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How To Plan Your Day with Anxiety Disorder: Ideas That Work

January 21, 2015 Greg Weber

Getting through the day with anxiety disorder requires good planning. Read my tips on how I effectively plan my day around anxiety.

A lot of my days with anxiety disorder start something like this: I wake up, then ask myself why I stayed up so late (again) the night before. I'm sleep-deprived, my eyes are bleary, and my thoughts are a grey, swirling blob of worry. I have a powerful feeling I'm forgetting something, or a lot of things (Reduce Morning Anxiety With These 5 Useful Tips). Then I groan loudly at the prospect of having to drag myself through another seemingly pointless day of my pathetic existence. This is often followed by a black wave of despair, and a strong desire to crawl back into bed -- maybe forever. It is not easy to plan a day with anxiety disorder.

Good morning to you, too, sunshine. Now, here's the good news: it gets better from here.

My Anxiety Disorder Requires a Daily Plan

Planning my day with anxiety disorder is lot like exercising. The exercise is not the hard part; the hard part is getting my butt to the gym. I have to make a supreme effort to not dive back under the covers, but, once I do that, the hardest part of my day is often over. Then, I can continue on and feel like an actual human being. Here are some of the things that help me structure my day:

  • Getting through the day with anxiety disorder requires good planning. Read my tips on how I effectively plan my day around anxiety.I try to set realistic daily goals. -- I'm a card-carrying procrastinator (see Anxiety-Related Procrastination), but I swear I'm going to change my errant ways, eventually. In the meantime, I try to be realistic about what I can actually accomplish in one day. I tend to underestimate how long most tasks will take by about 100%. So, I make a daily list, then cut it in half. This gives me something realistic to shoot for.
  • I know doing something makes me feel better than doing nothing. -- Sitting around all day lets me avoid anxiety in the short term, but it comes at the price of my self-esteem. I need to do my best to be productive in order to feel good about myself. Even when I fall short of my goals, at least I know I tried.
  • I do my best to take one thing at a time. -- One of the trickiest parts of getting through my day is not getting paralyzed by anxiety. It's easy to get overwhelmed, especially if I get into worrying about the future too much. Looking at the big picture can just lead to ruminating, which worsens anxiety and also makes me depressed. The only thing I can actually do anything about is right now, today.
  • I push myself, but not too hard. -- I picture planning my day with anxiety disorder like an egg. I need to hold onto it, but not too tightly. If I let go completely, the egg falls to the floor and smashes. If I squeeze it too hard, I'll crush it. Either extreme ends up with the egg getting broken. I need to keep a firm, but relaxed grip on my mind and emotions to make it successfully through the day.

I Can Restart My Daily Plan for Anxiety At Anytime

Another thing that helps me is the idea of starting over. My day is not a linear sequence of time chunks that have to be taken sequentially. It's a loose collection of moments and each moment is a potential opportunity to refocus. I know that I'll fall short in some ways -- my attention will wander, I'll waste time, and I probably won't get everything done that I had planned. Also, things are going to happen during the day that I didn't anticipate.

Rather than declaring my day ruined and a total loss, I just start over. Maybe I need to take a break. Maybe I need to do something else for awhile. The point is, I can re-enter my productive flow at any point along its continuum and simply try again.

The beginning of my day may look hopeless, but I've learned through long experience that it isn't. Once I get over the initial shock of waking up, I have a bunch of helpful tools to help me plan my day with anxiety disorder. When I reach the end of the day, I know I'll be able to look back on it with satisfaction. I may not have done everything I wanted to, but at least I did something.

You can find Greg on his website, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, and Facebook.

APA Reference
Weber, G. (2015, January 21). How To Plan Your Day with Anxiety Disorder: Ideas That Work, HealthyPlace. Retrieved on 2024, March 19 from https://www.healthyplace.com/blogs/treatinganxiety/2015/01/heres-how-i-plan-my-day-with-anxiety-disorder



Author: Greg Weber

Flower
July, 18 2015 at 4:59 am

I feel like you're explaining my life. This is exactly how my days go too. It's hard. You hit the nail right on the head when you said "anxiety is crippling". It is so true and people who do not have it have no clue how hard it actually is. I'm going to use your tips and do my best. Thanks.

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Paul
October, 4 2021 at 7:15 am

I'm writing this 6 years after you wrote your reply just to say I hope you're doing okay. Anxiety and depression just doesn't let me go and I've had it for as long as I can remember and I'm 42 now. I feel just acknowledging it this time and taking active steps to mitigate it is a better way forward this time. I need to respect it instead of fighting it without a plan, as it always wins if I don't.

Amanda
March, 10 2015 at 7:08 pm

I just started therapy. I have to go out every day and rate 3 situations. Pre Post and Peek. Fear level. I have anxiety sitting here thinking that I have to do this again tomorrow.

Courtney Valley
March, 7 2015 at 6:37 pm

I completely understand,and thanks for the tips,I spend half my morning trying to think of what I need to do(ima an artist and work from home) but it's super hard because I overwhelm myself,plus I have OCD so I have to deal with that on top off it,Plus they are changing my meds quite a bit,so first it was Valium and Paxil,both made me lazy,Hated Paxil the most,then Wellbutrin,which after 2 years of Paxil and being lazy seemed like a minor miracle,It gave me energy,plus put me on Klonopin,well turns out after 2 months of Wellbutrin it gave me TOO much energy,thus causing more panic attacks ,Well my doc moved,so my new doctor took me off everything switched me toLamotrigine (never heard of it before) but it's only been a week so too soon to tell plus put me on xanax which helps a thousand times better than the Valium or klonopin

Jorge
January, 31 2015 at 6:04 am

Are u taking medication?

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Greg Weber
February, 1 2015 at 2:40 pm

Jorge,
I take anti-depressant medication, but nothing specifically for anxiety.

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