Avoid Thoughts Hampering Your Daily Activities

Negative thoughts can make a person unable to function properly. If you have negative thoughts that get in the way of your overall productivity, work on challenging them. Minimize your negative thoughts throughout the day by staying focused on the present. Try to reframe things from a more positive, productive perspective. Work on changing your overall lifestyle to help develop a happier, healthier perspective.

Steps

Minimizing Distracting Thoughts

1. Establish a worry period for the end of the day. It may sound strange, but setting aside a time to worry can actually lessen troublesome thoughts. This can keep them from hampering your daily activities.
   • Set aside a worry period. As negative thoughts or worries pop into your head during the day, remind yourself that those thoughts are reserved for your worry period only. Write them down and tell yourself you will return to those things when it is time.
   • During the worry period, you can go over your list or think about things that stress you out, such as work, bills, school, or anything else. Allow yourself to revel in the thoughts for about 20 minutes.
   • When 20 minutes pass over, stop worrying. It can be hard at first, but think to yourself something like, "I've worried all I can. Now I need to make dinner." Try having something concrete to do, like exercise, right after your worry period.
2. Return to the present when you experience distracting thoughts. You may have worrisome thoughts throughout the day. Even non-worrisome thoughts can distract. You may be, for example, planning a report for work when you start thinking about what to wear for a friend's birthday party. Work on returning to the present when you experience distracting thoughts.
3. This may be very difficult to do at first, but it will get easier with time. Don't give up because it isn't happening quickly and try not to get discourage if you find you constantly have to remind yourself to return to the present. Stick with it and it will become more natural.
   • When a thought distracts you, pay attention to something concrete happening right now. For example, focus on your breathing. Focus on noises around you, the smell of the air, or any physical sensations.
   • Write down the distracting thought so you can deal with it at an appropriate time.
   • Work on bringing your mind to the present each time you encounter a worrisome thought.
4. Label your thoughts and then let them float away. Unwanted thoughts will disrupt you during the day. This is inevitable. Sometimes, the more you try to push them away, the more you think about them. Instead of thinking, "Don't think about that," label the thought and let it go.
   • Instead of internalizing troublesome or distracting thoughts, label them as thoughts and not reality. For example, you think, "I'm a screw up." Pause and say to yourself, "Right now, I'm experiencing the thought that I'm a screw up."
   • After acknowledging a troublesome thought, try to let it go. Use imagery. Imagine putting the bad thought in, say, a balloon and watching it float out the window.
5. Keep a to-do list. Sometimes, the same anxious thoughts keep surfacing throughout the day. Some anxious thoughts are worth considering as there may be problems you need to deal with; however, if there's nothing you can do about the situation now, there's no sense in letting it hamper your day. Add nagging tasks to your to-do list so you won't forget and can tackle them later.
   • For example, say you remember you have a big credit card payment coming up and you really need to make sure you pay it in full. You will have to do some budgeting and money may be tight this month.
   • It's important you deal with the situation. Some worries and stress can be positive, as they motivate change; however, say the worry surfaces while you're trying to concentrate at work. There's nothing you can do about it now.
   • Think to yourself, "I need to deal with this, but I can do that when I get home. There's nothing I can do now, so there's no sense worrying."

