Plan in Advance When You’ll Begin to Worry About Something

Before a big talk, I used to stress out for weeks. The feeling began with a sense of being unsettled (and not the good kind). I was anxious and unsure of how to resolve it.

Finally, at least a few days beforehand, the talk took over my mind and became all I could think about. All other work fell by the wayside. I knew I could probably give a decent talk, but the problem was that I couldn’t really get anything else done during those critical days leading up to it.

Then I learned something. I le...