CBT Techniques: 20 Exercises You Can Practice on Your Own

You want to try CBT without booking anyone, and you want to start this week.

Here is the useful part. CBT techniques are small, specific practices, not a mindset and not positive thinking. You catch a thought, you test it, you change one thing you do, and you look back at what happened.

This page gives you twenty CBT exercises you can do on your own, each with steps, a time, and one honest line about what it will not do. It also says, plainly, when doing this alone is the wrong tool.

What CBT asks you to do

CBT, cognitive behavioral therapy, works on the link between what you think, what you feel and what you do. Change one and the others can shift. The techniques are the tools for doing that on purpose.

Two of the main ones have been tested head to head against full CBT. A 2021 network meta-analysis of 45 studies and 3,382 adults with depression found no evidence of a difference between cognitive restructuring, behavioral activation and full CBT. All three beat usual care. Those were therapists delivering each one face to face, so the finding is about the techniques, not about doing them alone (Ciharova and colleagues, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology).

What about doing them alone? A 2024 meta-analysis of 92 trials and 16,706 adults found self-guided programs for depressive symptoms moderately effective, at g = 0.53 after the program and g = 0.32 at six to twelve months (Tong and colleagues, eBioMedicine). Those were structured programs inside trials, not a page of exercises. And the protection is not equal for everyone. In a pooled analysis of 18 trials, guided internet self-help lowered the risk of getting worse overall, but for participants with less formal education that protection did not show up (Ebert and colleagues, Psychological Medicine, 2016).

So here is the honest position. For a mild patch, these exercises are worth practicing. For anything more, CBT with a therapist is the real route, and these are the practices a therapist would teach you and adjust as you go. The Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies runs a directory of CBT clinicians at abct.org. If cost is what stops you, our guide on what helps when you can’t afford therapy goes through the options.

How we sorted them

We grouped the twenty exercises by the job they do, not by how clever they sound.

• The job: catching a thought, testing it, changing what you do, or handling worry, tension and sleep.
• What you can do alone: every exercise here needs paper, a phone or nothing. None needs a second person.
• Time: most take between two and twenty minutes a sitting, stated in each table.
• What is left out: exposure work for panic, OCD, phobias or trauma memories. It is a core CBT technique, and it is planned and paced with a trained therapist, so it is not on a self-practice page.
• The stop line: if an exercise leaves you feeling much worse, or brings up memories you were not ready for, stop and take it to a therapist instead.

Before you pick, ask yourself three things:

• What happened this week that you would most like to be different?
• Is the problem mostly a thought that keeps coming back, or a day that keeps not happening?
• How much time can you honestly give this, most days?

Why start with that? Because the families below answer different problems. A looping thought points to families one and two. A stalled week points to family three. Night worry and tension point to family four.

Family one: catching the thought

Every CBT technique on this page starts with noticing. You cannot test a thought you have not caught.

1. The three-line catch

When a feeling lands hard, this exercise slows the moment into three parts: what happened, what you felt, and what went through your mind. That split is the first part of the thought records CBT therapists use. It is harder than it sounds, because the thought often arrives looking like a plain fact about the world. Can you write the thought as a sentence inside quotation marks? If you can, you have caught it. Nothing needs to change yet. Catching comes first, and changing comes later in the week.

Do this:

1. Within an hour of a sharp feeling, write one line: where you were and what happened, facts only.

2. Write a second line: the feeling, in one word.

3. Write a third line: the exact thought, in quotation marks, the way it sounded in your head.

4. Close the notebook. Do not argue with it today.

Time	3 minutes
You need	Paper or a notes app
Best for	A day where one moment keeps replaying
What it will not do	Change the feeling. It gives you something specific to work with later

2. Rate the feeling first

Before you argue with a thought, find out how strong the feeling behind it is. This page asks you to rate it from 0 to 100. The number is not a score and it means nothing about you. It is a marker you compare against later, inside the same entry. If a feeling drops from 80 to 60 after you work on the thought, something moved. Did it? You will only know if the first number is written down. There may be more than one feeling in one moment. Name each one and rate each one separately.

