Work productivity, time management, organization, tools and tips

Worry can get to all of us. We may know intellectually that we can control our own thoughts, but that doesn't mean we can always do it, especially when we feel overwhelmed by all that's going on. When you're struggling to stay focused on meeting a deadline, worries can creep up and derail you. Here's an interesting tip I got from a vintage time management book called How to Put More Time in Your Life by Dru Scott (published in 1980). She recommends scheduling your worries. One of her clients set up a twice-a-day worry schedule. She worried from 11:45 till noon and then again from 5:00 till 5:15. Instead of suppressing her worries, or giving in to them during work time, she gave them their own spot on the schedule. As Scott writes, "when you schedule your worries, you remind yourself that your concerns have value." As with GTD techniques, this gets the worry off your mind and onto paper, where you can deal with it later. Try it! Let me know if it works for you.