For many of us, worrying is an instinct, even if we know it isn’t productive. It seems like an inevitable response to stress — something we’re powerless to stop. And continually worrying about the future can take a heavy toll on our mental well-being, affecting our energy, mood, focus, productivity, and our ability to make critical decisions.

But what if you could free yourself from your worries? Not by magically making them disappear, but by actually postponing them? There’s a name for this: worry time. Worry time is intentionally scheduled time in your day dedicated specifically to worrying. Recent science shows that people who scheduled their worry time for a particular part of the day or week reduced their anxiety, stress, and depressive symptoms significantly more than people following standard anxiety treatments.