Step 3: Challenge Biased Thoughts

Anxiety generally functions by triggering cognitive biases, which are mental shortcuts our brains take to save time and effort, but that can lead to irrational conclusions. These cognitive biases make it hard for us to think clearly and rationally, instead making us believe negative things about ourselves and the world around us. Unsurprisingly, these negatively biased thoughts go on to make us feel even more anxious.

Figure 4. Cognitive-behavioral model highlighting the cognitive symptoms of anxiety.

To break this cycle, we’ll directly target our cognitive symptoms of code review anxiety (see Figure 4) using a skill called cognitive restructuring. [2] Cognitive restructuring has three major steps:

1. Identify negatively biased thoughts

2. Challenge negatively biased thoughts

3. Replace negatively biased thoughts