How a planner can help you to better manage anxiety
Keep track of your anxiety by monitoring your mood and sticking with healthy habits. Here we outline how the humble planner can help you to achieve your goals when it comes to anxiety.
How a planner can help you to manage anxiety
By Joyce Chong
Anxiety is part of life. It keeps you safe from danger - think of anxiety as your body’s alarm that is designed to protect you from threats in your environment. At times, your alarm may be overactive. This can be experienced in response to stressful events (job stress, global pandemic, relationship breakdown, cumulation of daily hassles), or reflect a longer-standing anxiety disorder (such as social anxiety disorder, panic disorder; learn more about when anxiety tips into an anxiety disorder here).
We’ve worked with many individuals over the years to build skills to manage anxiety better - skills such as tuning in to triggers and early warning signs for anxiety, learning relaxation and mindfulness skills, shifting thoughts that contribute to anxiety, and gradually facing triggers for anxiety that they have previously avoided.
As with most things, sustaining the skills to manage anxiety in the longer term takes regular practice, and can easily get lost amidst the busyness of everyday life. So how can you ensure those anxiety management skills stay with you for years to come?
Enter the humble planner…rather than just serving as a To Do list, a planner can help with setting anxiety-related goals, keeping anxiety management skills on your radar, and track your levels of anxiety (and related concepts) so you can better understand and manage anxiety. Below we’ll show you how to use a planner to better manage your anxiety - we’ve used our Productive Life Planner which has specific sections for projects (or goals) and managing your wellbeing, but feel free to use any planner that will suit your needs.
TIPS TO BETTER MANAGE ANXIETY USING A PLANNER
Below we outline some tips for using a planner to help you better manage anxiety. These are based on our work over the years with the many individuals we’ve helped to make sustainable changes when it comes to anxiety, where we’ve seen what helps and hinders longer-term shifts in anxiety. These tips are by no means exhaustive, but will give you a good starting point. Let’s see how using a planner can help Heni.
Heni is a new graduate who has been experiencing anxiety for the past year. She has just commenced her first ‘major’ role in a high pressure environment, and is taking on challenges that she has not yet encountered. Heni is acutely aware of the need to look after her anxiety so that she can perform in her role and avoid burnout. She also recognises that she is prone to worrying about negative appraisals, which then feeds into her confidence levels and her anxiety.
1.Set goals for managing anxiety
Think of what goals you’d like to achieve when it comes to better managing your anxiety. Is it that you have an upcoming social function when the idea of making small talk with strangers causes you significant anxiety? Is it that you live in a house that has spiders when you have a spider phobia? Or is it that you want to be able to better manage your panic symptoms?
Whatever your goal is, use your planner to break down the larger, overarching goal, into smaller components that are less anxiety-provoking and move you gradually towards your overarching goal.
Heni has been tasked with the project of giving a conference presentation in April on behalf of her workplace. This is a trigger for increased anxiety for Heni - not only is it the first presentation she is giving on behalf of an organisation with high standards, she also suffers from public speaking anxiety.
To help reduce her anxiety, Heni decides to break this larger and more overwhelming task into smaller and more manageable actions using SMART goal-setting:
First, she reaches out to her colleague Will and buys him lunch to seek advice on designing her presentation. She also sets time frames to ensure she stays on track with this project.
Second, she decides to sign up to do a public speaking anxiety course, and looks at linking in a friend so she can practice her speech before the day.
2. Keep healthy habits on your radar.
There are many healthy habits you can adopt that support your anxiety and wellbeing. For example:
Habits for physical health include getting sufficient sleep, exercise, and nutrition.
Habits for psychological wellbeing include practising relaxation, journalling, and many of the psychological skills learned in therapy (e.g. exposure, controlled breathing, cognitive restructuring, mindfulness).
It’s easy for these habits to fall off your radar, so by using a planner as reminders to engage with the habit, you’re increasing your chances of looking after your anxiety.
