The Worry Time Technique, Explained Simply

What if, instead of trying not to worry, you gave yourself a set time to do it? That’s the idea behind worry time, sometimes called worry postponement. It’s a simple technique that has been studied for decades, and it can help stop anxious thoughts from taking over your whole day.

What is worry time?

Worry time is a short, scheduled slot, at the same time each day, set aside for your worries. Outside that slot, when a worry pops up, you don’t push it away or argue with it. You jot it down and save it for later.

It sounds almost too simple. But the principle makes sense: if worry can show up anywhere, at any moment, it ends up attached to everything. Giving it a time and a place helps contain it.

Where it comes from and what the research says

The technique grew out of work by psychologist Thomas Borkovec and colleagues. In a 1983 study, people who described themselves as worriers followed "stimulus control" instructions for four weeks, postponing their worries to a set period. Compared with people who received no intervention, they reported a significant drop in their daily worry.

Years later, McGowan and Behar (2013) revisited the idea with 53 adults with high levels of worry. For two weeks, one group had a daily 30-minute worry period, always at the same time and in the same place. Compared with a control group, they showed bigger reductions in worry, anxiety and insomnia symptoms. The authors describe it as a preliminary study with a small sample: an encouraging sign, not a guarantee.

The NHS also recommends worry time as a self-help tool, with a shorter slot of around 10 to 15 minutes on most days.

Why it can work

• You don’t have to suppress anything. Telling yourself "don’t think about it" rarely works. Telling yourself "I’ll think about it at 6pm" is much easier.
• It breaks the autopilot. Each time you postpone a worry, you practise choosing where your attention goes.
• Worries lose some of their urgency. When worry time arrives, you’ll often find that some of them don’t feel so pressing anymore.
• It makes room for action. During the slot you can separate what needs a concrete step from what you can only wait out.

Try it: your first week of worry time

Give it at least a week. The first few days may feel odd, and that’s fine.

1. Pick a time and place. A fixed slot, say 6:30pm at the kitchen table. It’s best to avoid your bed and the hour just before sleep, so your bedroom stays linked with rest.
2. Set a length. Anywhere between 10 and 20 minutes is plenty. Use a timer.
3. During the day, note it and postpone it. When a worry shows up, write a couple of words (on paper, in your phone, or in the Allay Vault) and tell yourself: "I’ll deal with this at worry time." Then go back to what you were doing.
4. At worry time, go through the list. For each item, ask: does this still worry me? Some you’ll be able to cross off straight away.
5. Separate what’s up to you. For the ones that remain, split what you can act on from what you can only wait for.
6. Choose one small step. For a worry you can act on, pick something you can do in 15 minutes or less, and decide when.
7. Close the session. When the timer goes off, stop. If something is still open, that’s okay. You’ll come back to it tomorrow.

Common pitfalls

• Skipping the appointment. If you skip it often, your mind stops trusting the postponement. Ten consistent minutes beat an hour now and then.
• Turning it into a marathon. Worry time has an end. Running far over can reinforce the very looping you’re trying to reduce.
• Expecting instant results. Like any habit, it takes practice. The NHS notes that it gets easier over time.
• Using it for everything. If something genuinely needs urgent action, don’t wait. Deal with it now.

A variation: scheduled check-ins

Not every worry can be settled today. Some are about future events: an exam, test results, a difficult conversation. For those, it can help to pick a date to revisit them, after the event, and ask: did what I feared actually happen?

That’s the idea behind the Allay Vault: you write the worry, choose when to come back to it, and at review time you note how things really turned out. Over time, seeing those outcomes in one place can make anxious predictions a little less convincing.

When to ask for help

Worry time is a self-help tool, not a cure. If your worries are persistent, have been disrupting your sleep or work for weeks, or you feel overwhelmed, talk to your doctor or a psychologist. If you have thoughts of harming yourself, reach out to someone you trust or a professional straight away, and if you’re in danger, call your local emergency number.