The Week You Are Waiting on News
For the stretch between a test, an application or a decision and the answer, when nothing you do changes the outcome. It helps you put the waiting somewhere, keep the days usable, and stop rehearsing every version of the result.
Worry · Worry · Anxiety · 8 items · whenever you need it
The checklist
- Find out when the answer actually comes — a known date is easier to wait out than an open one.
- Set one time a day to check for it — all-day checking turns one wait into fifty.
- Write the worst outcome and your first three steps — a plan makes the bad version survivable.
- Stop researching once you have what you need — more reading rarely changes the answer.
- Put something in the calendar for each day — an empty week fills up with the waiting.
- Tell one person you are waiting — carrying it silently makes it heavier than it is.
- Move your body once a day, even briefly — waiting sits in the body as much as the head.
- Notice when you are rehearsing and name it — the fiftieth run-through tells you nothing new.
Use this checklist Free account: tick items off and keep each day's record.
How to use it
Run through it whenever you need it, honestly and without scoring yourself. A checklist is a way of noticing, not a test: an item you cannot tick is information about the day, not a verdict on you. Over a few weeks the pattern of what gets ticked and what does not says more than any single pass.
With a free Theraglee account the checklist remembers each pass, so you can look back. Without one, you can still read it here and keep your own copy.