How to stop worrying

ByMike McBride Reading Time: 2 minutes

Saw this quote as part of an entry on Lifehack today about ways to worry less.

The trick is that whenever you feel plagued by a worrying thought, note it down on a “worry sheet” (a piece of paper set aside for the purpose) – you can then forget about it, knowing that you plan to worry later.

Now this sounds a bit bizarre and I can’t really vouch for how well it works, but I can tell you that using technology like OneNote or a Wiki to keep track of the “things I need to do today” whether it be at work or on my own laptop has eliminated a whole lot of stress in my own life. Instead of spending a bunch of mental energy making sure I remember to do a b and c when I get to work tomorrow, I know that I wrote it down, and I know that I’m going to look at my electronic to-do list as soon as I get there, so I’m not at all concerned about it now. It does make some sense that something similar would work for worrying thoughts, you’d just mark it on your list of things to worry about later. Eventually, you’d learn to not worry about it at all, because things will change and get taken care of in between the time you write something down and the time you get around to worrying about it.

Or maybe not. Follow the links, read the article and tell us what you think. How have you learned to worry less?

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