ZenGamer

Tool takes 3–5 min

Worry parking

Write the worries down, sort them, and park them until a set time.

1. Empty your head

2. Sort each one

Your worries show up here. Nothing yet.

    When are you doing this?

    3. Park it until worry time

    For

    Pick a time that isn't right before bed if worries keep you up. If a worry pops up before then, tell yourself "not now, later" and add it to the list.

    Your list stays on this device only. Anyone using this browser can read it, so be careful on a shared, school or office computer.

    If a worry feels too big to hold, or you feel unsafe, you don't have to wait for worry time: free, confidential helplines.

    How to use it

    1. Write down everything on your mind, one worry per line.
    2. Sort each one. If you can do something about it, write one small next step. If it's out of your hands right now, park it.
    3. Pick a daily worry time and how long it lasts. Until then, when a worry pops up, remind yourself it's parked.
    4. At worry time, come back. Go through the parked list: keep what still bothers you, let go of what doesn't. Stop when the timer ends.
    5. At night, choose "Before bed" to turn your next steps into a to-do list for tomorrow.

    Why it works

    NHS self-help guidance suggests getting worries out of your head and onto paper, sorting problems you can act on from worries you can't control, and setting aside 10 or 15 minutes a day as "worry time". When a worry comes up outside it, you tell yourself you'll deal with it then (NHS Every Mind Matters).

    In a small trial of 47 people with generalised anxiety disorder, two sessions on putting off worry to a set time each day lowered worry compared with a waiting list, and the drop held four weeks later. The idea is that delaying a worry shows you it can be put down. Results are mixed: the authors note an earlier study found no effect, and call for bigger trials (Krzikalla et al., 2024).

    For bedtime: in a sleep-lab study of 57 young adults, people who spent five minutes writing a to-do list fell asleep faster than people who wrote about tasks they'd finished, and more specific lists went with falling asleep sooner. It was one night in a lab (Scullin et al., 2018).

    When to use it

    • When the same worries keep looping while you're trying to play, study or work.
    • Before bed, when your head is full of tomorrow.
    • Not as a way to put off something urgent. If it needs doing today, do it.

    This is a self-help tool for everyday worry, not medical advice. If worry is taking over your days, talk to a doctor.

    More tools

    Not medical advice. This is a wellbeing tool, not a treatment. If things feel heavy, talk to someone.