treats it like a saber-toothed tiger. That awkward thing you said at dinner? Your brain replays it with the urgency of a life-threatening event. That career decision? Your brain simulates 47 catastrophic outcomes before breakfast.
The result is what Dr. Ethan Kross calls "chatter" — the runaway inner voice that narrates, evaluates, and catastrophizes your experience instead of helping you live it. And crucially, overthinking isn't just unpleasant. Research shows it actively impairs decision-making, reduces creativity, damages relationships, disrupts sleep, and weakens the immune system.
Dr. Julie Smith's DOAC episode on overthinking and anxiety is one of the most-watched episodes on the channel, and for good reason. The clinical psychologist provided the clearest framework for understanding and interrupting the overthinking cycle.
Smith's core insight: overthinking is not about the content of your thoughts — it's about your relationship with them. Most people treat their thoughts as facts. "I think I'm going to fail, therefore I'm going to fail." "I think they're angry at me, therefore they're angry at me." The first step in stopping overthinking is creating distance between yourself and your thoughts.
Smith recommends a simple but powerful reframe: instead of saying "I'm going to fail," say "I'm having the thought that I'm going to fail." This small linguistic shift creates psychological distance. You go from being inside the thought (drowning in it) to being outside the thought (observing it). The thought is still there, but you're no longer fused with it.
This technique comes from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and it works because it engages your prefrontal cortex — the rational, observing part of your brain — to monitor what the emotional brain is producing. You can't control what thoughts your brain generates. But you can control whether you engage with them, believe them, and let them dictate your behavior.
When overthinking spirals, Smith recommends "anchoring" yourself in the present moment using your senses:
This 5-4-3-2-1 grounding technique forces your brain out of the abstract (the future, the past, hypothetical scenarios) and into the concrete (what's actually happening right now). Overthinking requires abstraction — it's hard to catastrophize about tomorrow when you're fully engaged with the texture of the table under your fingers.
Dr. Ethan Kross' DOAC episode provided the most comprehensive neuroscience-based approach to controlling your inner voice. The University of Michigan psychologist and author of Chatter has spent decades studying why our inner monologue turns toxic and how to fix it.
Kross's most evidence-backed technique is stunningly simple: talk to yourself in the third person. Instead of asking "Why am I so anxious about this?" ask "Why is [Your Name] so anxious about this?" Research shows that this simple switch reduces emotional reactivity, improves decision-making under stress, and reduces the intensity of overthinking.
The reason it works: third-person self-talk activates the same brain regions you use when giving advice to a friend. You're naturally calmer and more rational when evaluating someone else's problems. By linguistically creating distance from your own situation, you access that same objective perspective for yourself.
Kross's second technique: ask yourself "How will I feel about this in 10 minutes? 10 months? 10 years?" Most things we overthink feel catastrophic in the moment but are completely forgotten within weeks. Forcing your brain to project forward in time breaks the illusion of permanence that makes overthinking feel so urgent.
Kross's research confirms something that multiple DOAC guests — including Andrew Huberman and Wim Hof — have discussed: spending time in nature significantly reduces overthinking. Even 20 minutes of walking in a green environment reduces activity in the subgenual prefrontal cortex — the brain region associated with rumination and depressive overthinking.
You don't need a forest. A park, a garden, even a tree-lined street works. The key is "soft fascination" — the gentle, effortless attention that nature captures (rustling leaves, flowing water, birdsong) gives the DMN something pleasant to process instead of running anxiety loops.
Mel Robbins approached overthinking from a different angle on DOAC — not as a thinking problem, but as an action problem. Her insight: most overthinking happens because you're stuck in analysis instead of moving. The cure isn't better analysis. It's action.
Her 5-Second Rule applies directly to overthinking: the moment you catch yourself spiraling, count 5-4-3-2-1 and do something — anything — physical. Stand up. Walk to another room. Call the person you've been rehearsing the conversation with. Send the email you've been drafting in your head for three days. Open the document you've been avoiding.
Robbins explained the neuroscience on DOAC: overthinking activates the amygdala (fear center) and the basal ganglia (habit center). Together, they create a feedback loop — the more you think about the scary thing, the scarier it becomes, which triggers more thinking. Physical movement interrupts this loop by activating the motor cortex and prefrontal cortex, breaking the anxiety circuit.
Her deeper point, reinforced in the Let Them Theory episode: most things you overthink about are things you cannot control. Other people's opinions, reactions, and choices are beyond your influence. "Let them" — let them think what they think, do what they do, feel what they feel. Your energy is better spent on the things you can control: your actions, your responses, your effort.
Jay Shetty's DOAC episode offered a contemplative perspective on overthinking that complements the psychological and neuroscientific approaches. Having spent three years as a monk, Shetty learned techniques for calming the mind that are thousands of years old — and that modern science is now validating.
Shetty's primary technique for overthinking is what monks call "becoming the observer." Instead of engaging with your thoughts — arguing with them, analyzing them, trying to solve them — you simply watch them pass. Imagine sitting on a riverbank watching leaves float by. Each leaf is a thought. You don't jump in the river to grab the leaves. You just notice them and let them go.
