Worry time

Joel Dean, Founder of Joyful
Last updated October 30, 2026

An appointment for the worry

Worry time goes by a few names: worry postponement, a worry period, or stimulus control. It forms part of CBT for worry, and it's also used on its own.¹ Thomas Borkovec and colleagues were testing it as early as 1983.²

The thinking behind it goes like this. For someone who worries a lot, worry gets linked to everything: the commute, the shower, lying in bed. Worry time ties it to one time and one place instead, so the rest of the day has less of it.³

You can tell the worry when it's allowed back, and you don't have to call it silly first.

Setting it up

1. Pick a time and a place. The same time each day, and a spot you don't use for sleep or relaxing. The 2013 study below used a 30-minute period at a set time and place.³
2. When a worry comes, write a word or a line, then postpone it. "I'll think about that at 6." Then bring your attention back to what you were doing.
3. At worry time, go through the list. Some worries will have faded. Cross those out.
4. Sort the ones that are left. Is it a problem you can act on now, or a "what if" about something that hasn't happened?
5. For problems you can act on, pick one small step. Choose something you control yourself, such as "call the bank on Monday at 9."
6. For "what ifs", write a prediction and a check date. Write exactly what you fear will happen and when you'll know. Don't weigh the odds. On that date, check what happened.
7. Stop when the time is up. Anything left goes back on the list for tomorrow.

The first few days, worries won't wait. They keep turning up, and postponing them can feel like ignoring something important, which is why the written word matters: it tells you the worry hasn't been lost.

By the time the slot comes round, the list may already feel smaller. Some days the slot is hard to fill at all.

Three kinds of worry on the list

Examples written for this page:

One you can act on

A "what if"

One that's already gone

Why the check date matters: the 29 worry logs

Arguing with a "what if" often won't end it, because the thing hasn't happened yet and there are no facts to weigh. Writing it down and checking later gives you something an argument can't: your own results.

That idea has been tested. Lucas LaFreniere and Michelle Newman asked 29 people with generalized anxiety disorder to record their worries for 10 days, then go back and check what had happened.⁴

Of all those worry predictions, 91.4 percent did not come true.⁴

For 7 of the 29 people, not a single recorded worry came true.⁴ And when a worry did come true, about 30 percent of the time the outcome was better than the person had expected.⁴ People who found more of their worries untrue improved more over the course of treatment.⁴

These were 29 people being treated for generalized anxiety disorder, over 10 days. The study shows how often their worries missed, which is not the same as showing the log alone made them better. Your own hit rate may be different. Checking is how you find out.

This is the method behind the worry path in the thought record and the worry log among the CBT worksheets.

How big the effect is

The effect is small. A 2024 meta-analysis by Annika Dippel, Jos Brosschot and Bart Verkuil pooled 7 randomized trials with 999 people.¹ Compared with only writing worries down, postponing them reduced how long people worried each day (d = 0.31) and, by less, how often (d = 0.19).¹

The trials ran from about a week to a month, and the authors note that long-term follow-up studies are still missing.¹ They also found bigger effects in studies with more women.¹

The 30 minutes comes from trials like McGowan and Behar's 2013 study, which gave 53 high worriers either a daily 30-minute worry period at a set time and place or a comparison method, for 2 weeks.³ The worry period reduced worry, anxiety, negative mood and insomnia more than the comparison did, and it didn't change depression or positive mood.³

Teenagers have been tested too. Of 171 people aged 15 to 19, those who postponed worries to a 30-minute evening slot for 6 days reported fewer health complaints than a comparison group.⁵

Worry time on its own won't treat an anxiety disorder. It's a small, low-effort way to take a bite out of daily worry, and it fits inside fuller CBT.

If worry is running your days

When worry takes up hours of your day, keeps you awake most nights, or comes with panic, it's time to bring it to your doctor or a therapist trained in CBT. A short anxiety check-in can help you describe it, and if worries hit hardest at night, see racing thoughts at night.

Questions people ask

How long should worry time be?

Most studies used 30 minutes.³ Some people start with 15. Stop when the time is up, even if the list isn't finished.

What if a worry is urgent?

If something needs action now, such as a bill due today, deal with it. Worry time is for going over and over things, and a real task with a deadline isn't that.

What if I can't stop when the time is up?

Write whatever is left at the top of tomorrow's list, so it has a place to go, and then do something that needs your hands or your attention, such as cooking or a walk. Stopping on time is part of the practice, and it may get easier with repetition.

Is worry time the same as scheduled worry in CBT?

Yes, it's the same technique under another name. Therapists also call it worry postponement or stimulus control.¹

Related

• Thought record: has a worry path with a check date.
• Catastrophizing: when one worry slides to the worst outcome.
• Behavioral experiments: testing a worry by doing something.