How much are you carrying? A quick stress check
What it does: five quick questions that separate what you already carry from today’s upset. What you get: a load score from 0 to 1 with what it means, and one next step. About 2 minutes
A kind, quick check on yourself that separates how much you are already carrying from how upset you are about this one thing. The score runs from 0 to 1, and higher means heavier: under 0.30 is a low load, 0.30 up to 0.60 medium, 0.60 and up high. These bands are this site’s rule of thumb, not a validated clinical scale.
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Use it before a hard conversation.
Sometimes a small thing feels huge because the rest of the day was heavy. This helps you tell the two apart. It is a simple gut-check, not a medical test.
Dig deeper: what it measures -
Score five things, 0 to 4.
Each of you scores only yourself, on your own, thinking about the last day or two: sleep, workload elsewhere, any unresolved conflict, how your body feels, and time pressure today. 0 means not at all, 4 means very true.
Dig deeper: the checklist -
Add them up and divide by 20.
Under 0.3: whatever comes up is probably about the thing itself. 0.3 to 0.6: say out loud “heads up, I’m carrying more than usual today.” Over 0.6: be gentle with yourself and put off anything that doesn’t need deciding in the next hour. These bands are this site’s rule of thumb, not a validated clinical scale.
Dig deeper: what each score means -
A high score means “later,” not “never.”
Fill it in only about yourself. Use your score to pace a talk, not to dodge one you’d rather avoid. A high score means “let’s come back to this tomorrow.”
If what you’re carrying can’t wait, like caring for someone who is ill, that’s a sign to get more help, not to try harder: ask one person for one specific thing this week, and look into respite care. Help for caregivers
Dig deeper: what it is not for
Try this: Next time something small stings more than it should, score yourself before you answer.
Fill it in on screen and save a PDF →
Goes with Chapter III: Full tanks and different angles · the Calm-Down Kit · Do all your sheets in one place
What’s this?
On the full version and on the PDF, this sheet is called WP-02. It puts one of the site’s Five Pillars (the five big ideas everything here is built on) to work: read your state first: check how full you are before you judge a moment.