Worry postponement
You give worries their own slot in the day, so they stop turning up at every opportunity — especially at night.
Worry postponement is not an attempt to stop worrying. It is an agreement with yourself about when you will worry. You pick a fixed slot — ideally early in the evening, never just before bed — and move everything that catches you during the day into it. During the day you neither chase the worry away nor argue with it; you simply write it down and tell it that it has its own time. Then, in the slot, you take a sheet of paper and worry properly for fifteen minutes, preferably with a pen in hand. For the first few days it feels artificial. After about a week the difference starts to show, because the mind works out that the agreement holds.
When to use it
When worries chase you all day, and above all when they arrive as you lie down. The exercise is part of the cognitive behavioural approach to insomnia.
How it goes
- Set aside fifteen minutes a day, always at the same time, and not too late in the evening.
- During that time, write the worries down — all of them, without tidying and without solving.
- Beside each one, write a single question: Can I do anything about this today? If yes, write the first step. If no, leave it.
- When a worry appears outside that slot, tell it: not now, at six. And then really come back to it at six.
Why it works
A worry repeats because it senses it hasn’t been heard. Once it has a reliable slot, it stops pushing in between. It matters that you don’t skip the slot — otherwise the agreement collapses.
