How do I stop overthinking my future?
By No Rush · Updated October 20, 2026
The short answer
Give your worries their own time of day. Pick half an hour at the same time and place, like 7 pm at the kitchen table. When a worry about the future comes up earlier, write it down in a few words and save it for then. In small studies, people who did this for two to four weeks said they worried less.
Why worrying keeps going
Worrying is thinking about what might go wrong, over and over. It can feel like you're working on the problem. Often the same thoughts just come round again.
Psychologist Edward Watkins brought together the research on thoughts that keep coming back. Whether they help depends partly on how concrete they are. A question like why does nothing ever work out for me? tends to go round in circles. A question like what can I do on Monday? leads somewhere more often.
If worrying has filled most of your days for weeks, or you sleep badly because of it, talk to your doctor.
How to set up a worry time
This is called worry postponement. You move your worrying to a set time.
Pick a time and a place
Half an hour, every day at the same time and in the same spot. In one Dutch study it was early in the evening. For example, 7 pm at the kitchen table.
Write it down and move on
When a worry comes up during the day, write it down in a few words, for instance in the notes on your phone. Then go back to what you were doing, like the dishes or the email that is open.
Use the half hour
At your worry time, read what you wrote. Some of it may matter less by then. For each worry that's still there, write down one thing you could do about it, and when.
Stop when the time is up
After thirty minutes you stop, even if you're not done. Whatever is left goes on tomorrow's list.
What the studies found
Psychologist Thomas Borkovec and his team were the first to test this, in 1983. People who said they worried a lot learned to save their worrying for one half hour a day. After four weeks, they reported less worry than a group that got no instructions.
In a 2013 study with 53 people who worried a lot, two weeks with a fixed worry time brought worry down more than a different instruction did. The other group was told to let their worries come and not push them away.
It does not work for everyone. The Dutch team of Anke Versluis, Bart Verkuil and Jos Brosschot offered it online to a large group, for six days. The more than 350 people who finished worried about as much as people who only kept track of when they worried. Many of them found it hard to put worrying off.
From a worry to a step
Worries about the future are often big and vague, like what if I never find my place? At your worry time, make them smaller and more concrete. Ask yourself what you could find out or try this week.
For example: On Thursday after dinner, I'll send one message to someone whose work I'm curious about. Plans in this when-then form make it more likely that you start. In a review of 94 studies, they clearly helped people reach their goals.
In the No Rush app
No Rush has no worry timer. On the Home screen, the card What's next? gives you one small step for today and says why it's that one. That can be the concrete step you were looking for during your worry time.
If your head is full, the Breathe screen has three short exercises. And in the Talk tab, you can tell the little cloud what keeps going round in your head. It asks you more about what you say.
No Rush app
An iPhone app for people who feel stuck. It sets out one small next step at a time and tells you why that one. It is not therapy.
Sign up free Take the test For iPhone. Coming soon to the App Store. The first seven days are free in the app. After that, you choose whether to subscribe. Sign up now and the app stays free for you, for life.
Sources
- Borkovec, Wilkinson, Folensbee & Lerman (1983). Stimulus control applications to the treatment of worry. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 21(3), 247-251. doi.org/10.1016/0005-7967(83)90206-1
- McGowan & Behar (2013). A preliminary investigation of stimulus control training for worry: effects on anxiety and insomnia. Behavior Modification, 37(1), 90-112. doi.org/10.1177/0145445512455661
- Versluis, Verkuil & Brosschot (2016). Reducing worry and subjective health complaints: a randomized trial of an internet-delivered worry postponement intervention. British Journal of Health Psychology, 21(2), 318-335. doi.org/10.1111/bjhp.12170
- Watkins (2008). Constructive and unconstructive repetitive thought. Psychological Bulletin, 134(2), 163-206. doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.134.2.163
- Gollwitzer & Sheeran (2006). Implementation intentions and goal achievement: a meta-analysis of effects and processes. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 69-119. doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(06)38002-1
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