Do this:

1. Take an entry from exercise 1.

2. Under the feeling, write every other feeling you can find in that moment.

3. Give each a number from 0 to 100 for how strong it was at the time.

4. Circle the strongest one. That is the one to work on first.

Time	2 minutes
You need	Your three-line catch
Best for	Moments that felt like a blur of everything
What it will not do	Measure anything outside your own entry. It is a self-rating for comparison, not an assessment

3. Name the thinking trap

Some thoughts follow familiar shapes. David Burns’s book Feeling Good popularized a list of ten “cognitive distortions”, including all-or-nothing thinking, mind reading, the fortune teller error, should statements and labeling. Naming the shape is a way of treating the thought as a thought rather than as a verdict. Which shape does yours have? You do not need to be sure. A guess is enough to create a little distance. Keep the list short. Five names you remember beat ten you have to look up.

Do this:

1. Write these five on a card: all-or-nothing, mind reading, fortune telling, should, labeling.

2. Take the thought from your catch and read it slowly.

3. Write the name that fits best beside it, or two if it fits both.

4. Write one line in plain words: “This is my mind doing ___ again.”

Time	3 minutes
You need	A card or the back of your notebook
Best for	Thoughts you have had many times before
What it will not do	Prove the thought false. A thought can fit a trap and still be partly true

4. The hour-by-hour log

This is the noticing exercise for days rather than thoughts. For a few days you write down what you did each hour and how your mood was, from 0 to 10. Behavioral activation, one of the two techniques that performed like full CBT, starts with exactly this kind of monitoring. What does the log show? It can show which hours are flat and which small things lifted the number, and those are the clues for family three. Keep the entries short. A word or two per hour is enough.

Do this:

1. Draw a column of hours from waking to bed, for three days.

2. Each hour, or at lunch and in the evening if hourly is too much, write what you were doing in two or three words.

3. Beside each one, rate your mood from 0 to 10.

4. On day four, circle the three highest numbers and the three lowest.

Time	5 minutes a day for three days
You need	One page per day
Best for	Weeks that feel the same all the way through
What it will not do	Tell you why you feel low. It shows patterns, not causes

5. The downward arrow

Some thoughts sit on top of a bigger belief. This exercise, which Burns describes as the vertical arrow technique, asks one question again and again: if that were true, what would it mean? You follow the answers down until you reach a sentence about yourself or the world that feels old and heavy. That sentence may be the real thing you are arguing with. Is it something you would say out loud to anyone? This one can bring up painful beliefs quickly, so go slowly, and stop at any point that feels like too much.

Do this:

1. Write a thought from your catch at the top of a page.

2. Under it, write: “If that were true, what would it mean?” and answer in one line.

3. Ask the same question of that answer. Repeat three or four times.

4. Stop when the answer stops changing, or when it feels too heavy.

5. Underline the last line. Do not work on it today.

Time	10 minutes
You need	A quiet place and a page
Best for	A thought that seems small but hits hard
What it will not do	Change a long-held belief on its own. Beliefs like these are worth taking to a therapist

Family two: testing the thought

Once a thought is on paper, you can ask whether it holds up. The goal is not a cheerful replacement. It is a more complete version.

6. Questions to ask a thought

You can test a thought by asking it questions rather than arguing with it. On paper, a question gives the thought room to be partly wrong, which an argument rarely does. What would you have to know to be sure this thought is true? What have you seen that does not fit it? Has it ever been wrong before? The answers do not need to be kind. They need to be accurate. If a question produces nothing, skip it and move to the next one on the list.

Do this:

1. Take one caught thought.

2. Write and answer: “What is the evidence for this?”

3. Write and answer: “What is the evidence against it?”

4. Write and answer: “What would I say if I knew all of this about someone else?”

5. Write one fuller sentence that includes both sides.

Time	10 minutes
You need	Your catch from exercise 1
Best for	A thought you half believe
What it will not do	Give you a new belief overnight. The fuller sentence may feel weak at first

For a fuller version, the original 7-column thought record is Christine Padesky’s, from Mind Over Mood. Her site says it was “the first Thought Record to include evidence columns and an alternative/balanced thoughts column”, and it asks people to use the official form there rather than copies, which is why we have not reproduced it.

7. The friend test

David Burns calls a version of this the double-standard technique. You talk to yourself in a way you would never talk to a friend, and the gap is information. Picture someone you care about, in the same situation, saying your thought about themselves. What would you say back to them? Write that down, in the words you would use, and then read it as if it were addressed to you. It may sound too generous at first. Keep the parts that are also true, and drop the parts that are only kind.

