I used to be a serial overthinker. And in my bid to try to find solutions to as many problems as I could, I turned to Google. I spent hours digging into symptoms that didn‘t exist and more often than not, Mr Google rushed me straight to the emergency room. When I started doing this for other members of my family as well, one of my doctors recommended that I seek help. I agreed, albeit reluctantly. I’m glad I did because one 45-minute session saved me hours of needless googling and unnecessary late-night trips to the emergency room. The advice I got? Procrastinate.
Whenever you notice (or think about) a symptom you would like to google, write it down somewhere and give yourself three days before googling it. Then next time, wait for five days and then slowly keep increasing the number of days. Super solid advice there. The very next day, I spotted another symptom. I forgot to write it down so of course, I forgot to google it. And that was that. I haven’t googled a symptom ever since.
It’s easier said than done but it’s possible to procrastinate things that impact us negatively. If we can so effortlessly procrastinate important tasks, we can also try to put off doing things that are better off undone.
Disclaimer: If you have any medical symptom that causes you genuine concern, by all means, see a doctor immediately. But avoid googling it first. The diagnoses that win top spots on Google are often those with the best SEOs, not necessarily the most accurate.
