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1. List what's on your mind. Big, small, nagging, unsaid. Add them one at a time. Saved only in this browser.
2. Answer a few taps for each.
No problems added yet.
If something on your list feels like too much to carry, or you're thinking about harming yourself, talk to someone today: UK Samaritans 116 123 · US call or text 988 · India Tele-MANAS 14416 · or your local emergency number.
The triage uses the sort from A Problem-Free Life. Every problem is one of four kinds, and each kind needs a different response:
| Kind | Test | Response |
|---|---|---|
| Task | Real, and you can resolve it with action in your control | Decide the next action. Do it or schedule it. |
| Self-made | Exists because of a yes, a purchase, a delay or a habit of yours | Fix it like a task, then close the source so it doesn't recur. |
| Weather | Real, and not in your control: other people's choices, the economy, the past | Do the small task inside it, prepare, and set the struggle down. |
| Noise | Not real yet, or not real at all: forecasts, replays, opinions, might-happens | Recognise it, name it, postpone it to a worry slot. |
Then it builds the matrix. Do this week: tasks and self-made problems with a deadline within 7 days or high impact. Plan: the rest of the things you can act on, including the task inside a partly-controllable problem. Drop or set down: noise and weather. Your list stays in this browser only; nothing is uploaded.
This tool puts a few of the named techniques from A Problem-Free Life to work. Each line says how it relates to the tool.
See every technique in A Problem-Free Life →
Sort before you solve. Ask three questions: has it happened (if not, it's noise)? Is it in my control (if not, it's weather)? Did I cause it (then fix it and close the source)? Of what's left, act this week on anything urgent or high-impact, schedule the rest, and do the one you're avoiding first.
Name them as outside your control, find the one small task inside (a conversation, a preparation, a buffer) and do it, then set the struggle down. Acceptance isn't approval or giving up; it frees effort for what you can change. This is the core move of acceptance and commitment therapy.
When a worry arrives, note it in one line and tell yourself you'll think about it in a fixed daily slot, say 15 minutes. In the slot, many notes have lost their charge; the rest become tasks or weather. It comes from Borkovec and colleagues' stimulus-control work on worry.
Usually not. In a 2020 study, people with generalised anxiety disorder tracked their worries, and the large majority of predicted outcomes did not happen (LaFreniere and Newman, Behavior Therapy). Checking what actually happened is a useful habit.
Unfinished tasks tend to keep pulling at your attention. Masicampo and Baumeister (2011) found that making a specific plan for an unfinished goal reduced those intrusive thoughts, even before the goal was done. Giving each problem a category and a next step does the same.
Self-improvement education, not medical, psychological, legal or financial advice. If problems are affecting your sleep, mood or safety, please talk to a doctor or one of the crisis lines above.