Can you postpone your worries? Literally?

Our Learn team’s lead recently published a thought-provoking post asking if we could postpone our worries. It sounds strange at first, but it’s actually quite practical when you think about it.

A month before seeing this post, I was struggling with my own fears and asked my lead’s lead for advice. Knowing I’m a climber, she asked, “What do you do when you go climbing and have fears?”

My answer came immediately: “I climb, with fear!”

That simple exchange led to an important realization – life is full of fears and worries, yet we keep moving forward despite them. The truth is, anxiety rarely exists in the present moment.

Here’s the practical strategy I read about and want to share:

Schedule your worry in your calendar to deal with later, like this:

"Check-in: Am I still worried about _____?"

Postpone it. Add it to your to-do list or calendar one week from now. This gives you one less immediate worry, allowing you to focus on concerns you can actually address right now.

Benefits of Postponing Worries

By postponing a worry or two, you’re creating more mental space to think clearly.

It’s essentially decluttering your mind. Excessive worrying diminishes your ability to think critically about anything.

Take action now: Spend 2 minutes identifying your top 3 worries, and postpone one that you can’t do much about at this moment. Let me know how it goes!

Worrying does not take away tomorrow’s troubles. It takes away today’s peace.