Do this:

1. Write your thought, word for word.

2. Write a friend’s name above it, as if they had said it about themselves.

3. Write three sentences you would say to them.

4. Cross out their name and write yours.

5. Underline the one sentence you can believe a little.

Time	5 minutes
You need	Paper and one person in mind
Best for	Harsh self-talk after a mistake
What it will not do	Make the harsh voice go away. It gives you a second voice to set beside it

8. Worst, best, most likely

When you are worried, the worst outcome can take up the whole page. This exercise makes you write the other two outcomes as well, so the worst case is no longer the only one on the page. Therapists sometimes call it decatastrophizing. What is the most likely outcome, honestly, given what usually happens? And if the worst did happen, what would you do in the first hour? That last question matters most. The answer may be more manageable than the dread suggested when you first wrote it down.

Do this:

1. Write the situation you are worried about in one line.

2. Write the worst outcome you can picture.

3. Write the best outcome you can picture.

4. Write the most likely outcome, based on what has happened before.

5. Under the worst one, write the first two things you would do if it came true.

Time	10 minutes
You need	A page split into three rows
Best for	Dread about a specific event coming up
What it will not do	Guarantee the worst will not happen. It makes the plan visible, not the future

9. A small behavioral experiment

Some thoughts are predictions, and predictions can be tested. “If I ask, they will say no.” “If I leave early, everyone will notice.” You write the prediction, rate how sure you are, try a small, safe version, and write what happened. In a 2003 study of trainee CBT therapists who practiced both techniques on themselves, behavioral experiments were rated more powerful and compelling than thought records, and the author noted “the particular importance of the therapist’s role” in them (Bennett-Levy, Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy). So keep yours small, and choose something that carries no real risk.

Do this:

1. Write the prediction as a sentence: “If I do X, then Y will happen.”

2. Rate how sure you are, from 0 to 100.

3. Pick the smallest safe test you can do this week, and do it.

4. Write what happened, and rate your prediction again.

Time	10 minutes to plan, plus the test
You need	One prediction and a low-stakes chance to test it
Best for	Social worries and “they will think” thoughts
What it will not do	Replace exposure therapy. Fears about panic, health, contamination or trauma belong with a therapist

10. The positive data log

A belief like “I always get it wrong” ignores the days you did not. The positive data log, one of the methods Christine Padesky described for changing core beliefs, collects the evidence the old belief filters out. Each day you write down one small thing that fits a kinder, more accurate belief. It feels slow, and that is fine, because the point is the pile rather than any single entry. Which belief would you want evidence for? Choose one that is believable, not perfect. “I can handle some things” works better than “I am great”.

Do this:

1. Write the old belief at the top of a page.

2. Write a new, believable version beside it.

3. Each evening for two weeks, write one thing from that day that fits the new version.

4. At the end, read the whole list in one go.

Time	2 minutes a day for two weeks
You need	One page kept somewhere you will see it
Best for	A belief about yourself that has run for years
What it will not do	Erase the old belief. It builds a counterweight, slowly

Family three: changing what you do

When days stall, waiting to feel like it rarely works. Behavioral activation turns that around: you act first, in small steps, and notice what happens to your mood afterward.

11. The pleasure and mastery list

Low weeks shrink the list of things you do down to the essentials. This exercise rebuilds it with two kinds of activity: things that bring a little pleasure and things that bring a sense of getting something done. The mastery and pleasure technique is usually traced to Aaron Beck’s cognitive therapy for depression. A walk might be pleasure. Answering one email might be mastery. What used to give you either, before this stretch? Small counts here. Five minutes outside counts as an activity, and so does washing one pan.

Do this:

1. Draw two columns: pleasure and mastery.

2. List five small things in each, including ones you have stopped doing.

3. Mark each with how hard it would be this week: easy, medium, hard.

4. Circle two easy ones, one from each column.

Time	10 minutes
You need	Paper, and your hour-by-hour log if you have one
Best for	Weeks where everything feels like a chore
What it will not do	Make the activities feel good straight away. The mood often follows later, if at all

12. Two activities in the calendar

A list is not a plan. This exercise puts two activities into a specific day and time, the way an appointment goes in. Behavioral activation was found more effective than control conditions on depression symptoms in a 2014 meta-analysis of 26 trials, though most of the studies were low quality and follow-up was short (Ekers and colleagues, PLoS One). Those were treatment trials. Doing it alone is a lighter version of the same idea, without the evidence attached. When will you do the first one? Pick a time, a place and a start cue.

