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Fortitude Fridays

Vol. 122: Schedule Your Worry — 15 Minutes to Reduce Stress, Increase Energy & More

Welcome to Fortitude Fridays—part mindset gym, part field notes from real life. I share what I’m learning, testing, and using to help you strengthen your mindset, take better care of yourself, and keep showing up—week after week.

Here are a few ideas as you head into the weekend.

Read Time: 7 mins

This Week’s Snapshot:

• Quote: Never A Bad Time
• Tactic: Schedule Worry
• Question: What Dividends Could You Gain?

When You Find Your People: You never meet the right people at the wrong time because the right people are timeless. -Heidi Priebe (Writer) ​ When someone is truly right for you, time bends around them. They’re not bound by circumstance, they’re constant.

Tactic: The Worry Window

Give worry 15 minutes — and take back the rest of your day.

I asked a client earlier this week:

“What’s something you’ve been doing for your health and wellness that you’re proud of?”

Their answer surprised me in the best way:

“Honestly? I’ve started scheduling my worry.”

Worry used to run their day—stealing focus and energy. Now, when it popped up, they told themselves, “I’ll think about that on my commute.”

And it worked! They shared that by the time their commute came, the worry had either solved itself or shrunk down.

Truth be told, I’m guilty of worry too. Regularly. Which is probably why I loved this—because it’s not about being perfect, it’s about being practical.

Maybe this is something you already do and I’m late to the party. Wouldn’t be the first time.

Hat tip to the client — proof the simplest tools often work best.

Quick Note: Worry vs. Anxiety

We often use these words interchangeably, but they’re not the same.

• Worry lives in your head—mental loops, “what ifs,” rumination.
• Anxiety shows up in your body—racing heart, tight chest, restlessness.

This tactic targets worry, but when the mind settles, the body often follows.

Why Stopping Worry Feels So Hard

Telling yourself to “just stop” is like telling yourself not to scratch a mosquito bite. It usually makes it worse.

Worry feels active—like you’re “doing something.” But it’s not productive. Stewing all day solves nothing. It only drains your energy.

One of my favorite lines comes from Ryan Reynolds in the movie Van Wilder:

As much as I love that quote, it never gave me a way to actually handle it. That’s where this tactic comes in. Scheduling your worry doesn’t just point out the problem—it gives you a way to contain it, work with it, and move on.

Trust me-you can’t muscle worry into submission. I have tried.

The better move? Contain it. Schedule it. Handle it.

The Neuroscience Bit

When you say, “I’ll worry about this later,” you’re not dismissing the thought—you’re filing it. That act gives your brain certainty: “This will be handled.”

Here’s what’s happening under the hood:

• The amygdala (your alarm center) quiets down when it realizes the worry isn’t being ignored, just postponed.
• The prefrontal cortex (your rational, problem-solving side) gets room to step in, which makes solutions more likely to appear later—sometimes without you even noticing.

And the research supports it. In one study, Borkovec and colleagues (1983) found that people trained to postpone worry had fewer anxiety symptoms than those who tried to suppress it. Later, Dugas & Ladouceur (2000) showed that combining worry postponement with problem-solving reduced both the frequency and intensity of worry in people with generalized anxiety disorder.

In short: your brain responds better to boundaries than to bans.

But What If You Can’t Stop?

Sometimes the loop won’t let go. That’s normal—it just means your nervous system is still on high alert. Try this:

• Label it. Say: “This is worry, not reality.”
• Ground your body. Try 4–7–8 breathing, drop your shoulders, unclench your jaw.
• Externalize it. Write it down. Your brain relaxes when it knows you won’t forget.
• Shrink the window. If you can’t let it go, take a 2-minute “mini worry break,” then move on.

How to Do It

1. Pick a worry window (10–15 min a day).
2. Catch the worry and name it.
3. Redirect: “Not now. Later.” Write it down if needed.
4. Return at your set time:
   1. Is it still worth worrying about?
   2. Is there an action step?
   3. Or has it already shrunk?
5. Close the window. No spillover allowed.

When to Plug It In

Worry loves to sneak in when the brain is idle—that’s why bedtime or after work is prime time for it to start up.

So make your worry window work for you. Use it while you’re doing dishes, walking the dog, or on your commute—times when your body’s busy but your mind has room to roam.

The key: set boundaries before bed. Don’t climb into bed and turn it into a worry chamber. Protect your sleep. That’s wind-down time, not doom-scrolling your brain time. And if the loop won’t let go, revisit the tools above in “What If You Can’t Stop?”

Bringing It Home:

Worry is normal—but it’s rarely productive. It won’t move you forward; it only steals time and energy you can’t get back.

So here’s your challenge: don’t fight worry—schedule it. Name it, set it aside, and return to it when its window opens.

Boundaries beat rumination. Always.

You’ve got this.

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Side Note: It’s completely normal for worry to ramp up with the change of seasons. If you’ve noticed that happening, this piece I wrote last fall on Autumn Anxiety might help.

Your Turn: ​ Worry will take every inch of space you give it. But when you box it in, you reclaim that space for what matters most. ​ If you gave worry a boundary, what could open up for you? You might… actually taste your dinner instead of chewing on a problem laugh with your kids instead of replaying an email walk the dog and notice the sun or fresh air on your face train with focus instead of pacing through “what ifs” drift off to sleep calmer and wake with a rested body ​ Less space for worry to run amok means more space for the good things to grow.

So Relaxing:

I could watch this for a long time. Click image to see a satisfying video of sand art.

Thanks for reading — it feels good to be back. Enjoy the long weekend and Labor Day, and give worry the day off too. Until next week…

You got this,

P.S. If you’re new—welcome! I’m so glad you’re here. You’ve just stepped into a community of people who are showing up, doing the work, and getting after what matters. We’re all about learning, growing, and building real momentum—together. Let’s go!

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