Here’s a nifty suggestion I stole from Self magazine, November 2004.
Worriers spend a great deal of time worrying throughout the day, often re-worrying the same worry they’ve already worried earlier. This is inevitable, but exhausting and unproductive as well as rather dull.
Suzanne C. Segerstrom PhD of the University of Kentucky, Lexington, suggests that every time a worry occurs to you, write it down in a notebook and tell yourself you’ve delegated it and will deal with it when the time is appropriate. All day, record your worries in that notebook (or three-ring-binder, for hard cases).
Then, at the end of the day, take twenty minutes or so and go over your list. Deal with anything that you can take care of then and there, and note what you need to deal with the other things on the list, so that tomorrow you can get a head start on them.
This tells your brain it doesn’t have to carry around all that baggage all day, constantly reminding you of these things, and it enables you to take a realistic look at things that preoccupy you and deal productively with them.
raincoaster media 
Metro
April 27, 2007
As antethical as I find most of the grand self-help ideas, I like this one. I sometimes do something similar.
It owes something to Catholicism. When I was in my teens-to-twenties, particularly after satisfying nights of sweat and booze, I would often find myself in the grip of some sort of dread.
One could call it randomized/Catholic guilt, a moral hangover, whatever. But I instinctively felt as though something bad was lurking nearby.
It would be difficult to underestimate, in my opinion, the impact this had on my second decade of life.
Over time I grew to anticipate this reaction, and became able to pause, think about the problem, try to identify the cause, compartmentalize it, and then either kick it to the curb or wallow in it as appropriate.
raincoaster
April 27, 2007
Indeed, the moral dread inducing effects of hangovers are well-documented. Sometimes I think that’s what some people like about drinking!
I’m not a worrier generally speaking, but I do find that writing down things that are bothering me and setting aside some time to deal with them daily helps give me clarity. I’m not juggling a million things in my head that keep popping up when they’re not useful. Once it’s written down, it goes quiet.
timethief
April 27, 2007
Sometimes I find that issues I “push” out of my mind during the day light hours are being processed in my dreams all night long. In other words I’m I’m unconsciously trying to take care of unfinished business.
I awake and write down my dreams so I can isolate what the issues underlying that unfinished business are. And I make an appointment with myself and to do the processing consciously.
At the appointed time I just write the one issue down on a piece of paper and then “listen” for about 5- 10 minutes to what I’m thinking, without argument or rejection. And I summarize what I hear going on inside my head.
Next I formulate different options for dealing with the issue and I examine the advantages and disadvantages for each one.
The last step I take is to make decisions and/or set goals. I write them down and commit to achieving them.
Every time I make an appointment with myself I begin by quietly affirming affirming that that taking care of unfinished business is the right thing to do.
This process works for me and that means it may work for others too.
raincoaster
April 27, 2007
Sounds useful. I know for myself that once an issue pops up in my dreams, it’s long overdue for me to sit down and wrestle with it.