Do this:

1. Take the two activities you circled in exercise 11.

2. Put each in your calendar with a day, a time and a place.

3. Rate your mood from 0 to 10 just before and just after.

4. Write one line afterward about what you noticed.

Time	5 minutes to plan, plus the activities
You need	A calendar you check every day
Best for	Days that slip away without anything in them
What it will not do	Work every time. Some activities will not lift the number, and that is still information

13. The values pick

Some activities fill time without meaning anything. The revised brief behavioral activation manual by Carl Lejuez and colleagues organizes activities by life areas and values, so what you schedule connects to what matters to you. Ask yourself what kind of friend, worker, partner or neighbor you want to be. Then ask what one small action this week would look like from that person. Does it fit in a single afternoon? If not, shrink it until it does, because a smaller action that happens beats a bigger one that waits.

Do this:

1. Write four life areas that matter to you, such as relationships, work, health and home.

2. Under each, write one sentence about what you value there.

3. Under each value, write one action you could do in under an hour.

4. Schedule one of them this week.

Time	15 minutes
You need	Paper and a calendar
Best for	Feeling busy but empty
What it will not do	Settle big life questions. It finds one small step that points the right way

14. Break it down to five minutes

A task that feels too big does not get started. Health guides call this successive approximation: you break the task into steps so small that the first one is almost silly. “Clean the apartment” becomes “clear the table.” “Write the report” becomes “open the file and write the title.” What is the first step that would take five minutes or less? Do only that, and decide afterward whether to do the next one. Stopping after the first step still counts as having done the exercise.

Do this:

1. Write the task you keep avoiding.

2. Break it into five to ten steps, each under fifteen minutes.

3. Shrink the first step until it takes five minutes or less.

4. Set a timer and do only that step.

5. Tick it off, then decide about step two.

Time	10 minutes to plan, 5 minutes to start
You need	Paper and a timer
Best for	A task that has sat untouched for days
What it will not do	Make the task enjoyable. It makes it startable

15. Five-step problem solving

Some low moods sit on top of a real, practical problem. Problem solving turns the problem into a plan. Problem-solving therapy for adult depression showed effects comparable to other psychotherapies in a 2018 meta-analysis, at g = 0.34 in the nine trials with low risk of bias, as a therapy delivered in trials (Cuijpers and colleagues, European Psychiatry). The self-practice version is simpler. Which problem, if it moved even a little, would make the biggest difference this week? Start with that one, and keep it to something you can influence.

Do this:

1. Write the problem as specifically as you can, in one sentence.

2. Write every possible solution you can think of in five minutes, without judging any.

3. Pick one, and write its main upside and downside.

4. Plan the first step: what, when and where.

5. Next week, write how it went and pick again if needed.

Time	20 minutes
You need	Paper and one practical problem
Best for	Money, work or home problems that keep you up
What it will not do	Solve problems you cannot influence. For those, family four is a better fit

Family four: worry, body, sleep and review

The last five are for the nights, the tension and the weekly look back. The review is the one that makes the other nineteen useful.

16. Worry postponement with an if-then plan

Worry postponement asks you to move worry to a set time each day instead of fighting it whenever it arrives. A 2025 randomized trial of 186 adults over 14 days found that adding a specific “if-then” plan to postponement cut daily worry by about 15 minutes compared with postponement alone, but none of the approaches improved sleep (McCarrick and colleagues, Psychology and Health). So the plan matters. What will you say to yourself when a worry shows up at 3 p.m.? Write that sentence now, before you need it, so it is ready to use.

