How the 3-3-3 Rule Reduces Work Anxiety and Calms the Mind

Anxiety is a natural emotion for all of us, but in its extreme, it can be debilitating and distract us from our professional trajectory. The 2024 results of the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) annual mental health survey show that American adults are feeling increasingly anxious. In 2024, nearly half (43%) of the U.S. population reports feeling more anxious than the previous year, compared to 37% in 2023 and 32% in 2022. Symptoms of anxiety include feeling apprehensive or sadness, even when nothing anxiety-provoking is looming. Feelings of restlessness and irritability are common. Sleepless nights, loss of appetite, rapid breathing, rapid heart rate, and inability to concentrate at work often accompany anxiety.

What worries Americans

If you’re an employee, there are so many things to worry about, from the personal level to broader work-related issues to global concerns. You might be worried about back-to-office mandates, layoffs, and the impact of AI as it infiltrates the workplace. Or, you might be anxious about a tight work deadline, the boss looking over your shoulder, or the tension of waiting for the results of a job interview.

On a personal level, your intimate relationship could be in difficulty, a loved one could have a medical problem or you could face financial difficulties. Globally, the APA study reveals that Americans say they are worried about current events (70%), the economy (77%), the upcoming U.S. presidential election (73%) and gun violence (69%).

The APA study also found other issues that people are concerned about:

• Ensure their safety or that of their family, 68%.
• Keep their identity secure, 63%.
• Their state of health, 63%.
• Pay bills or expenses, 63%.
• The opioid epidemic, 50%.
• The impact of emerging technologies on daily life, 46%.
• Climate change, 57%

How to Apply the 3-3-3 Rule to Ease Anxiety

When you’re anxious, your ability to focus on your tasks is compromised, you may ruminate about the future, or regret a mistake you made in the past. Psychologists now use what are called mindfulness techniques to help people bring their attention back to the present moment. Mindfulness reduces mind wandering and mistakes at work.

During a stressful situation, the mind takes us out of the here and now. Your anxious thoughts wander and get stuck on worries about the future or regrets from the past, making you feel out of your body or unanchored in some way. There are many ways to practice mindfulness meditation which you can find here.

But one of the simplest and simplest tools to bring you back to the present, reduce your anxiety, and calm your mind is a mindfulness tool called the 3-3-3 rule. When you notice moment-to-moment bodily sensations, mental processes, and feelings that arise, this practice grounds you and helps you focus. As you practice the three steps, take a minute for each and do it slowly. You can repeat the exercise as often as necessary to achieve this state of calm in the present moment.

1. Listen for a minute. Pay attention to three sounds you hear around you. With your eyes closed, you might hear ambient noises such as thunder rumbling, traffic noise or laughter in the distance or the immediate sound of an air conditioner humming or your own stomach rumbling.
2. Observe for a minute. Name three objects you can see around you. Take the time to notice their shapes, colors, and any other details as clearly as possible in your mind.
3. Touch for one minute. Notice three objects you can touch and feel how each one feels. You can run your hand over the chair at your workstation, over objects on your desk, or over the screen you are looking at. Notice whether the texture of each object is smooth or rough, warm or cold, or heavy or light.

The Science Behind the 3-3-3 Rule

When you are anxious, the brain becomes myopic and focuses on threat or anxious thoughts related to survival. As threatening thoughts circle around your head like a school of sharks, anxiety hijacks your nervous system and knocks your prefrontal cortex (or rational part of the brain) offline, overshadowing the bigger picture you would usually see when you are anchored in the present moment. .

The 3-3-3 rule taps into your brain’s social circuitry and resets and recharges your mind during the workday. It breaks the cycle of anxious thoughts, ruminations or obsessive worries. It takes you out of the story of your sympathetic nervous system (the fight or flight or stress response), activates your parasympathetic nervous system (the rest and digest or calm response) and grounds you in the present moment where there is no anxiety. . And this allows you to be more efficient and productive and to calmly manage work problems.

This keeps your attention on the flow of the process, instead of focusing on completing the task. You are able to bring curious, nonjudgmental attention to yourself, your work, and your relationships. Plus, it helps you master busy schedules, difficult work relationships, and new technologies (such as AI) instead of becoming a slave to them. It relieves you from work stress, business failures, job loss or worry and anxiety related to career goals.

If you regularly practice this three-step rule of three minutes once or twice a day, it will have lasting effects in the long term. This expands your resilience zone and, over time, prevents anxiety from overwhelming you when you face career challenges.

But the best part is how mindfulness makes you feel like yourself in every moment. You begin to internalize the realization that the past is gone, the future never comes, and the present is here and now, where life actually happens. Calming down and focusing there allows you to thrive and experience life as it happens, fully enjoying yourself, your work, your friends, and your loved ones.