How to stop overthinking

Get every looping worry out of your head and onto paper, then turn it into one next step or an appointment with a set worry time.

A young woman sitting on the edge of her bed, writing her thoughts down in a small notebook — Photo: KATRIN BOLOVTSOVA / Pexels

Area: MindFrom age 13Time to learn: 15 minutes to learn; daily practice to make it stick

You can stop overthinking by writing the worry down, choosing one small action if there is one, and postponing the rest to a short daily worry period, which also helps at night.

SafetyIf worry is hard to control on most days for 6 months or more, talk to a doctor. If you have thoughts of harming yourself, call or text 988 in the US or Canada, or call 911 in an emergency.

Why it matters

Going over a worry can feel like solving it, but it usually does not end in a decision. Worry is also often wrong about the future: in one study of people with generalized anxiety disorder, 91.4% of the worries they tracked did not come true. Postponing worries to a set daily worry period is a standard technique in psychological treatment for worry, set out step by step by the Centre for Clinical Interventions, a public mental health service in Western Australia. In a sleep-lab study of 57 young adults, those who wrote a specific to-do list for five minutes at bedtime fell asleep faster than those who wrote about what they had already done.

When 29 people with generalized anxiety disorder recorded their worries for 10 days and tracked what happened over 30 days, 91.4% of their worry predictions did not come true.

Source: LaFreniere and Newman, Exposing Worry's Deceit, Behavior Therapy, 2020.Self-reported

How to do it

When you notice yourself going over the same thought, write it down in a few words in a small notebook or a phone note.
Ask one question: is there something I can do about this today?
If yes, write the smallest next step, such as "email Ms. Lee to ask about my grade", and either do it now or put it in your calendar.
If no, or not yet, postpone it. Tell yourself you will deal with it at your worry time, then turn your attention back to what you were doing.
Set a worry time: the same time, place and length every day, such as 6 p.m. for 20 minutes in a chair you do not usually sit in. Keep it away from bedtime and away from your bed.
At worry time, read your list. Cross out anything that no longer bothers you. For the rest, think on paper rather than in your head, and stop when the time is up.
At night, if thoughts keep you awake, spend 5 minutes writing a specific to-do list for the next few days, then put the notebook away.
Once a week, look back at old worries and mark which ones actually happened. Over time this shows you how often worry gets the future wrong.

Common mistakes

Treating going over a problem as the same thing as solving it.
Writing a vague step such as "sort out money" instead of one action you could start today.
Holding your worry time in bed, just before sleep, or in a seat you use every day.
Ignoring worry that is hard to control on most days for 6 months or more, or that gets in the way of school, work or sleep; that can be generalized anxiety disorder, which is treatable.

You can do this when …a worry starts to loop and, within a few minutes, you can write it down, choose a next step or postpone it, and get back to what you were doing.