Heni believes that there are a few things that are particularly helpful when it comes to managing her anxiety. She finds exercise and sleep to be vital for her to stay calmer. She also knows that journalling and reflecting on events of the day on a regular basis make a difference to her anxiety. Keeping these healthy habits on her radar using a daily planner helps her to stay on track.
3. Track stuff.
We’re talking all sorts of stuff to do with anxiety, including:
Physical and psychological habits that help you manage your anxiety.
Emotions such as anxiety, stress, overwhelm, and any other related concepts (e.g. level of social confidence when it comes to social anxiety, severity of worry in generalised anxiety disorder).
We especially love being able to track anxiety over weeks, months, and even a year, as tracking helps identify what particular triggers and patterns there may be to your anxiety (see the next point!).
Heni finds that tracking a combination of her moods (anxiety, overwhelm) and confidence level, as well as her energy and motivation, help her to see her progress with managing anxiety. She can also take this information in to her sessions with her psychologist and they can dissect the information together and set new goals.
4. Reflect
Once you have tracked emotions and habits related to your anxiety, use this data to help you reflect and learn more about:
What triggers your anxiety (e.g. prolonged weeks of tight deadlines, certain emotional stressors, or even a lack of exercise)
Which habits make a meaningful difference to your anxiety (do more of these!) and which habits may have less of an impact.
What helps you stick to your helpful habits and what reduces your ability to stay on track (e.g. busyness at work, burnout, late nights).
After consistently tracking her anxiety, Heni takes the information in to her session with her psychologist. They reflect on the patterns together, and identify that comparing herself to others and facing social situations more generally are triggers for increased anxiety. Using this information, they incorporate a few additional exercises in this area to help Heni better cope with such situations.
All of the above tips are designed to help you understand your anxiety better, and to help you stay on top of managing your anxiety. Using something as simple as a planner can really make a difference to how you understand and look after your anxiety.
If you’d like more tailored support to help stay on track with your anxiety, why not contact us and book in with one of our psychologists?
How a planner can help you stay on track with your studies
Between studies, assignments, paid work, volunteer work, sporting commitments, social life… is it any wonder things that student life can feel overwhelming? Here’s how to use your a study planner to organise yourself.
3 simple tips to organise your student life using a planner
By Joyce Chong
Student life can be pretty hectic. Sure, studying may be the main focus of student life, however there’s so much more going on including assignments, labs and projects; preparing for tests; volunteering/extra-curricular activities; paid work; family commitments; social commitments; and placements / practicums. When your commitments are that varied it’s also important to look after your physical health and psychological wellbeing so you can make it through the academic year!
With so much on your plate, it’s too easy to drop the ball, forget things, or even feel just overwhelmed. Importantly, this is not a sign of failure to thrive and adapt, just a sign that you might need a system to help you better juggle all of your commitments.
So today, we’re going to lift the lid on three simple tips for using a planner to organise your student life. You can use any planner (you might have a student planner lying around) though we’ve used our Productive Life Planner which has specific sections for projects (or goals) and managing your wellbeing. Let’s deep dive into how a planner can help.
TIPS TO ORGANISE YOUR STUDENT LIFE USING A PLANNER
Below we 3 tips for using a planner to help organise your student life that you can action today. These will give you a good starting point. Let’s see how using a planner can help Ali (whom you may recall from Planet Burnout).
Ali is a conscientious student, who spends every waking moment studying. However, the pressure he places on himself leads him to feel overwhelmed and he procrastinates as a result. Predictably, burnout creeps in at the end of semester and Ali barely has enough fuel in the tank to get through exams. He often feels like a failure.
Tip #1. Set UP A STUDY PLAN, GOOD HABITS, + HELPFUL ROUTINES
Groundwork is everything when it comes to succeeding, and as part of this try setting up a study plan with these questions:
What deadlines do you have for assignments? Work backwards from this point, breaking down all of the steps involved in completing and submitting these assignments. Add these to your planner.
