LIFE HACK
How my alarm clock helped me beat anxiety
Your life should be divided into the time “before” and “after” the alarm clock goes off.
Anxiety is the strong desire or concern to do something or for something that we expect to happen. Most of the time, it will happen into the future. But we begin to worry right now all the way to the time of the event. Sometimes even after it.
There is no point in worrying in advance.
There is no point in worrying before it’s time for action.
Here is the simple life hack that I employ
-I set up an alarm clock
-The time before it goes off is all mine to do as I please. No action required.
-The time after it goes off is time for action. To begin work, do chores, anything.
For example, I have a very important task to complete and I know I have to start work in 09:00. I set the morning alarm to 08:00 and a second alarm for 09:00. If anxiety wakes me up in 07:00 (and it does!), I tell myself “It’s not time yet, you can sleep again and you will be on time. Don’t worry.” Miraculously, it works and I go back to sleep till 08:00.
The 08:00 alarm goes off. I get up and I say to myself: “You have to start work at 09:00. Until then, there is absolutely no need to think about work. You can drink coffee, take a shower, check the news, hang out with your spouse. No other action needed.”
When the 09:00 alarm goes off, it’s time for work. No excuses, no delay. After all, why complain? I had a good night’s sleep and I had a whole hour for myself.
Why does this work?
Anxiety is uncertainty.
Anxiety is usually caused by our own inaction.
By setting the alarm clock, you push anxiety out of your personal space. You clearly define the limit. Without a time limit, anxiety will spread and conquer your whole day.
- Everything before the alarm is my time and my time only.
- Only after the alarm I have to take action.
This trick helped me to…
-Enjoy a tranquil hour at the beach. Before that, I was constantly thinking about work. “You should be working” was the voice in my head.
-Sleep better. Even when I wake up worrying one or two hours before the alarm, I say “Excellent! I have two more hours of sleep!”
-Push anxiety out of my free time. When I’m having coffee with a friend, I know that it’s perfectly OK to do so because I have clearly ear-marked this hour as free time.
-Get rid of the guilt (“You should be working”). No. I’ll start working when it’s time.
Extra bonus: You turn the hated alarm clock into an anxiety-buster mega-tool.
So, do the experiment and let me know if it worked for you.