Reframing Your Perspective

1. Introduce positive thoughts. Negative thoughts can hamper your activities. It may be productive to set aside time to introduce some positive thoughts. Try starting an affirmation journal write in daily (or every few days), even if you are not feeling particularly positive or grateful. Write down three to five things you like about yourself.
   • Think about some of the positives in your life that you can reflect on. Maybe you've recently lost weight. Maybe you got a promotion at work. Maybe there's even something small you're looking forward to, like having lunch with a friend.
   • When you're feeling down, you can review your journal to remind yourself of the positive things in your life.
2. Replace negative thoughts with positive ones. Once you've established some positive thoughts, work on thought replacement. When you feel negative thoughts come on, which can be distracting, think about these positive thoughts instead. Positive thoughts may motivate you, making you more productive rather than less productive.
   • Enlist the help of a spouse, family member, or friend you trust to prompt you when they notice you being negative. People holding us accountable helps us establish a new behavior.
   • If you associated good thoughts with certain stimuli, this can help with thought replacement. For example, maybe a certain smell reminds you of happy memories. Maybe a song always brings up your mood. Try engaging with these smells and sounds when you feel negative thoughts coming on.
3. Recognize distorted thoughts. People are rarely 100% rational. When you're feeling negative, it's likely your thoughts are distorted. Work on recognizing negative thoughts. There are several ways people may distort thoughts. Distorted thoughts can hamper your day, so recognizing them and rejecting them can help you take control.
   • People often engage in black and white thinking, in which they see a situation as being either 100% one way or another. You may think, for example, if you don't ace this test your semester will be ruined.
   • Personalizing means you're assuming everything is a reflection of you. If a friend turns down a dinner invitation, you may assume they are mad at you.
   • Filtering and catastrophizing are when you only see negatives in a situation or imagine the worst possible outcome. Try to remind yourself you cannot predict the future.
4. Challenge distorted thoughts. When you encounter distorted thoughts, challenge them right away. This can help you reject negative thoughts and get back to your day.
   • When your friend turns down your invitation and you begin to personalize, think something like, "I don't know what's going on with my friend. It probably has nothing to do with me."
   • If you screw something up at work, don't think, "I'm going to be fired." Instead, think, "I don't know how my boss is going to react and everyone makes mistakes. It'll probably be fine."
   • It may be difficult to challenge and believe these thoughts at first. Try listing evidence to support the positive thought — for instance, "I have been doing really great work all quarter and my boss likes me," or "Susan an I have been best friends for 10 years, and I know she can be a little flakey and sometimes cancels at the last minute. If she were mad about something she would tell me."
5. Accept uncertainty. Many people let their thoughts hamper their day due to a desire for control. You may feel you need to know what's happening all the time, as this will make you feel in control of the situation. Remind yourself that you can't know everything. This can help you let go of troublesome thoughts, as you'll come to accept there's no sense worrying about what you can't control.
   • Ask yourself whether it's really possible to know every possible outcome in a situation. Ask yourself whether you can really be 100% certain of someone's actions or motivations.
   • The fact is, you can never predict the future or someone's moods or reactions. There are many factors that can affect the outcome of any given situation. Most of them are not knowable to the average person.

Changing Your Lifestyle

1. Seek out positive people. If you want thoughts to stop hampering your day, seek out people with a good attitude. Positive people tend to rub off on others. Work on staying away from chronic worriers and embracing the positive.
   • Call up family members with a laid back, positive outlook. Make plans with friends who are always in a good mood. Have coffee with your upbeat coworker.
2. Increase your productivity. Sometimes, a busy mind needs a distraction. Upping your overall productivity can help disruptive thoughts from getting in the way. During dull moments, find something to do.
   • You can find something related to your career goals. If you, say, want to be a writer, try sending out pitches to editors and agents during your spare time to drown out troublesome thoughts.
   • You can also take up a hobby. Teach yourself something like knitting or sewing so you'll have something other than worries to keep your mind occupied.
3. Foster a sense of gratitude. Gratitude can help with your overall sense of happiness. Try to find something to be grateful for every day. Focusing on gratitude over troublesome thoughts can help you avoid thoughts that hamper your day.
   • Keep a gratitude journal. Write down a few things in it every that you're grateful for.
   • Try to replace negative thoughts with gracious ones. For example, don't think, "My job is so stressful." Think instead, "It's great that I have a job that challenges me."
4. Seek professional help if necessary. If you're unable to tune out troublesome thoughts, this could indicate an underlying mental health issue. Talk to your regular doctor or contact your insurance. Work on finding a therapist that can help you cope with troublesome thoughts so you can be a healthier, more productive person.

Tips

• Reduce Stress Through Exercise is extremely effective in reducing anxiety in general and, subsequently, intrusive, negative thoughts

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Sources and Citations

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