What plan do you have for studying for the final exams? Break down your topics and schedule time to regularly summarise, review, and test yourself throughout the semester (don’t leave it up to cram in the study break just before exams!).
What habits support your studies? We’re talking physical and psychological habits that help you stay focused and on track with studies. It could be exercising, journaling, meditating, catching up with friends. All of these take time, so be sure to include them in your schedule so you can see your commitments over the days/weeks/months.
Once you see everything that is on your plate it becomes easier to set boundaries with yourself based on the available time that you have for that ‘quick coffee’ or ‘social media break’.
Ali, whilst prioritising his studies, has not taken into account the importance of physical and psychological habits that help him stay on track. He endeavours that this semester will be different, and aims to include exercise and self-care for sustainability in his studies. He could start off by:
Given Ali has a tendency to spend any available time studying, it will be best to first schedule in self-care activities. Thus he (i) Blocks out 3 x 30min blocks each week in his planner for exercise; (ii) Sets aside 30 minutes at the end of the day before sleep to wind down, practice mindfulness and journal (iii) Each fortnight he also prioritises his appointments with his psychologist to work through his perfectionism; and (iv) On alternate fortnights he sees friends.
With the remainder of his time he is able to devote it to his studies, and maps out upcoming assignments, tests, and exams.
Tip #2. TRACK THE THINGS THAT HELP YOU STAY ON TRACK WITH YOUR STUDIES.
Why should you track? Because tracking allows you to identify patterns in your study techniques and how you manage your physical and psychological health. We’re looking for patterns such as:
Studying for certain topics are easier at certain times of the day.
Being more likely to succeed with exercise habits when a friend is involved for accountability than when left to exercise on your own.
A few days consecutive days of feeling stressed primes you to experience heightened anxiety and panic symptoms.
Having all of this data allows you to make powerful decisions when it comes to making changes that work (see the next section!), thus enabling you to be more efficient.
Since Ali has a tendency to focus exclusively on studying (leading to burnout), a priority for him would be tracking how well he sticks to habits that benefit his physical health and psychological wellbeing (see example below in pink). He also uses a daily planner to track his schedule for the day, outline his Top 3 Priorities for the day, and other tasks on his To Do list.
Tip #3. Review how you’re going + make changes to re-ALIGN.
When planning doesn’t go according to plan, don’t give up! All of that information you’ve tracked gives you insight into how to make changes to realign and stay on track with your studies.
Maybe you tried to study a challenging topic at a time when you were most tired, and would be more likely to grasp the content if you studied it at a time when you were more alert;
Maybe what you’d planned to take on for exercising took far too much effort and coordination (e.g. stand up paddleboarding) and instead it would help to choose a more flexible and portable option (e.g. walking); or
Maybe you were underestimated how long tasks took, which led to feeling overwhelmed at your progress, in which case adjust your time frames to be more realistic when setting your schedule.
Maybe planning doesn’t come naturally until you schedule in some regular time each week/day to engage in it.
The point is - don’t give up. All setbacks provide insight into why something didn’t work.
Having tracked his student life for a good month, Ali looks back on the data he has collected and identifies that he is likely to fall behind with his wellbeing habits when there is little accountability. Thus, he decides to exercise with a friend, and sets up a reward system for himself.
Looking over what Ali tracked for his productivity and performance, he recognises that he underestimates how long things take (e.g. summarising a chapter) which can easily lead to feeling demotivated and thus procrastination when time frames blow out. As a result, Ali ends up allowing more time for each task.
Following these adjustments, Ali reviews again after another fortnight and sees there have been some improvements. It also reveals some additional changes that he can make regarding how he organises his student life.
These 3 simple tips are a good starting point to help you organise your studies using a planner. Importantly, it takes time to get into a rhythm and pattern that suits your student life, so don’t feel discouraged if it takes several iterations to find a flow that suits you.
And if you’re interested in learning how to improving study skills, why not check out Nimble Noodle, our online study skills program?
You can also book in with one of our psychologists for a more tailored approach to organising your student life.
