Why complexity is killing your progress
Staying out of the over-thinker's trap
Gary Bloomer | SHAKING THE TREE # 271
Last week, I spent three hours planning a single Facebook post.
Three hours!
I agonized over the caption, the hashtags, the color grading, the timing, the hidden meaning, the whole idea of a “value proposition,” and whether the emoji placement conveyed the correct tone of approachable authority.
Finally I decided to kill the post so it never went live.
But I lost three hours of my life … three hours I’ll never get back—time I could have spent actually creating, or better yet, living.
Sound familiar?
We’re in an epidemic of overthinking.
Content creators—writers, designers, podcasters, filmmakers, coaches—we’re all drowning in a sea of our own complexity.
We’re strategizing our authenticity, data-mining our intuition, and building Rube Goldberg-like machines to deliver what should be a single, simple, human idea.
It’s time to stop. Here’s why.
Complexity is a procrastination in disguise.
We often dress up overthinking as “being thorough” or “caring about quality.”
But much of the time, it’s just fear making a bold decision.
We fear being judged, we fear not being perfect, of not standing out in the algorithmic noise. So we add more stuff, more layers: more edits, more effects, more takeaways, more nuance.
We build a fortress of complexity to protect ourselves from the vulnerability of putting something simple and true out into the world. And in doing so, hat fortress becomes our prison.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
It’s not a new idea.
Da Vinci said it.
Steve Jobs preached it.
Yet we ignore it, believing our digital age demands more.
It doesn’t.
It demands clarity.
A clear sentence beats a clever paragraph—every. Single. Time.
A genuine, wobbly-handed video shot on a phone, complete with awkward pauses and weird background noise connects more deeply than a over-produced corporate clip.
A single actionable idea presented plainly is worth a hundred vague theories buried in jargon.
The human brain is bombarded. It craves signal, not more noise. Your audience isn’t waiting for you to be complicated. They’re waiting for you to be clear.
The “Good Enough” Engine is more powerful than the “Perfect” One.
Perfection is an unattainable state.
It’s a museum piece—look, don’t touch.
Meanwhile, “good enough,” gets shipped, it’s kinetic energy.
It moves, it engages, it gets feedback, it improves.
Every minute you spend over-polishing one piece is a minute you’re not starting the next.
Momentum is the creator’s most valuable currency, and simplicity is how you mint it.
Build a “good enough” engine, fuel it with consistent action, and you’ll outpace every paralyzed perfectionist in the race.
So, how do you stop?
The 80% rule. When it’s 80% there, ship it. The last 20% of polishing consumes 80% of your anxiety and time, for diminishing returns.
Constrain yourself. Give yourself stupid limitations: “This blog post must be under 500 words.” “This video must be shot in one take.” “This design can only use two colors.” Constraints murder overthinking and birth ingenuity.
Ask the Gary Question: “Am I making this for the algorithm, or for people?” If it’s for the latter, don’t waste your time trying to game the system.
Remember the core. Before you create, write down the ONE thing you want to communicate. If an element doesn’t serve that one thing, delete it.
The world doesn’t need more convoluted content.
It needs more creators brave enough to be simple, direct, and human.
It needs your idea, not your anxiety about presenting it.
Put down the microscope. Step away from the tenth draft.
Say the thing.
Show the thing.
Share the thing.
Then go live your life.
That’s where the best content actually comes from, anyway.
As always, thanks for reading.
—Gary
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P.S. If you found this useful, share it with another creator who needs an ego check (in a nice way). Want more unfiltered takes on content creation? Join my newsletter. No fluff, just the stuff that works.
Next time on Shaking the Tree: Why should anyone care about your content?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Originally from the U.K., Gary Bloomer is a writer, branding advocate, marketing specialist, and an award-winning graphic designer.
His design work has been included in Creative Review (one of the UK’s largest design magazines). Since 2009, he has answered over 5,000 marketing and business questions in the Know-How Exchange of MarketingProfs.com, placing him among the top 3% of contributors. He lives in Wilmington, Delaware, USA.