I am a senior software engineer, and I hate you for bringing up this topic 🙂

I frequently encounter this when I work on new tasks at work

Here are a few things that I do to cope (apart from the obvious research on SO and other platforms)

• fight with the realization, it almost always ends with "I was given the task because people trust me, they think I am capable of getting it done"
• don't commit to tasks right away, 2-3 toilet breaks atleast to ponder about the task 🙂
• keep a track of all my thoughts, start noting down everything, literally everything, even thoughts that dont make sense, in the end it would all make sense and you should be able to cleanup (i like to create mindmaps)
• discuss with teammates, even freshers who work on your team, everyone has ideas. You will be surprised what these young chaps bring to the table. Nothing to feel ashamed about, once the job is done they are the ones who will take over and I can move on to other critical tasks.
• break down the task into smaller pieces, as I wrap up each task, I start gaining more and more confidence, I am unstoppable by the end of it

I wont say I manipulate my mind, rather I don't shy out of a challenge when given one (bit of ego to get things done) -> being an introvert I usually dont pick challenges proactively though 🙂