1. Rumination

According to Wilding, rumination can be described "as a mental loop where you dwell on past events, particularly negative or distressing ones." People who ruminate tend to focus on "woulda, shoulda, coulda" scenarios and blame themselves for what went wrong in the past.

You could be a ruminator if you often focus on negative feedback or bring up past mistakes in conversations with others. You may also be overly cautious about your work since you want to avoid any potential issues.

Although it may seem counterintuitive, Wilding says that scheduling "worry time" into your day can make it easier to control your rumination. During this time, consider which worries you can control and those that you cannot. For those in your control, brainstorm potential solutions. And for the worries outside your control, visualize yourself releasing them, like with a balloon in the sky.

"By setting aside a designated time to address these thoughts, you're not in a constant battle to push them away," she writes. "You're simply postponing them to a more convenient time."

2. Future tripping

Compared to rumination, which focuses on the past, future tripping focuses on issues that lie ahead. Although some anticipation can be beneficial, "future tripping can escalate to the point where it holds you back," Wilding writes. Future tripping can lead to feelings of uncertainty or fear of the unknown.

You may experience future tripping if you spend excessive amounts of energy preparing for every possible situation ahead of time. You may also often feel restless or agitated with tasks that you haven't gotten to yet, or feel like it's hard to celebrate successes because you're already thinking about what you have to do next.

According to Wilding, the ability to look forward can be used to your advantage, specifically if you can project yourself to a point beyond your current worries.

One way to do this is through a strategy called "temporal distancing." If you're feeling overwhelmed with a current project, try to imagine yourself five years from now. Doing so will help you put the project in perspective. While the current task is likely important, it will not define your career.

This strategy can "reduce the immediacy and intensity of your concerns, helping you focus on the present with a calmer, more balanced mindset," Wilding writes.

Another way to combat future tripping is to practice "selective ignorance" and reduce your exposure to unnecessary stressors. Instead of constantly checking for updates or new data, prioritize information that you can use and act upon.

3. Overanalyzing

Overanalyzing "involves diving incredibly deep into a topic, thought, or situation, often to the point of excess," Wilding writes. And while this can sometimes lead to insightful realizations, you're more likely to lose yourself in irrelevant details instead.

If you tend to overanalyze situations, you may procrastinate or often seek confirmation or approval from others instead of trusting your own analysis. You may also find it difficult to distinguish between high- and low-priority tasks, leading to a backlog of work.

Although people who overanalyze situations may want to find the "perfect" choice for whatever decision they want to make, Wilding recommends aiming for one that is "good enough" instead. Once you have a decision that meets your needs and is satisfactory, you should go with it, even if there might be a better option.

Overall, "[i]t's important to remember that the goal is not to eliminate all deep thinking, but rather to prevent it from spiraling into the unproductive kind," Wilding writes. "Identifying the type of overthinking you or your team is dealing with is the first step in breaking free from its grasp — and more crucial than ever when the demand for quick yet thoughtful decision-making is high." (Wilding, Harvard Business Review, 2/7)

Stress is endemic in today's health care workforce, but the good news is that leaders have much more control over their stress levels at work than they might think. The most effective leaders take steps to proactively keep their own stress in check — while modeling healthy habits for their teams.

Use this infographic to review effective stress management strategies that can help you become a less-stressed leader.