How to Turn Unproductive Worries Into Productive Ones
There are many things you can worry about right now: your job, your health, your relationships, your loved ones, the last tweet you followed, our current political landscape, the threat of nuclear war … an idea.
But if you’re thinking, “Oh, great, you just reminded me that I have to worry about the threat of nuclear war,” don’t worry.
Or, if you really want to be worried about it, find out if there is anything you can do right now to reduce the likelihood that your worry will become a reality – and if there is, do it.
Worrying productively means worrying about what you can control and change.
Many of our worries are useless . It’s anxiety like “what if there is a war, what if my house burns down, what if something terrible happens.” These types of anxiety often arise from our fear of being unable to control the future, and they are counterproductive – literally – because they do not prompt us to take action or change.
“Productive worry – this is what leads to the current plan of action” , – explains Dr. Robert L. Leahy, author of the book “Medicine of concern: seven steps to anxiety did not stop you” . “This leads to the to-do list for today . “
Let’s say you are worried about a fire in your house. Anxious to be productive means asking yourself what reasonable steps you can take to prevent a house fire and / or to ensure the best possible result if there is a fire. Maybe you change the smoke alarm batteries every time you change the clock. You may be discussing escape routes and meeting points with the children. You might set a calendar reminder to check your fire extinguisher every six months.
Technology is making it easier than ever to turn our unproductive concerns into productive ones. If you are worried about accidentally leaving your child in the car, you can use Waze to remind you to check the car before leaving. If you’re worried about having to use the toilet during the latest blockbuster, you can download RunPee to find out when is the best time to go. I couldn’t stop asking myself if I turned off the stove before leaving the apartment, so I started taking pictures of the dials before leaving town.
The next time you start to worry about something, ask yourself if there is any aspect of the situation that you can control or change. Then make an appropriate action plan.
Use time constraints and repetition to keep unproductive worries out of control
So you’ve started to turn your unproductive worries into productive ones … but you still worry unproductively. This is fine. It is difficult to completely get rid of the “what if” from the head. The trick is to prevent them from becoming mental spirals.
Dr. Leahy suggests setting a time frame for your concerns. “Write this on a piece of paper and set it aside until 3:30 pm. Then at 3:30 you can spend 15 minutes concentrating on it and becoming unhappy. “
If you find it difficult to limit the time frame for worrying, it’s time to start practicing mindfulness. Leahy advises us to think of our worries as trains passing through Grand Central – we don’t have to take every train that arrives at the station.
If this method doesn’t work, Leahy suggests using repetition to reduce the effects of anxiety. Repeat this thought a couple hundred times a day. Expose yourself to this thought over and over again until you get bored with it. “
If all else fails, return to the first method we discussed: ask yourself what you can do today to reduce the likelihood that this particular concern will become a reality. You cannot control whether there will be a nuclear war or not, but you can call your representatives. You can’t control if the person in the apartment downstairs leaves a candle lit while they sleep, but you can upgrade the batteries in your smoke alarm. You can’t control unproductive “what-if” worries that pop into your head, but you can practice strategies to make them take up less space, or use these tips to turn them into productive ones.