Anxiety Time Management and ...

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You see, most sufferers typically do not take the appropriate time for self care, saying they don’t have the time.

Having a huge “to do list” - whether this is literally a list you’ve made up on a piece of paper or in another device or whether it’s a list you keep mental track of – which can take over your life and can substantially increase your anxiety which can eventually lead to a panic attack.

Alternatively not having an organized list, in other words having to rely totally on your memory, can nag at you all day line and exacerbate your anxiety which leads to a panic attack.  

So what is the answer?

The answer is really organizing your time and tasks and activities in such a way to ensure that you have a balanced daily life – balancing your personal, professional, and family activities – in not only the most realistic and efficient manner but also in the most beneficial manner to you as an individual.

Of course what I’m suggesting doesn’t just apply to sufferers of anxiety, panic attacks, and agoraphobia, it really applies to anyone.  Once balance is something that you inject into your lifestyle, it can improve your life in countless ways beyond helping reduce your anxiety and panic.  Things can begin to flow more smoothly; you are more productive but overall feel better about yourself and others around you and your environment.

Okay practically speaking, how does the anxiety sufferer go about “injecting balance” into his/her life?

I think you start by recognizing that you only have 24 hours in any given day and you need to decide what is most important – keeping in mind that you need to have adequate time for self-care.

You need to schedule self-care breaks throughout the day in a realistic manner.  For example, find out when you can take a break even if it just for a quick break to do breathing exercises or say other positive visualization exercises, etc.

Learning to sometimes just take a time out – not even necessarily doing any special self-care technique, but rather where you literally do nothing, even if just for a short period of time is a must.  Often the anxiety sufferer will feel guilty or anxious doing so but there’s really no need – nothing is that important that it takes 100% of your time. 

Even “doing nothing” for spurts of time in the beginning can grow into an activity in which you become comfortable just “being” without having to always do something.  When this happens you will feel much more comfortable with injecting little time out times throughout your day, even quickly in the middle of a busy, which can boost your overall mood and feelings of contentment. 

Try planning your day either at the beginning or end of each day (planning the next day if at the end of the day).  You’ll feel good about being organized but also will often have moments of inspiration in which you think of some activities you’d like to do.

Use a notebook or other source to document ideas that come to you throughout the day.  As you become more organized in general, and obviously as you continue to work on dealing with your anxiety and panic attacks, you may – at any time throughout the day – generate ideas/techniques you’d like to try in your self-improvement which can be noted. 

Don’t overload your day, but rather keep your schedule a little on the light side – better to have extra time than not enough.

Any tasks you are working on, which are more difficult, should be broken down into manageable units or chunks that can be done over time versus trying to accomplish the entire task all at once. 

Often many people report that they do their best work by accomplishing larger tasks as a series of smaller ones.  It also helps if you have a tendency to procrastinate or become anxious because you obsess over details – breaking things down into chunks that is.