Do this:

1. Choose a 15-minute worry time, the same each day.

2. Write your if-then plan: “If a worry comes, then I will write one word on my list and return to what I was doing.”

3. Keep the list with you during the day.

4. At worry time, go through the list. When the 15 minutes end, stop.

Time	15 minutes a day
You need	A small list and a timer
Best for	Worry that interrupts the whole day
What it will not do	Improve sleep, on the trial evidence. Pair it with exercise 19 for nights

17. The can-I-act-on-it sort

Not all worries are the same kind. Some are about a problem you can do something about this week. Others are about things you cannot control or that may never happen. We found no trial that tested this sort on its own, so treat it as a sorting habit rather than a treatment. Which pile does your worry belong in? If you can act, it goes to exercise 15. If you cannot, it goes to worry time or to the worst, best and most likely page.

Do this:

1. Write down every worry on your mind, one per line.

2. Beside each, write A for “I can act on part of this” or N for “I cannot, right now.”

3. For each A, write the first small action and when you will do it.

4. Move every N to tomorrow’s worry-time list.

Time	10 minutes
You need	Paper and a pen in two colors, if you have them
Best for	A head full of worries all at once
What it will not do	Make the N pile disappear. It stops it from blocking the A pile

18. Progressive muscle relaxation

Tension often builds without you noticing. Progressive muscle relaxation tightens and then releases one muscle group at a time, so you learn what letting go feels like. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine’s 2021 guideline lists it among relaxation methods it suggests as a single therapy for chronic insomnia, alongside abdominal breathing and autogenic training (Edinger and colleagues, Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine). Where do you hold tension most: jaw, shoulders, hands? Start there. If you have an injury or pain in a muscle group, skip that group entirely.

Do this:

1. Sit or lie somewhere quiet.

2. Clench your hands into fists for about five seconds, then let go for about fifteen.

3. Move on to arms, shoulders, face, stomach, legs and feet, one group at a time.

4. Finish with three slow breaths and notice which areas feel different.

Time	15 minutes
You need	A quiet place, nothing else
Best for	Evenings when your body is still wound up
What it will not do	Work the first time for everyone. It is a skill that gets easier with practice

19. The get-up rule for sleepless nights

Stimulus control is designed to break the link between your bed and being awake. The AASM guideline suggests it, and its instructions are to go to bed only when sleepy, get out of bed when unable to sleep, use the bed for sleep and sex only, wake at the same time every morning, and avoid daytime naps. The same review found that sleep hygiene alone was not identified as an effective single therapy. So the get-up rule does something a tidy bedroom does not. What will you do when you get up? Decide now, and keep it dull and dimly lit.

Do this:

1. Pick one fixed wake-up time for every day this week, weekends included.

2. Go to bed only when you feel sleepy, not just tired.

3. If you cannot sleep and it feels like a long time, get up and go to another room.

4. Do something quiet in dim light. Go back to bed when sleepy again.

Time	Every night for two weeks
You need	A fixed wake time and a dull activity
Best for	Nights spent awake and worrying in bed
What it will not do	Replace a doctor. Long-running insomnia, snoring or shift work are worth raising with one

20. The weekly review

CBT is built on trying something, then looking at what happened. In a 2010 meta-analysis of 23 studies and 2,183 people, how much of the agreed between-session work people did was associated with how therapy went, at r = .26 (Mausbach and colleagues, Cognitive Therapy and Research). That is a correlation from therapy, not proof that reviewing alone helps. But without a review, the other exercises become a pile of pages. What did you try this week, and what happened? Fifteen minutes on a set day is enough.

Do this:

1. Pick a day and time each week, and keep it.

2. Read back through the week’s entries.

3. Write three lines: what I tried, what happened, what surprised me.

4. Choose one exercise to keep and one to drop for next week.

Time	15 minutes a week
You need	The week’s entries
Best for	Anyone using more than one exercise
What it will not do	Tell you whether you need more help. If things are not improving, or getting worse, that is a reason to see someone

