the trick from that burnout workshop

Hatchling mossyoak · 2026.09.30 08:22 · Views 106 · Likes 3

My program had TAs sit through a burnout workshop this term, and I almost skipped it because grading was piling up (the irony wasn’t lost on me).

Most of it didn’t really stay with me, but this part did. The facilitator called it a worry window — you pick a set time in the day, a short stretch, and you write down everything that’s looping in your head. Deadlines, texts you haven’t answered yet, whatever’s rattling around. Then you close the notebook and you’re done with it until the next window.

The point, apparently, is that your brain doesn’t need to solve anything right then. It just wants proof the thought got written down somewhere so it can stop replaying it.

I’ve been doing mine right after dinner instead of at midnight, and it’s taken some of the edge off the lying-awake part — wasn’t expecting that, honestly! Doesn’t make the deadlines or the wedding season disappear, but my mind isn’t relitigating guest list logistics in the middle of the night anymore, at least not every night.

Small thing, but wanted to get it down before I forgot where it came from.

Comment 4

ClearCareCircle09.30 08:30
the closing-the-notebook part is what got me, I’ve done the write-it-down thing before but always left it open in my head like I still had to solve it right then. Might actually try picking one set time instead of scribbling whenever the anxious loop starts, since that’s probably why it never fully worked for me.
HealthyHue09.30 09:31
I see it a bit differently, in my case closing the notebook didn’t really stop the loop, the same worry just came back before the next window. What helped more was doing 2 shorter check-ins a day instead of one long window, so nothing built up too much by the time I actually sat down to write it.
OatMilk10.02 09:46
Think both points make sense honestly, smaller worries probably wait fine for one window but bigger ones might need that second check-in to really quiet down…
honeyoatmeal10.06 00:17
what got me was the idea that your brain just needs proof the thought got written down, not an actual answer right then. I started something close to this on my evening commute, jotting a few lines in my notes app around 6pm before I let myself open email again. Most nights maybe 1 out of 10 things on that list actually needed more than just being written down.