Crafting a moment of mindfulness - How to find time to be mindful when life is busy
Mindfulness is now firmly entrenched in our consciousness, but how can we find a moment to fit mindfulness into our busy modern day lives?
CRAFTING A MOMENT OF MINDFULNESS
By Joyce Chong and Megan Nielsen
Mindfulness. Since our clinical psychologist Annie first wrote in her article Confessions of a Mindfulness Sceptic way back in 2016, research supporting the benefits of mindfulness across a range of populations and presenting concerns has continued to explode[1][2][3]. We have seen a proliferation of mindfulness activities in our collective consciousness – mindful eating, mindful walking, mindful meditation, mindful communication, mindfulness-based stress reduction, mindfulness based cognitive therapy. There are apps, blogs, and workshops all designed to help us become more mindful, be more present, and be more relaxed. And yet… in our busy, modern-day lives, is mindfulness just another thing that we should be doing, yet another additional wellbeing activity to get on top on?
(Even more reasons) Why we should get into mindfulness
Mindfulness is not a flash in the pan, it’s not a fleeting fad. It has its roots in Eastern religion, and was brought sharply into secular focus by Jon Kabat-Zinn (most famously through Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction). Over the years, it has exploded in popularity due to its many benefits, including:
Improvements in physical health[9]
Yet…often when we know we should do something, we may experience mild resistance, or feel overloaded by mindfulness being yet. another. thing. on our ever-expanding To Do list when we are already overwhelmed by our busy schedules. So…what’s the solution when you don’t have a solid hour each day to focus on meditating?
Crafting moments of mindfulness in a busy schedule
Well, here at The Skill Collective we’re BIG fans of practicality, and if that means finding ways to incorporate mindfulness into everyday routines, we’re all for it. Everyday mindfulness is about performing everyday activities with intent to be mindful and ‘all in’ with your focused attention. Easy ways to engage in everyday mindfulness include mindful eating and mindful walking, being mindful on your commute to and from work, or even mindfully brushing your teeth or washing your hair.
But if we are looking to supercharge our mindfulness activities, then why not dip into those types of activities many of us have in our back pocket… our hobbies. Many of us have some sort of hobby that we enjoy, and find meaningful to us. In fact, hobbies are an ideal choice for practising mindfulness because:
We’re more likely to engage with them because we are already interested in them, find them enjoyable, allow us to be creative, and give us a sense of achievement. This is a great contrast to the passive down time we get by flopping on the couch and scrolling through social media.
They often require our minds to focus on what we are doing, which enables us to tune out of worries and rumination that may otherwise consume our attention.[10]
Hobbies often have a repetitive element to them (e.g. practising a musical piece, weeding the garden, writing or journaling, hiking, practising a golf swing, kneading bread, knitting a sweater), and animal studies have shown that repetitive movements are linked to increases in serotonin and dopamine which adds to the feel-good factor.[11][12][13]
Indeed, when we look at research into mindfulness in what we could consider hobby-based activities we find a strong link between mindfulness and improvements to wellbeing in the literature on art therapy, with increasing focus into the benefits of crafts such as knitting, sewing, and mending on improved wellbeing and decreased stress levels. [14][15][16]
How do we ‘do’ mindfulness when it comes to hobbies?
If the manner in which you’re most familiar with mindfulness is through mindfulness meditation, as popularised by apps such as Headspace and Smiling Mind, applying everyday mindfulness to your hobbies may take a bit of practice. For any activity, being mindful means:
Paying attention in a particular way so you’re noticing feedback from all of your senses
…on purpose so you’re attuned to what you’re doing, and not much else
…in the present moment, rather than on a conversation you had yesterday or what you’ll make for dinner tonight
…and non-judgementally such that you’re noticing and describing, rather than judging experiences as being positive or negative.
