Worrying on schedule

What founders and people with generalized anxiety disorder have in common

Of all the frameworks and strategies I’ve shared with the founders I coach, there’s one tool they most often report finding helpful—even long after our coaching is complete.

I wish I could tell you it was “practicing a builder’s mindset” or “keeping a self-honesty log" or any of the various tools I particularly pride myself on developing. Mind you, founders have sometimes spontaneously touted the benefits of these other tools; just not as often as they’ve touted the benefits of this one.

The irony is that I was reluctant even to mention this tool to founders at first, because it’s so clearly not designed for them. Rather, it was conceived as a “stimulus control” treatment for the excess, hard-to-control worry that is the defining feature of Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). The basic strategy is to postpone your worry—i.e., your thoughts about all the various catastrophes that could hypothetically befall you—until a specific, pre-scheduled time and place each day. When worries do pop …