# If You Must Worry, Do It On Paper | by Thomas Oppong | Kaizen Habits | Medium

<https://medium.com/kaizen-habits/if-you-must-worry-do-it-on-paper-85caa22b1712>

- Host: [medium.com](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/hosts/medium.com/)
- Saved: October 15, 2020 (2020-10-16T01:35:12Z)
- Record: https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/e1b3efa5860b/
- JSON: https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/e1b3efa5860b.json

## What Jamie wrote

Like anyone I find myself worrying at times. Sometimes the worry doesn't resolve and you can obsess on it. I've never actually sit down and written it down but I like the approach here. 

> Worrying is psychologically draining, but when you do it on paper — in a worry journal, you stop yourself from spending a lot of time in your head stressing about everything that could go wrong.

Anytime you write something down you allow yourself to "self coach" and objectively look at the information. I know this works, I've used it myself for many things. You could also say that GTD and it’s focus on getting things out of your head is a form of this type of activity too.

> Writing down your worries forces you to slow down — which can make think a bit clearer and often opens up a bit of space for reflection, meditation and positive thinking.

I've never thought of a worry journal, but it’s an interesting idea.

## Facts

- Kind: [Page](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/kinds/page/)

## Appears in

- [WT161: Weekly Thing #161 / Letter, Asterisk, You Should Write ✍️](https://weekly.thingelstad.com/archive/161/), Recommended Links

## Same host

- ['Ugh fields', or why you can’t even bear to think about that task | Medium](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/488d3c38d142/) (medium.com, September 13, 2020)
- [How 9/11 looked on a newly created Internet on that day | by Larry Kramer | Sep, 2020 | Medium](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/0766bebf8d6f/) (medium.com, September 13, 2020)
- [Monolith -> Services: Theory & Practice | by Kent Beck | Oct, 2020 | Medium](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/108b40a15bcf/) (medium.com, October 6, 2020)
- [Does Waking Up at 5:30 A.M Make You More Successful? by Thomas Oppong](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/32ed2bcb96f2/) (medium.com, November 12, 2020)
- [Hello, Mac. The same Apple Design Award-winning app… | by Majd Taby | Dispatches From Darkroom | Nov, 2020 | Medium](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/6ffa29519989/) (medium.com, November 19, 2020)

## Saved the same week

- [Why Life Can’t Be Simpler](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/fba3671d0374/) (fs.blog, October 15, 2020)
- [Going Viral as a Woman in Tech](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/2f50264b74ea/) (emilykager.com, October 15, 2020)
- [Daring Fireball: Facebook and the Group That Planned to Kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/00fed41c973b/) (daringfireball.net, October 15, 2020)
- [Git scraping: track changes over time by scraping to a Git repository](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/e989627ee1a1/) (simonwillison.net, October 15, 2020)
- [On Call Shouldn’t Suck: A Guide For Managers – charity.wtf](https://links.thingelstad.xyz/links/5641d27f0b80/) (charity.wtf, October 15, 2020)

## Elsewhere

- Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://medium.com/kaizen-habits/if-you-must-worry-do-it-on-paper-85caa22b1712