Worry window

Split what you can act on from what you cannot, and give the rest a fixed twenty minutes.

When to use it:: Your head will not stop, particularly at night.
Where it comes from:: Stimulus-control worry postponement, from CBT for generalised anxiety and insomnia.

Anything you type is saved on this device only. There is no account and nothing is sent to a server.

Everything on your mind

Do not sort yet. Get it out first — the sorting is the next step and it is easier on paper.

Write it all down

Two piles

A practical worry has a next action. A hypothetical one is a “what if” about something that has not happened. They need completely different handling, and treating a hypothetical as practical is how people worry for six hours and solve nothing.

Practical — and the single next step for each

Not the whole solution. The next phone call, the next form.

Hypothetical — nothing to do but wait

Your window

When is your twenty minutes

Early evening, seated, a different room from where you sleep. Not in bed and not last thing.

What you do when it turns up outside the window

Write it on the list and return to what you were doing. That is the whole method.

A worksheet is not treatment and it is not a substitute for talking to someone. If things are bad right now, there is a line for your country.