When the system crashes, anxiety sets in.
Most people assume anxiety stems from excessive stress. But I later discovered,The true source of anxiety is the absence of a system to rely on.
For a while, my life felt like a browser with too many tabs open forever. Every single thing is eating up RAM in the background, yet none of them are ever truly shut down.
I know I should write reports, exercise, and organize things, but I haven't done any of it.
Wake up and want to sleep, Sleep and want to escape. I thought sleep could pause my anxiety, But it only lets it keep running in the background.
Only then did I understand,Anxiety isn't laziness; it's system overload.
From "Total Transformation" to "Minimal Module"
One day, I saw a video that said:
Don't try to change your entire life. Start by making a small daily commitment to yourself.
That remark suddenly reminded me of a passage from Atomic Habits—
Habits are not goals, but systems.
I decided to start with the smallest module: cooking lunch boxes.
Every morning I wake up early to boil chicken breasts and prepare lunch. It may seem ordinary, but I believeThe order of the body affects the order of the mind.
The morning kitchen became my first feedback loop: Steam → Chopping rhythm → Aroma → Completion → Stability +1
For the first time, I felt like "I was executing a controllable process."
Each time I finish, I gain a little bit of "stability." The anxiety doesn't disappear, but it gets contained within a trackable framework.
Behavioral Design: Not About Willpower
There have been so many times I wanted to give up. The scent of sweets makes me want to surrender, and scrolling through food delivery apps makes me want to order.
But I've learned to adopt a different logic: rather than talking about willpower, it's more accurate to say this is the result of behavioral design.
BJ Fogg stated in Tiny Habits:
You don't need to become more self-disciplined; you just need to make it easier to initiate the behavior.
I began designing my own trigger:
| Cue / Prompt | I want to break the old routine. | New Standard Operating Procedure (New Routine) |
|---|---|---|
| Craving sweets (inner desire) | Seeing sweets or opening the refrigerator, preparing to take them out | Switch to drinking 500 ml of water + take a bite of a high-protein snack (tofu skin/tea-flavored egg) |
| Distracted (inner feeling) | (Unconsciously picking up my phone, aimlessly browsing websites) | Stand up and stretch + take 3 deep breaths |
| Procrastinating by scrolling on my phone | The phone's lock screen lights up, ready to start swiping aimlessly. | (Upon unlocking) Start a 5-minute countdown (to complete a short focused task) |
| Feeling down or anxious | (Physical signals: feeling like sighing/chest tightness)→ (Behavior: Start overthinking, ruminating) | Drink water + close your eyes and take 6 deep breaths (disconnecting the mind-body connection) |
When anxiety strikes, I sit in meditation to reset my mind. I even sign up for athletic competitions, forcing myself into a measurable rhythm of tasks. Each action becomes a "module" within my life system, interlocking to help me find rhythm amid chaos.
However, it must be emphasized that the system is not a prison, but a scaffold.
We build systems not to pursue 100% flawless execution, but to provide a framework within 80% of the time, while reserving 20% for "fault tolerance" to handle unexpected situations.
The key isn't to make the system "never crash," but to ensure it can "quickly restart" after a crash using this SOP.
Externalizing Anxiety: Letting the Brain Breathe Again
A few months later, I built my own "life console":
- Work Record
- Learning Tracking
- Assignment Progress
- Event Reminder
From "forgetting what to do" to "knowing what you're doing."
Anxiety remains, but it's been put into a framework. That's it. Cognitive Load Theory The phenomenon described:
When information is externalized, the brain can breathe again.
Anxiety remains, but it's now contained within a trackable framework—no longer an invisible monster.
debug your own life
Even now, I still get disorganized, procrastinate, and feel anxious.
But I know how to debug. I no longer avoid it—I fix it: fixing bugs, tweaking variables, rebooting the system.
- Error Log Before bed, 30 seconds: "What crashed today? Why?" Tomorrow, fix only this one bug.
- Refactor Review is held weekly to review the "error log" and identify recurring bugs. Ask yourself: "Why does this bug (e.g., procrastination) keep recurring? Is it a flaw in the SOP? Or did I take on too much from the start (overcommit externally)? Or are my expectations too high?" Fixing bugs is for the present; refactoring is for the future.
- Reboot Ritual Take a sip of water + 6 deep breaths + tell yourself “It's okay” for 90 seconds to physically interrupt the anxiety loop.
「Log -> Debug -> Analyze -> RefactorThis is the complete closed loop from "breakdown" to "stability."
I haven't become more disciplined; I've just become more structured.
Conclusion:Anxiety is the system's way of alerting you.
Many people mistake self-discipline for self-denial, but it's actually closer to rhythm and security.
Of course, we must properly delineate the boundaries of this methodology.
This "system debugging method" is effective for addressing issues caused by "task overload and process chaos." Operational Anxiety Highly effective.
It can help you get organized.But it cannot and should not be used to simplify all anxieties.
If your anxiety stems from deeper trauma, relationship struggles, or existential confusion—or even meets clinical criteria—then it's not a "glitch," but a "core alarm" requiring professional help.
For us in our daily lives, the next time anxiety comes knocking, don't resent it.
It's just the system administrator saying:
“Hey, it's time to get yourself together.”
💬 What about you? What part of your life have you been debugging lately? What's causing your system to overload?
🧩 Reader Exercise: Build Your "Emergency Reset Button" in 10 Seconds
- Close your eyes and take a deep breath.
- Ask yourself: What's the most chaotic thing right now?(Just one sentence)
- Do 1 physical movement right now：
- Take a sip of water
- Stand up and stretch for 5 seconds.
- Clap twice
Completed = System restart successful
Further Reading
- Donella Meadows, Thinking in Systems
- James Clear, Atomic Habits
- BJ Fogg, Tiny Habits
- John Sweller, Cognitive Load Theory
