Worry Time: The Benefits of Scheduling Time to Stress

If you tend to worry constantly, you may find it difficult to stop, despite your best efforts. The stress can interfere with your sleep, work, or leisure activities. The worry time technique can help with this.

What is Worry Time?

The worry time technique involves scheduling a time during the day to worry, explains Sabrina Romanoff, PsyD, a clinical psychologist and professor at Yeshiva University.

This technique contradicts our natural instinct to avoid stress, but it is designed to help reduce the amount of time you spend worrying about things beyond your control.

The idea is to designate a small part of the day to worry about everything troubling you and work toward finding solutions for things within your control.

How to Schedule Worry Time

Dr. Romanoff shares these steps for practicing the worry time technique effectively:

1. Set aside a block of time. Decide how much time you need and set it aside. It is best to schedule about 15 to 30 minutes of worry time. Set a timer to jolt you out of the worrying mindset when the time is up.

2. Choose an uncomfortable spot. Opt for a spot like a hard chair, a stair, or a bench that is not very comfortable and where you won't be tempted to stay longer than the allotted time. Avoid using your bed, couch, or desk for this purpose, as you will associate those places with stress, making it harder to sleep, relax, or work there.

3. Save your worries for that time. It's important to postpone your worries as they arise during the day so you can save them for your designated worry time. When an anxious thought arises, write it down and examine it later during worry time. You can note down your worries in a journal or on your phone.

4. Address your worries. As you address each worry during worry time, ask yourself if there is anything you can do about it. If you have the power to change it, write down the solution and think about how you can work toward it. If it's beyond your control, work on accepting and letting it go. If you're having difficulty letting it go, write it down on a piece of paper, then tear it up and throw it away.

5. Focus on being productive during the day. After you write down a worrying thought, redeploy your attention toward something else by engaging in another activity instead of dwelling on the worry.

6. Tackle other fear-inducing activities during worry time. You can also choose to do other activities that stress you out during this time, such as reading the news.

7. Transition out of worry time. One of the hardest aspects of practicing this technique is stopping your worries after the 15 to 30 minutes is up. Plan a transitional activity to engage in when the worry timer is up, such as cooking, calling a friend, watching your favorite television show, reading a book, taking a walk, or going for a run.

Benefits of Setting Aside Worry Time

1. Reduce the Time Spent Worrying: The worry time technique helps reduce the amount of time you spend worrying about things beyond your control. This allows you to spend more time on more productive things.

2. Be More Effective and Purposeful: The worry time technique helps you worry more effectively. The idea is not to simply spend time dwelling on your worries, but instead to review each worry and ask yourself: "Can I do anything to change this? Is this worry in my control?" If the answer is "yes," create an action plan and hold yourself accountable to following through. If the answer is "no," practice accepting and letting go.

3. Reduce the Harmful Effects of Stress: Stress affects your body both mentally and physically. In addition to making you more alert, stress can also cause physiological changes such as muscle tension, rapid heartbeat, and raised blood sugar levels. Being stressed out frequently or for long periods of time can be harmful to your health, leading to conditions such as:

   • Diabetes
   • Obesity
   • High blood pressure
   • Heart disease
   • Depression
   • Anxiety
   • Skin problems
   • Menstrual issues

     Reducing your stress levels can help prevent these health conditions.

Drawbacks of the Worry Time Technique

People who don't practice the technique correctly may not benefit from it. Some habits that may limit its effectiveness:

1. Not Creating an Actionable Plan: Worry time is not simply a time to ruminate and obsess about worries. Instead, it must be used to focus your energy on finding solutions or accepting the things that most trouble you. The worry time technique may have limited effectiveness if you dwell on the uncontrollable aspects of the worry without creating actionable steps to change the situation.

2. Not Following Through on the Plan: Another limitation is when people don't hold themselves accountable to the action plan they created to tackle the worry.