So, things got a bit heavy a while back. Work was just relentless, you know? Felt like I was running on fumes, just going through the motions. Wasn’t exactly depressed, not in the clinical sense, I don’t think. Just felt… stuck. Like my brain was full of fog.
I wasn’t really up for proper therapy then. Seemed like a big commitment, time-wise, money-wise, and honestly, felt a bit much for just feeling ‘meh’. I wanted something I could just do, something practical. I started calling my little experiments ‘smart therapy psychology’ in my head. Sounds fancy, but it really wasn’t. It was more about trying to be a bit clever about handling my own headspace without making a huge deal out of it.
My First Steps
First thing I did? I grabbed an old notebook. Seriously basic. I just started writing down how I felt each day. Not paragraphs, just a word or two. ‘Okay’, ‘Tired’, ‘Annoyed’, ‘Bit better’. Sometimes I’d jot down why, like ‘long meeting’ or ‘finished that stupid report’.
After a week or two, I actually looked back at it. Wasn’t rocket science, but I saw patterns. Like, Tuesday mornings were often rough. After certain calls, I always felt drained. Seeing it written down made it feel less like random bad moods and more like cause-and-effect.
Trying Little Tricks
So, the ‘smart’ part for me was trying tiny adjustments based on that notebook. Knowing Tuesdays were bad, I started making sure I had a decent breakfast, maybe walked for 10 minutes before starting work. Didn’t always help, but sometimes it took the edge off.
I also started using my phone timer. Not for work tasks, but for breaks. Set it for an hour, then forced myself to stand up, walk around for 5 minutes when it went off. Felt stupid at first, like a kid. But it broke up the day.
Another thing I tried, this felt really weird, was catching negative thoughts. When my brain went “Ugh, this is gonna suck”, I tried to consciously switch it. Not to “Everything is wonderful!”, ’cause that’s garbage. More like, “Okay, this might be annoying, but what’s one specific thing I need to get done in this meeting?”. Made it about action, not feeling.
- Tracking: Simple mood notes in a book.
- Adjusting: Small changes based on patterns (like Tuesday mornings).
- Timers: Using phone for forced mini-breaks.
- Thought-Switching: Shifting from vague dread to a concrete next step.
Where I Landed
Look, none of this was a magic cure. I still have rubbish days. But doing these little things, this ‘smart therapy’ stuff, it felt proactive. It was my system, tailored to my observations. Didn’t need an app telling me to meditate (tried those, wasn’t for me), didn’t need deep dives into my childhood.
It was just about paying a bit more attention and making small, practical changes. Felt ‘smarter’ because it was low effort, high practicality for me. Maybe it’s just common sense, but calling it my ‘smart therapy psychology’ project helped me stick with it. It’s an ongoing process, really. Still tweaking it. But it helped me feel a bit less lost in the fog, more like I had a small handle on things.
