Why You Turn Simple Tasks Into Full Productions
You’ve somehow mastered the art of making simple things painfully complicated. A quick task shows up and instead of just doing it, you build a whole ritual around it like it needs a ceremony.
One tiny decision and suddenly you’re pacing, debating, checking, second-guessing, acting like you’re signing a treaty instead of choosing a shirt.
And sending an email? Please. You’ll clean the room, reorganise your life, stare at the screen like it insulted you, and then decide you “need a minute” before typing two sentences.
It’s not that things are hard — you just make them hard, almost on purpose, like being dramatic about it gives the task more meaning.
Why Your Brain Thinks Difficulty = Importance
Your brain loves complication because it makes you feel like you’re doing something impressive.
If a task is simple, it feels beneath you — almost like you’re cheating. But the moment it becomes difficult, your brain perks up like, “Ah yes, now we’re doing real work.”
It mistakes difficulty for importance, like the harder something feels, the more meaningful it must be. So you start adding layers of nonsense: extra steps, extra checking, extra thinking, just so the task looks as dramatic as it feels in your head. And chaos?
Chaos gives you the illusion of progress. It feels busy, urgent, productive — even when you’re actually just avoiding the one straightforward step that would have completed the whole thing.
In the end, complexity becomes your favourite hiding place: a way to feel hardworking without ever risking the vulnerability of simply getting it done.
The Fear Hiding Under All That Overcomplication
Here’s the part you try to skate past: overcomplicating things isn’t a quirky habit — it’s your favourite hiding place.
If you never actually start, you never have to face the possibility that it won’t work.
And if you drag things out long enough, you get to feel “busy” without risking the embarrassment of actually finishing something. Success isn’t any better — you want it, sure,
but the moment it gets close, you panic because success comes with eyes on you, expectations, responsibility…
all the stuff you claim you’re ready for but secretly dread.
And being seen? That’s the real nightmare. Finishing something means people get to judge it — judge you — and it’s easier to stay in the planning phase where everything is still perfect in theory.
Overcomplication isn’t just a delay tactic. It’s the story you tell yourself so you don’t have to admit you’re scared of what happens when you finally stop stalling.
The Self-Sabotage Cycle You Keep Repeating
And here’s the loop you already know by heart: you overthink, then you delay, then you doubt yourself, then you restart like it’s a brand-new project… only to end up avoiding the whole thing and regretting it later.
It’s a routine at this point — practically muscle memory. You call it “being thorough,” but let’s be honest, half those extra steps are just you trying to feel in control of something you’re too scared to finish.
The more complicated you make it, the safer you feel, because complexity gives you the illusion that you’re working without ever crossing the line into actually doing the thing.
Meanwhile, the task sits there untouched, and you get to pretend you’re overwhelmed instead of admitting you’re stuck. Paralysis looks a lot like productivity when you dress it up with enough unnecessary effort.
The Real Cost of Making Life Harder Than It Is
Here’s the part you keep pretending isn’t happening: while you’re busy complicating everything, life is quietly moving on without you.
Opportunities don’t wait around for your dramatic internal process — they pass, they fade, they go to someone who didn’t need six rounds of mental warm-ups to take a step.
All those extra “thinking phases” you swear are necessary? They’re just time you never get back.
That exhaustion you feel isn’t from working too hard — it’s from circling the same unfinished tasks until you’re sick of yourself.
And the perfectionism you hide behind? That’s just the fancy name you give to never actually doing anything.
The truth is simple and ugly: making life harder doesn’t make you accomplished — it makes you absent.
You’re not failing because you’re incapable. You’re failing because you’re not showing up.
The Brutal Realisation You’ve Been Avoiding
The truth is simple: you don’t make things complicated because they’re difficult — you make them complicated so you never have to face what happens if you finally get them right.
It’s safer to stay tangled in effort than to risk the moment where there are no excuses left, just you and the result. And deep down, you know that’s exactly why you keep stalling.
How to Break the Overthinking–Avoiding–Regretting Loop
- Stop giving a tiny task a whole funeral — just do it before your brain writes a tragedy around it
- Your first thought isn’t wisdom, it’s panic — ignore it and move
- Do one imperfect action before your doubt has time to organise a meeting
- If you’re debating a simple step for more than 30 seconds, you’re avoiding, not thinking
- Quit treating every decision like a moral test — it’s a task, not a personality exam
- Take the smallest step possible — momentum beats “mental preparation” every time
- Stop rehearsing disasters you’ve never actually experienced
- Act now, fix later — you can’t correct a step you never take
- Regret shows up when action doesn’t — remember that next time you stall
If making simple things harder is one half of the story, the other half is what you do to your life when it finally gets calm.
Because let’s be honest — you don’t just complicate tasks, you complicate peace too.
If you want to see how deep that pattern really goes, read this next: Why You Destroy Your Own Peace.
Everyone has their own version of this mess.
Send me yours — the real one, not the polished version you tell people.
I won’t judge… but I will understand.