2 Ways a Shopping List Lowers My Anxiety
This is part of my blog series Practical Self-Help for Introspective People.
Hey, friends!
Just a quick disclaimer: this post may not be for you. In fact, if you never feel anxious, this post is definitely not for you.
However, if you feel overwhelmed by the complexities of modern life, and advancing your career but managing self-care, and planning for retirement but living in the moment, and worrying about world affairs but tending your own garden, and learning to just let go but finding where your toddler hid that second poopy diaper, this post might just be for you.
So, if you feel some level of anxiety, especially if you felt it as you read the previous sentence, keep reading. I’ve got a tiny tool that reduces my anxiety. And it may help you.
Here’s the tool: make a shopping list. Add items to it during the week. Bring it with you to the store. That’s it—that’s the whole tool.
This probably sounds dumb, and you probably heard it a million times before. You probably heard personal-finance pundits promise that with a shopping list, you’ll buy less junk, lose weight, save money, and all that good stuff. (They’re not wrong!) But I want to give you a totally different set of reasons to make a shopping list. And they both have to do with managing anxiety.
So let’s walk through how a shopping list lowers my anxiety.
Worry #1: I’ll forget items during the week
During the week, I’ll notice that I’m out spinach, but I won’t shop until Saturday. Trying to remember that I need spinach takes up a bit of space in my mind, and I worry that’ll I forget it before Saturday rolls around. Worrying that I’ll forget nudges my anxiety up just a bit.
So, adding spinach to my shopping list allows me to forget that I need it. It frees up that corner of my mind that chants, “Don’t forget the spinach… the spinach… the dang-blasted spinach…”
Now, this may not seem like a big deal. And it’s probably not until you multiply this effect by the 30 items I add to my list each week. Remembering a long list of stuff, from ChapStick to Nalley Hamburger Dill Chips, along with everything else I have to keep track of, is, well, exhausting. Overwhelming.
David Allen said, “Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them.” I couldn’t agree more. My shopping list is a repository for all of the items I think of during the week. It allows me to forget about them, and this lowers my anxiety just a bit.
Worrying #2: I’ll forget items when I shop
When I shop, I don’t forget to buy spinach and the other 30 items I need. And I don’t worry that I’ll forget something. Well, ok, I still worry, but checking my shopping list shushes this fear.
Right before checkout, I run through my list once more (or twice when I feel frazzled), which muffles the little voice that chants, “You’re forgetting something… forgetting something… forgetting something…”
With a shopping list, I leave the store with a modicum of confidence that I have everything. That I’m not forgetting anything. And this lowers my anxiety.
I should mention that I use a digital shopping list. I used to use a paper one, but I always worried that I’d forget to take the list to the store. I worried that a gust of wind would blow it across the parking lot. (Sounds silly, right?) That changed when I started using a list on my phone. (I use SimpleNote which is free and syncs with my computer—but use any notes app you want.) With a digital shopping list, my worry-list is a tiny bit shorter.
Take action
It seems like a lot of self-help focuses on managing anxiety through attitude adjustment. They proclaim, “Just stay positive!” Or, “Just breathe.” Or, “Just imagine the worst-case happened and imagine that you’ll be ok.”
While these are reasonable strategies, we should focus more on preventing anxiety in the first place. We can’t prevent it altogether, but we can diminish it a smidge here and there with small behavior changes.
And that’s what the shopping list does for me. It shortens my worry-list. It gives me permission to stop thinking about all the stuff I need to buy. It also gives me confidence that I didn’t forget anything as I head to the checkout line.
So try it out. Make a digital shopping list and add things to it during the week. When you shop, reference your list. This may feel weird at first because it takes time to develop new habits. But once the habit is built, you’ll never go back.