The 15-minute trick that shrinks all-day worry

When a worry loops in your head, the instinct is to either battle it away or chase it down an anxious rabbit hole. Both tend to feed it. A technique from cognitive behavioral therapy called scheduled worry time takes a different route: instead of suppressing the thought, you postpone it. You pick a fixed slot — say 15 minutes at 6 p.m. — and when a worry pops up during the day, you jot it down and tell yourself, "Not now, I'll deal with this at 6."

The surprising part is what happens by the time the slot arrives. Many worries have already resolved, faded, or simply lost their charge — because anxious thoughts feel urgent in the moment but are rarely as pressing as they seem. During the actual worry period, you review your list on purpose, which keeps anxiety contained to one window rather than leaking across your whole day.

Why does it work? It's not thought suppression — telling yourself "stop thinking about it," which research shows tends to make thoughts rebound harder. Postponement respects the worry enough to schedule it, so your brain relaxes its grip, while still refusing to let it hijack the present moment. Over time, this trains a sense of control: worries become appointments you keep, not alarms you obey.