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Writing down the worry

Write the worry on paper, add one next step and a time to deal with it later. Some trials support setting worry aside like this, but results are mixed and one famous study didn't replicate.

Short answer

When a worry keeps circling, write it down in one sentence, add the next small step you could take, and pick a later time to think about it properly. Then go back to what you were doing. A few trials support setting worries aside like this, but the results are mixed, and a well-known study on writing out worries before a test failed to replicate. It’s cheap to try; just don’t expect too much.

How to do it

  1. Grab paper or your phone’s notes.
  2. Write the worry in one sentence. “I’m worried the report won’t be ready by Friday.” Be specific. “Everything at work” is too big to do anything with.
  3. Write one next step, if there is one. “Ask Priya for the figures tomorrow at 10.” If there’s nothing you can do, write “nothing to do now”.
  4. Write when you’ll think about it. Pick a short slot later today or tomorrow, say 15 minutes at 6 pm. That’s your worry time.
  5. Go back to what you were doing. If the worry comes back before then, tell yourself “that’s for 6 pm” and return to the task.
  6. At worry time, look at the list. Do the step, make a plan, or cross off what no longer matters. Then stop when the time is up.

When to use it

  • When the same thought keeps interrupting your work.
  • At night, when your head won’t settle. Keep paper by the bed. For more on sleep, see sleepgood.now.
  • When you have a vague dread and can’t tell what it’s about. Writing it down often makes it smaller and more concrete.

If the worry is about something you can sort out in two minutes, skip the list and just do it.

Evidence

Setting a time for worry. In a two-week trial with 53 people who worried a lot, those told to keep worrying to one 30-minute slot in one place each day reported less worry, anxiety, negative feelings and insomnia than a comparison group, though their mood was no better [1]. But a larger online version, where people postponed worry to an evening slot for six days, found no difference in worry, and many participants said postponing was hard [2]. A 2025 trial with 186 people found that adding specific if-then plans for when and how to postpone cut daily worry time by about 15 minutes compared with postponement alone, though sleep didn’t improve [3].

Writing a plan. In lab studies, unfinished goals kept intruding on people’s thoughts during other tasks. Writing a specific plan for the goal made those intrusions go away [4]. These were short lab experiments.

Writing about feelings. A meta-analysis of 146 randomized studies found that writing about emotional experiences had a positive but very small average effect [5]. Most of those studies used several 15- to 20-minute sessions, not a quick note.

The test-worry study. A 2011 study found that students who wrote about their exam worries just before a test scored higher [6]. It was widely reported. A large, pre-registered replication found no significant effect [7]. Don’t count on worry-writing to boost performance.

Rated Weak. There are some positive trials, but they’re small, results conflict, and the most famous finding didn’t hold up.

Try this week

Pick a 15-minute worry time for each day this week and put it in your calendar. Whenever a worry pops up, write it in one line with a next step, then leave it for worry time. At the end of the week, count how many of the worries still mattered.

Sources

  1. [1]McGowan SK, Behar E (2013). A preliminary investigation of stimulus control training for worry: effects on anxiety and insomnia. Behavior Modification. Randomized trial
  2. [2]Versluis A, Verkuil B, Brosschot JF (2016). Reducing worry and subjective health complaints: A randomized trial of an internet-delivered worry postponement intervention. British Journal of Health Psychology. Randomized trial
  3. [3]McCarrick D, Prestwich A, Ferguson E, O'Connor DB (2025). Effects of worry postponement on daily worry and sleep: a randomised controlled trial. Psychology & Health. Randomized trial
  4. [4]Masicampo EJ, Baumeister RF (2011). Consider it done! Plan making can eliminate the cognitive effects of unfulfilled goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Intervention study
  5. [5]Frattaroli J (2006). Experimental disclosure and its moderators: a meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin. Systematic review / meta-analysis
  6. [6]Ramirez G, Beilock SL (2011). Writing about testing worries boosts exam performance in the classroom. Science. Intervention study
  7. [7]Camerer CF, Dreber A, Holzmeister F, et al. (2018). Evaluating the replicability of social science experiments in Nature and Science between 2010 and 2015. Nature Human Behaviour. Replication study

Topics: Worry, Writing, Stress, Planning, Sleep

Sources checked 4 October 2026. Spot a mistake? Tell us.