Plan-ic Attack- What It Is and How to Prevent One

Anxiety is fear based on the future and planning is the process of mapping out future events. What happens when you have a fear of everything that you have to do? A Plan-ic attack.

 My greatest challenge in life is to keep my anxiety in check. I don’t necessarily fear anything specifically, but that actually causes even more anxiety; feeling so uncomfortable without a logical excuse or explanation is so incredibly difficult. I bring this up because believe me, I get it.

Decorating my planner is a sort of cathartic release for me. Planning out my days ahead of time, not so much. By identifying my own personal shortcomings with planning, I can help you address these same issues and help you build more structure into your day, sans stress.

Don’t Overcommit

We all know what happens when you overpromise and underdeliver; you get an unhappy customer. Be careful with what you say you’re going to do, especially when it comes to timeframes and deadlines. Always error on the side of something’s going to come up so that when you do deliver, it reflects favorably on you. Same goes for things you promise yourself you’re going to do. My Dad, who has a habit of waking up at 9:30, set his alarm for 5:00, earlier than even I get up. “Dad, you can’t straight to a muscle up, you need to start with a ring row.” He’s literally obsessed with CrossFit. This analogy essentially means start where you are. You aren’t going to go from waking up at 9:30 to 5; that’s too big of a gap to overcome. Set your alarm for 9, then 8:30, then 8 etc. I understand we want overnight results, but that mentality leads to zero results because you won’t do what you set out to do.

Give Yourself Grace

It’s the end of the day and you only got 3 things checked off your ever growing todo list. This means you’re going to be even more behind tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day. 

Before you let your mind spiral downward, stop and breathe.

Some things are outside of our control; plans change, sh*t happens. That’s the beauty of life- every day is a new opportunity to start anew. If you told someone you were going to do something and it’s not going to get done, tell them you’re still working on it. Communication solves most problems and if you communicate openly and honestly, you'll be fine. A simple “Hey, I know I said I was going to have this back to you today, but it is going to take longer than expected” will honestly solve 99% of your problems. People usually aren’t mad about you missing a deadline, they’re mad you said you were going to do something and didn’t follow through on it, so to fix that, you simply communicate the new expectation. Don’t pigeonhole yourself or overcommit to another timeframe; tell them you’re working on whatever they are waiting on and you will get it over as soon as it’s completed, plain and simple. 

Identify Why You “Need” to do Something

A lot of times the items on our todo lists either A) Don’t really need to be done or B) Are misaligned with the outcome we are seeking. If you find yourself writing the same item on your todo list day after day to no avail, identity why it isn’t getting done, why you’re able to keep putting it off if it does need to get done and if you keep putting it off because you hate whatever it is you’re avoiding, outsource that shiz. It’s almost 2020, you can literally outsource absolutely anything these days, 

Plan Ahead, Even if it’s a Loose Plan

 Being aimless sucks. If you aim at nothing, guess what you’re going to hit? Nothing. I find that the days I have nothing on my schedule cause me the most anxiety because that means I’m probably not doing what I’m supposed to be doing. It’s ironic because too much time actually causes more anxiety, even when your anxiety stems from having too much to do and too little time. Like I said, anxiety and logic aren’t friends.

Eliminate Option Overload

 Option overload, or having too many choices to choose from, breeds indecision and indecision leads to, you guessed it, anxiety. This reminds me of when I was a little kid and one of my friends would come over to play. In a moment of boredom I would find myself asking, “what do you want to do?” At which point my friend would counter back, “I don’t know, what do you want to do?  Narrow your options down to 2 choices and pick the option you like better. That way you are giving yourself leeway in your plan but still building structure into your day. This is a perfect option for someone who doesn’t like to plan things ahead of time or gets overwhelmed at the idea of planning things out ahead of time.

Build in Time for Fun

If you’re so busy that you feel like you need to spend every minute doing something productive, you’re going to burn out with that mentality and it’s especially important you buffer in time for fun. This allows you to do things you enjoy without pandering  guilt, thereby allowing you to be fully present and enjoy the moment. When you live in the moment you find your peace.

My hope is that these tips help you as much as they have helped me; battling anxiety is an ongoing struggle for so many of us, but you can overcome it or at the very least manage it.