This is the core of mindfulness meditation, and Shetty recommends starting with just 5 minutes daily. Sit quietly. Notice thoughts arising. Label them: "That's a worry about work." "That's a memory from yesterday." "That's planning for tomorrow." Don't engage. Just label and return to your breath.
For those who find pure observation too passive, Shetty offers a more structured approach:
Dr. Gabor Maté's DOAC episode added a crucial layer to the overthinking conversation that most self-help content ignores: for many people, chronic overthinking is a trauma response, not a bad habit.
Maté explained that children who grow up in unpredictable, emotionally chaotic, or unsafe environments learn to hypervigilantly scan for threats. They develop an internal alarm system that's always running — constantly analyzing facial expressions, tone of voice, social dynamics, and potential dangers. This served them as children when their environment genuinely was unpredictable. But as adults, the alarm system keeps running even when the danger is gone.
The result: chronic overthinking. Replaying conversations to check for hidden anger. Analyzing email tone for signs of disapproval. Imagining worst-case scenarios because your childhood taught you that worst cases actually happen. Difficulty making decisions because your brain has learned that any choice could be dangerous.
Mark Manson's DOAC episode cut through the overthinking problem with characteristic bluntness: you overthink because you care about too many things. The solution isn't to care more carefully — it's to care about fewer things.
Manson's framework from The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck applies directly to overthinking:
Join thousands of listeners who get our weekly breakdown of the top Diary of a CEO episodes, key takeaways, and actionable insights — so you can skip the 1.5-hour listen and get straight to what matters.
Join the Community →Synthesized from every overthinking-related DOAC episode, here are seven techniques you can use the moment an overthinking spiral starts:
Count 5-4-3-2-1 and physically move. Stand up. Walk to another room. The physical movement breaks the neural loop.
Switch from "I" to your name. "Why is [Name] worried about this?" This activates the same calm, rational brain regions you use when advising friends.
Ask: "How will I feel about this in 10 minutes? 10 months? 10 years?" Most overthinking dissolves when you realize the thing that feels catastrophic right now will be completely forgotten soon.
When you catch an anxious thought, label it without engaging: "That's a worry." "That's a catastrophe fantasy." "That's a replay." Labeling creates psychological distance and activates the prefrontal cortex.
Schedule 15-20 minutes specifically for worrying. Write down every concern. For each, write one small action you'll take. Outside the worry window, if an anxious thought appears, tell yourself "I'll deal with that during my worry time." This compartmentalizes anxiety instead of letting it consume your whole day.
Close your eyes. Slowly scan from the top of your head to your toes, noticing physical sensations — tension, warmth, pressure, tingling. This pulls attention from abstract thoughts into concrete physical experience. Overthinking requires abstraction; body awareness is the antidote.
As Tim Ferriss discussed on DOAC, much overthinking is actually decision avoidance. Set a deadline: "I will make this decision by 3 PM today." When the deadline hits, go with your best available option. A good decision made now is almost always better than a perfect decision made never.
Nighttime overthinking is the most common and most destructive form. When your body is tired but your mind won't shut off, every thought feels more threatening, more urgent, more catastrophic. DOAC guests have shared specific protocols for this:
Dr. Matthew Walker recommends a 30-60 minute wind-down period before bed:
Keep a notebook by your bed. Before sleep, spend 5-10 minutes writing down everything in your head — worries, to-dos, random thoughts, unfinished business. Research shows that writing down your concerns before bed significantly reduces the time it takes to fall asleep because your brain no longer needs to "hold" the information. It's externalized. It's safe. You can deal with it tomorrow.
If thoughts persist after lights out:
This activates the parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest), lowers heart rate, and physiologically shifts your body from "alert mode" to "sleep mode." It's nearly impossible to maintain an anxiety spiral while doing controlled breathwork because the breath demands your attention.
For social overthinking at night — replaying conversations, worrying about others' opinions — Robbins' Let Them Theory is powerful: "Let them think what they think. Let them feel what they feel. Let them do what they do." You cannot control other people's internal experience. Acknowledging this — really accepting it, not just intellectually but emotionally — releases the need to analyze and predict their reactions.
According to Dr. Ethan Kross, overthinking happens because your brain's default mode network tends to loop on unresolved problems. Evolutionarily useful for survival — destructive in modern life when applied to emails, social interactions, and career decisions. Your brain isn't broken. It's applying survival software to non-survival situations.
Dr. Matthew Walker and Dr. Julie Smith recommend a "worry window" earlier in the evening, a brain dump journal by the bed, 4-7-8 breathing, and keeping the bedroom cool and dark. See our detailed morning routine guide for how quality sleep sets up better days.
Start with Dr. Julie Smith's episode on overthinking and anxiety. Then Dr. Ethan Kross on chatter. For trauma-based overthinking: Dr. Gabor Maté. For action-based solutions: Mel Robbins. For mindfulness: Jay Shetty.
Typically both. Dr. Kross's research shows higher verbal intelligence correlates with more active inner monologues. Dr. Julie Smith explains it's usually anxiety — your brain perceiving threats and trying to solve them through analysis. The problem: most things we overthink can't be solved through more thinking. They require action, acceptance, or time. See our procrastination guide for related strategies.