And that’s it, really! Of course, while it sounds simple, mindfulness can be tricky. Your mind will wander, and you may notice unpleasant sensations, thoughts, and negative emotions come to the fore. That is fine, and part of mindfulness. Through regular practice, it will become easier to redirect your focus to the task at hand.
Now for a deep dive into ‘doing’ mindfulness when it comes to hobbies, we’ll hand over now to the amazing Meg Nielsen from Megan Nielsen Patterns to show us how it’s done. Not only is Meg an amazing pattern designer who lives and breathes all things sewing-related, she is a big believer in good psychological health and resilience. From what started out as a hobby, Meg has turned it into a passion, a business (did we mention she was named in the 2020 40 Under 40 Business Award in Western Australia?), and also built an amazing sewing community around her which also goes to show the benefits (not just mindfulness-based!) that hobbies can bring.
Hi, I’m Meg from Megan Niesen Patterns, and I’m thrilled to share with you the many ways in which sewing helps with mindfulness, mental health and wellbeing.
I have a tendency to stress, overthink, ruminate and allow the worries of the day, life and world in general take over my mind. Intentionally removing my mental attention from these negative pursuits is something that I have actively been learning to do over many years – and will probably continue to keep learning throughout my life.
Along with prioritizing intentional prayer and quiet moments each morning, engaging with creative hobbies and participating in the creative community have been integral to my mental health.
There are so many ways that I’ve found my creative hobbies help me to remain mindful and connected and I’m excited to share few today!
Mindfulness when learning something new
I will often pick up a new creative hobby as I seek out the “beginner state” – that period of time where you don’t know what you are doing and are learning and engrossed. I love the beginner state and I find the state of learning naturally mindful. Since you don’t know what you’re doing when it comes to learning a new skill, you more naturally need to focus on the task at hand with an open purposeful attitude. I’ve learnt knitting, screen printing, shoe making, crochet, quilting, embroidery, sketching, painting and of course garment sewing (my true love). Beyond the initial state of learning, I find that in general I think sewing and crafting are full of activities that if done mindfully are incredibly restful. I find all stages of the process of making something fully engaging, and they force me to focus my attention on the present with a purpose and often include repetitive quiet actions.
Mindfulness when planning my next project
For anyone who sews, ironing and cutting your fabric before you begin sewing can often be considered an inconvenience before a project can begin. But I look forward to this preparation stage and I often use this time to be more mindful and present, in the place of more passive relaxation like watching tv. I tend to save my cutting out for the evenings when my children are asleep. I enjoy the process of wiping down my dinner table, carefully ironing and pressing the fabric, laying pattern pieces out, pinning and thoughtfully cutting. I’m known for my love of carefully matching stripes and prints in fabric, and part of the reason I do it so often is an intentional decision not just to enjoy the challenge, but knowing how much it engrosses my attention. It’s hard for your mind to wander when you are fully focused on matching stripes! An evening spent carefully preparing and cutting out fabric leaves me more calm and ready for sleep than anything else, as well as fully prepared to tackle my sewing project when I next have the time to.
Mindfulness in activity - Removing distractions.
I am an extrovert by nature, I really enjoy human interaction and have never enjoyed being on my own, but I’m learning the important of intentional quiet. When engaging in a hobby for relaxation I like to remove all distractions like the tv, music or being near other people. Ideally I find making something in a quiet room or during the evenings on my own allows me to give my full attention to the task and helps me remain more relaxed.
Mindfulness in activity - Embroidery and hand sewing
My number one go to activity for hobby based mindfulness is hand sewing. I will often choose to hand sew a hem or add embroidery to a project knowing that it will force me to sit quietly with a cup of tea and focus on the task.
One such activity is Sashiko stitching, which at its core is repetitive and asks the maker to focus on the rhythm of stitching whilst appreciating the materials and connecting with what you are making. As you can see from the photos below, Sashiko is a series of simple stitches, done repetitively.
Sashiko is the perfect activity for a spot of mindfulness for me because:
I focus on just a few simple elements: The feel of the fabric, the delicate thread, the needle, and the repetitive movement of my hand stitching.
