I discovered that deciding exactly when I am going to worry about things I need to worry about at some other time, and putting them on my calendar, is effective in getting me to quit worrying about them now. Example: “This carpet is gross; I am going to keep focusing on my project for one more hour, then vacuum.”
I have also discovered that there are a lot of things I don’t actually need to worry about at any particular time—i.e., they can be worried about when they become relevant. These don’t go on the calendar, because the event they are related to coming up will trigger solving them. Example: “Where do we want to go for dinner?”
Sometimes the trigger event never happens. Thus, worry-procrastination basically eliminates worrying about things that don’t happen, and the concomitant time wasted, attention diverted from tasks at hand, etc. Example: “What if friend is upset because I missed their call?”, and friend isn’t upset.
I still need practice at (a) identifying worry; (b) not doing it until scheduled.
I discovered that deciding exactly when I am going to worry about things I need to worry about at some other time, and putting them on my calendar, is effective in getting me to quit worrying about them now. Example: “This carpet is gross; I am going to keep focusing on my project for one more hour, then vacuum.”
I have also discovered that there are a lot of things I don’t actually need to worry about at any particular time—i.e., they can be worried about when they become relevant. These don’t go on the calendar, because the event they are related to coming up will trigger solving them. Example: “Where do we want to go for dinner?”
Sometimes the trigger event never happens. Thus, worry-procrastination basically eliminates worrying about things that don’t happen, and the concomitant time wasted, attention diverted from tasks at hand, etc. Example: “What if friend is upset because I missed their call?”, and friend isn’t upset.
I still need practice at (a) identifying worry; (b) not doing it until scheduled.