The advice is not to be irresponsible for your concerns, but to fully and gleefully embrace total responsibility for choosing *not* to occupy yourself with an emotionally tempting concern. Not for the sake of emotional relief, but for the sake of the larger/real/ultimate/chosen "concern" or value that is otherwise being infringed upon by that nagging/anxious/emotional concern.
Hi Gena, thank you for sharing this technique - I have done part of it for many years and can confirm it works: writing down worrying (or even exciting) thoughts for “safe-keeping” helps a lot to focus on the task at hand.
However, how do you suggest processing all those notes afterwards in a coherent (and non-anxiety inducing) fashion? Also, isn’t it sometimes the best moment to work on sth when one is most excited/worried about it?
Thanks, Stephane! Re: processing afterward, the worksheet I linked to provides one suggested method, and there are various others out there; e.g., I’ve found David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) system to be a life-saver. But what I’ve mostly found is that people adapt and assimilate these various tools into a routine that personally works for them.
And, yes, absolutely - that IS often the best moment to work on something. :) That’s why I say this is not a strategy to be used rigidly or indiscriminately, but very much in context of your own best judgment about what’s most fruitful or constructive to think about at a given point in time.
The advice is not to be irresponsible for your concerns, but to fully and gleefully embrace total responsibility for choosing *not* to occupy yourself with an emotionally tempting concern. Not for the sake of emotional relief, but for the sake of the larger/real/ultimate/chosen "concern" or value that is otherwise being infringed upon by that nagging/anxious/emotional concern.
Hi Gena, thank you for sharing this technique - I have done part of it for many years and can confirm it works: writing down worrying (or even exciting) thoughts for “safe-keeping” helps a lot to focus on the task at hand.
However, how do you suggest processing all those notes afterwards in a coherent (and non-anxiety inducing) fashion? Also, isn’t it sometimes the best moment to work on sth when one is most excited/worried about it?
Thanks, Stephane! Re: processing afterward, the worksheet I linked to provides one suggested method, and there are various others out there; e.g., I’ve found David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) system to be a life-saver. But what I’ve mostly found is that people adapt and assimilate these various tools into a routine that personally works for them.
And, yes, absolutely - that IS often the best moment to work on something. :) That’s why I say this is not a strategy to be used rigidly or indiscriminately, but very much in context of your own best judgment about what’s most fruitful or constructive to think about at a given point in time.