The repetitive needle action is incredibly soothing, and I often look up surprised to see how much time has passed.
In addition to Sashiko stitching, there are plenty of other forms of sewing and embroidery projects that I’ve dipped into this past year to help me remain mindful and restful. Here are some other examples of me crafting my moments of mindfulness!
lf you’re keen to learn more about mindfulness and sewing, or to see me deep in Sashiko stitching, head on over here and here. Here’s to crafting many more mindful moments!
REFERENCES
[1] Querstret, D., Morison, L, Dickson, S., Cropley, M., John, M. (2020). Mindfulness-based stress reduction and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for psychological health and well-being in nonclinical samples: A systematic review and meta-analysis. International Journal of Stress Management, 27, 394-411.
[2] Sanada, K., Montero-Marin, J., Barcelo-Soler, A., Ikuse, D., Ota, M., Hirata, A., Yoshizawa, A., Hatanaka, R., Valero, M., Demarzo, M., Campayo, J.G., & Iwanami, A. (2020). Effects of mindfulness-based interventions on biomarkers and low-grade inflammation in patients with psychiatric disorders: A meta-analytic review. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 21, 2484.
[3] Goldberg, S.B., Riordan, K.M., Sun, S., & Davidson, R.J. (2021). The empirical status of mindfulness-based interventions: A systematic review of 44 meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials. Perspectives on Psychological Science: A journal of the Association of Psychological Science doi: 10.1177/1745691620968771.
[4] Chiesa, A., Calati, R., Serretti, A. (2011). Does mindfulness training improve cognitive abilities? A systematic review of neuropsychological findings. Clinical Psychology Review, 31, 449-464.
[5] Chambers, R., Lo, B.C.Y., & Allen, N.B. (2007). The impact of intensive mindfulness training on attentional control, cognitive style, and affect. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 32, 302-322.
[7] Carsley, D., & Heath, N.L., (2018). Effectiveness of mindfulness-base colouring for test anxiety in adolescents. School Psychology International, 1-22. doi: 10.1177/0143034318773523 journals.sagepub.com/home/spi
[8] Segal, Z.V., Williams, J.M.G., Teasdale, J.D. (2002). Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression: A new approach to preventing relapse. Guilford Press.
[9] Pascoe, M.C., Thompson, D.R., Jenkins, Z.M., & Ski, C.F. (2017). Minfulness mediates the physiological markers of stress: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 95, 156-178.
[10] Wharton, E., & Kanas, N. (2019) Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for the Treatment of Anxiety Disorders, International Journal of Group Psychotherapy, 69, 362-372, doi: 10.1080/00207284.2019.1599289
[11] Lambert, K.G. (2006). Rising rates of depression in today’s society: Consideration of the role of effort-based rewards and enhanced resilience in day-to-day functioning. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 30, 497-510.
[12] Jacobs, B., 1994. Serotonin, motor activity and depression-related disorders. American Science, 82, 456–463.
[13] Treadway, M.T., & Lazar, S.W. (2009), The neurobiology of mindfulness. In F. Didonna (ed.). Clinical Handbook of Mindfulness. Springer.
[14] Monti, D. A., Peterson, C., Kunkel, E. J. S., Hauck, W. W., Pequignot, E., Rhodes, L., et al. (2006). A randomized, controlled trial of mindfulness-based art therapy (MBAT) for women with cancer. Psychooncology 15, 363–373. doi: 10.1002/pon.988
[15] Hinchey, L. M. (2018). "Mindfulness-Based Art Therapy: A Review of the Literature." Inquiries Journal, 10(05). Retrieved from http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/a?id=1737
[16] Twinnger Holroyd, A. (2016). Perceptions and practices of dress-related leisure: shopping, sorting, making and mending. Annals of Leisure Research, 19, 275-293. https://doi.org/10.1080/11745398.2015.1111148
How can you counter the winter blues? Check out our tips on how to boost your wellbeing during the colder months.