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therufs comments on Group Rationality Diary, September 1-15 - Less Wrong Discussion

2 Post author: therufs 31 August 2013 10:04PM

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Comment author: therufs 10 September 2013 07:57:56PM 6 points [-]

I discovered that deciding exactly when I am going to worry about things I need to worry about at some other time, and putting them on my calendar, is effective in getting me to quit worrying about them now. Example: "This carpet is gross; I am going to keep focusing on my project for one more hour, then vacuum."

I have also discovered that there are a lot of things I don't actually need to worry about at any particular time -- i.e., they can be worried about when they become relevant. These don't go on the calendar, because the event they are related to coming up will trigger solving them. Example: "Where do we want to go for dinner?"

Sometimes the trigger event never happens. Thus, worry-procrastination basically eliminates worrying about things that don't happen, and the concomitant time wasted, attention diverted from tasks at hand, etc. Example: "What if friend is upset because I missed their call?", and friend isn't upset.

I still need practice at (a) identifying worry; (b) not doing it until scheduled.