Worry Postponement: Taking Control of Anxious Rumination

Worry postponement is an evidence-based technique from CBT that helps you take control of the excessive, repetitive worry that characterises generalised anxiety. Rather than attempting to stop worrying altogether (which paradoxically tends to increase the frequency and intensity of worried thoughts), this technique asks you to postpone your worry to a designated time and place — your "worry period."

The technique works as follows. When you notice yourself worrying outside of your designated worry period, briefly note the worry on a piece of paper or in your phone, and then redirect your attention to whatever you were doing before the worry arose. You are not dismissing the worry or pretending it does not exist — you are acknowledging it and making an appointment to give it your full attention later. During your worry period (typically fifteen to thirty minutes at the same time each day, never immediately before bedtime), sit down with your list and worry deliberately about each item.

Several interesting things typically happen with this technique. First, many of the worries that felt urgent earlier in the day no longer feel important by the time the worry period arrives. This experience teaches you that the urgency of worry is often manufactured by anxiety rather than reflecting genuine importance. Second, confining worry to a specific time and place prevents it from spreading throughout your entire day and contaminating activities that should be enjoyable or productive.

During the worry period itself, you can apply problem-solving to worries that relate to practical problems within your control, and practise acceptance and defusion techniques for hypothetical worries about events that may never occur. Over time, most people find that they need less and less of their designated worry period, as the habit of chronic worry is gradually broken.