All twenty side by side

Exercise	What it is for	Time	Difficulty	Do it when
1. The three-line catch	Catching the thought	3 min	Easy	A moment keeps replaying
2. Rate the feeling first	Knowing how strong it is	2 min	Easy	Everything felt like a blur
3. Name the thinking trap	Seeing the shape of a thought	3 min	Easy	A familiar thought returns
4. The hour-by-hour log	Seeing your days	5 min a day	Easy	Weeks feel the same
5. The downward arrow	Finding the belief underneath	10 min	Hard	A small thought hits hard
6. Questions to ask a thought	Testing it	10 min	Medium	You half believe it
7. The friend test	Softening self-talk	5 min	Easy	After a mistake
8. Worst, best, most likely	Facing dread	10 min	Medium	Before a specific event
9. A small behavioral experiment	Testing a prediction	10 min plus test	Medium	“They will think” worries
10. The positive data log	Building a new belief	2 min a day	Easy	A belief that has run for years
11. The pleasure and mastery list	Rebuilding your week	10 min	Easy	Everything feels like a chore
12. Two activities in the calendar	Acting before feeling like it	5 min plus activities	Medium	Days slip away
13. The values pick	Doing what matters	15 min	Medium	Busy but empty
14. Break it down to five minutes	Starting a stuck task	15 min	Easy	A task sits untouched
15. Five-step problem solving	Turning a problem into a plan	20 min	Medium	A practical problem keeps you up
16. Worry postponement	Containing daytime worry	15 min a day	Medium	Worry interrupts the day
17. The can-I-act-on-it sort	Sorting worries	10 min	Easy	Many worries at once
18. Progressive muscle relaxation	Releasing tension	15 min	Easy	Your body is wound up
19. The get-up rule	Nights awake in bed	Nightly	Hard	You lie awake worrying
20. The weekly review	Learning from the week	15 min a week	Easy	You use more than one exercise

Where to keep the entries

Most of these exercises produce a page, and the weekly review only works if the pages are in one place. A single notebook is enough. A notes app works too.

If you would rather keep them on your phone, VentSpace is a journaling app that turns what you write into a clear read on your life balance, plus small, doable next steps. It is ours, so read this as a declared interest. It is not a CBT program and not therapy, it is Android only and free to start as of October 2026, and there is no published evidence on its outcomes. Not on Android, or at a desk? VentSpace Live runs in your browser, free, with nothing to install. The exercises on this page work on paper, as they are.

For a wider look at what writing can and cannot do next to therapy, see therapy vs journaling.

Questions people ask

Can you do CBT on yourself?

You can practice CBT techniques on your own, and self-guided programs show moderate effects in trials, with a high risk of bias. That is not the same as CBT with a therapist, who helps you choose, pace and adjust the techniques. For anything more than a mild patch, a therapist is the better route.

Is CBT just positive thinking?

No. CBT asks for a more accurate thought, not a cheerful one. Several exercises here, like the questions in exercise 6, expect you to find evidence on both sides. And the B in CBT stands for behavioral: changing what you do, not only what you think.

How long does it take for CBT exercises to help?

We found no single figure we could stand behind for self-practice. Most exercises here are designed to be repeated over at least two weeks and looked at in a weekly review. If nothing has shifted after a few weeks, or things are getting worse, that is a reason to talk to someone.

What is a thought record?

A written page where you note a situation, the feeling and how strong it was, the thought, the evidence for and against it, and a fuller alternative. Exercises 1, 2 and 6 build one in pieces. The original 7-column version is Christine Padesky’s, available on the Mind Over Mood site.

Do I need a worksheet?

No. A blank page works for every exercise here. Worksheets are useful if they help you remember the steps, and the official ones are worth using over copies.

Two things to take with you

First, pick one family and one exercise, and do it for two weeks before you add another. The weekly review is what tells you whether it is worth keeping.

Second, this is practice, not treatment. If the difficulty is more than a mild patch, or it is not easing after a few weeks of trying, a CBT therapist is the real route. They will teach you these same techniques, and they will notice the things a page cannot. Start with one exercise this week and one look at the ABCT directory.

About this article

How this one was checked. Every factual claim traces to a named source, and the source is printed next to the claim rather than kept in a footnote. Quotes are pinned to the work they come from, with the year, the letter or the chapter where one exists. Where a widely repeated claim could not be traced, it was left out and the omission recorded. Where a figure is contested, both sides are printed.

No affiliate links, no paid placements, and nobody paid to appear here. Where we mention our own app, we say that it is ours, we state its limits, and we never position it as a substitute for care.

Reviewed: October 2026. Prices, platforms and product availability move quickly, and anything we could not verify at the time of writing is marked as unverified rather than turned into a number.

Corrections. If something here is wrong, we would rather know. Corrections are made in place, with a note saying what changed.