Reducing Mental Processing Demands

I journal for 15 minutes a day and get my clients to do the same. Here’s the neuroscience behind how daily journaling will rewire your brain: Your working memory can only hold 7±2 items at a time. When you try to keep everything in your head, you're running your brain at full capacity. Here's what I do: set aside 15 minutes daily to write down whatever's making me worried or distracted. Then I close the notebook and put it away. Simple. This one daily routine frees up massive cognitive resources, a technique I also teach to the executives I work with. Here’s what's happening in your brain that makes this so powerful: Neuroimaging studies show that expressive writing activates your prefrontal cortex (your brain’s control center) while simultaneously dampening activity in the amygdala, your threat detection system. Essentially, writing things down works to reverse your brain's default stress response. A study by Ramirez and Beilock proved this also works under pressure. Students who wrote about their anxieties for just 10 minutes before a high-stakes exam significantly improved their test scores compared to those who didn't. The act of offloading worries freed up the working memory they needed for the test itself. One CEO was struggling during fundraising season. Brilliant guy, knew his numbers cold, but kept stumbling in pitches because his brain was juggling too much. We implemented this system for him. Before every pitch, he'd spend a few minutes dumping his mental noise onto paper. Just getting it out of his head and into the universe. The difference was immediate. When his brain wasn't actively holding onto every worry and distraction, he could focus on what mattered: connecting with investors and telling his story. Think of it like clearing RAM on your computer. When we externalize information, we reduce cognitive load, which frees up processing power for our most important work. Your brain has limited bandwidth. Stop wasting it on mental storage and start using it for the analysis and decision-making it was designed for. What do you do to clear your mental space?

Ever made a regrettable decision simply because you were mentally drained? You’re not alone! Mental #fatigue doesn’t just make us feel drained—it reshapes the way we think, prioritize, and choose. What happens in the brain when we’re mentally worn out? Most of us assume the #brain just runs out of energy, but recent research suggests something different. It found that mental fatigue increases the cost of exerting #CognitiveControl—a brain function that helps us focus, resist distractions, and make thoughtful decisions. In this experiment, participants were asked to perform either challenging or simple mental tasks throughout the day. After each round, they made decisions between easy, low-reward options or harder, high-reward ones. This cycle repeated five times over a 6.25 hour period!! They found: 👉 Initially, both groups made similar choices. But over time, participants doing tougher tasks shifted their preferences to easier, low-reward options. This suggests that cognitive fatigue does not just reduce overall performance but increases the perceived cost of cognitive effort, leading to a shift in preferences towards choices that are less demanding. 👉 At the end of the day, a region of the brain associated with cognitive control called the “lateral prefrontal cortex” showed higher concentrations of the chemical glutamate for the participants doing the mentally demanding task, similar to that seen in chronic stress. This increase makes cognitive control harder to perform and may explain why the participants favoured low-cost, low-reward options later in the day. 👉 The change in glutamate levels was not found in the visual cortex, a brain region involved in the task but not typically associated with cognitive control. This finding suggests that the brain changes are localised to the regions needed for cognitive control rather than a result of overall fatigue or loss of energy. Interestingly, when asked about their fatigue at the end of the day, both groups reported the same levels even though only one group was making poorer decisions. In other words, people’s conscious perception of their mental fatigue was not a good indicator of their ability to make good economic decisions. What does this mean? 👉 Take Breaks. Your brain uses rest to clear waste products including glutamate, so taking breaks can help manage the mental fatigue that impairs cognitive control. 👉 Reduce Cognitive Load. Constant task switching, intense problem solving and even learning new skills can all be cognitively demanding. Try to reduce the demand on your cognitive control system by interspersing less demanding tasks. 👉 Avoid time pressure. If you’ve had a mentally demanding time, give yourself additional time before making important decisions. This research raises big questions: How can workplaces design environments to reduce cognitive fatigue? What could this mean for productivity? What strategies do you use to stay mentally sharp during demanding days?

𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐬𝐞 𝐖𝐡𝐨 𝐓𝐫𝐲 𝐉𝐮𝐠𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐓𝐨𝐨 𝐌𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐁𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐬 𝐅𝐚𝐢𝐥 𝐌𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐲. You’re juggling three balls, it feels you’ve got this. Now you’re juggling four, it’s tough but you manage. Now you’re juggling five, chaos builds. Now you’re juggling six, you drop all of them! That’s exactly how cognitive load feels. When your brain is juggling too much information and too many decisions at the same time. As a psychologist, I see this all the time. People think they’re indecisive or unproductive, but the truth is, their mental bandwidth is maxed out. 𝐂𝐨𝐠𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐚𝐝 - 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐰𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨𝐨 𝐦𝐮𝐜𝐡 𝐢𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐬 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐛𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐜𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫, 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧-𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠. When your brain is overwhelmed, even small decisions feel monumental. That’s why you might spend ages picking a restaurant after a day of big meetings. Your brain isn’t lazy—it’s overworked. But it’s not just about feeling tired. Cognitive load impacts the quality of your decisions. The more overwhelmed you are, the more likely you are to choose what’s easy, familiar, or convenient, not necessarily what’s best. Sounds scary. Right? I’ve worked with clients who felt stuck, unable to decide between career moves, new opportunities, or even personal goals. Most of the time, the problem wasn’t indecision. It was the sheer amount of information and options clouding their minds. 𝐒𝐨, 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐝𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐥𝐨𝐚𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐝𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬? → 𝐋𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐭 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐈𝐧𝐩𝐮𝐭𝐬: Be selective about what you consume. Your brain wasn’t designed to process infinite notifications or social feeds. Filter and focus. → 𝐁𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡 𝐒𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐚𝐫 𝐃𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬: Make decisions in clusters. Planning your week’s meals in one go is far less taxing than deciding every day. → 𝐒𝐞𝐭 𝐁𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬: Not every choice deserves endless time. Give yourself limits. Trust your instincts and move forward. One client came to me overwhelmed by decisions, from strategic career moves to daily operations. We simplified her processes, grouped her tasks, and gave her decision-making space. Within weeks, she felt clearer, more confident, and far more in control. Cognitive load isn’t something you can escape entirely, but you can manage it. By reducing the mental clutter, you create space for clarity, confidence, and focus. If this clicks with you, I’d be delighted to share more insights into the psychology of decision-making with your team! Let’s get talking! #decisionmaking #team #mentalhealth #career #psychology #personaldevelopment

How can you cut cognitive load with AI? 🧠 Cognitive load is a (40-year-old!) theory that performance declines when people try to process too much information simultaneously. You've likely experienced it firsthand. ⏹️ Have you ever felt overwhelmed trying to plan a project while your computer constantly notifies you of incoming messages? ⏸️ Or struggled to follow a detailed conversation in a crowded, noisy place? ⏩ Have you noticed how moving to a quiet spot or taking a break enables you to process more effectively? If you've ever wished for more hours in a day, you'll understand the impact of having AI do your grunt work for you. It frees us to focus our brains on the challenges that truly need us, our human insight—and our perspective. I think of this of activating AI in “minion-mode”. 1. Offload rote or repetitive work to AI. 2. Reduce your cognitive burden. 3. Free up mental resources for more high-level thinking and creative problem-solving. My general rule of thumb? If a rote task sucks up 3-4 hours of my time a month, it's worth the trouble to train AI on doing it for me instead. Amplify that equation across a team and you start to see some rapid returns. 👯 I'll link in the comments to a paper from the National Library of Medicine that explores how AI could alleviate the cognitive burden of healthcare workers, potentially reducing burnout and improving patient care. In education, there's growing interest in how AI could cut cognitive load by providing personalized explanations, drills, and dialogues tailored to individual students' knowledge levels and learning differences. While more research is needed, many in the AI community, myself included, have come to rely on this approach. I delegate all kinds of tasks to AI—transforming whiteboard scribbles into coherent meeting summaries, creating grocery lists from weekly meal plans, organizing and formatting data into tables, helping me find the right word to express a thought, drafting presentation slides from my meeting notes, turning photos I've taken of slides at a conference into a recap for my team, and so much more. The result? I have more energy for the work that really matters, and truly requires my brain power. The best part? It makes my day feel more meaningful. I’m actually happier. 🤔 What do you think? What work do you offload to AI? 🤔 Any fav prompts or tips to share? __________ 👋 Hi, I'm Alison McCauley, and focus on how to leverage AI to do better at what we humans do best. I’ll be sharing more about how to Think with AI to boost brainpower. Follow me for more, and share your thoughts below!

Your Team Isn't Failing—Their Brains 🧠 Are Feeling Mentally Drained Before Noon! (Because your employee's brain isn’t a storage unit.) Ever wonder why smart, capable people suddenly struggle with simple tasks? Why do deadlines slip, decisions take forever, and meetings feel like mental quicksand? It’s not a motivation issue. It’s 𝗰𝗼𝗴𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗹𝗼𝗮𝗱—the invisible bottleneck draining your team’s productivity. 🔥 The worst part? It’s happening right now, and you might not even notice it. You see it in: ➡️ Employees forgetting key details. ➡️ Slow decision-making despite endless discussions. ➡️ Constant “busyness” without real progress. (Chances are, you're already doing some of these without realizing their full impact.) 9 Ways to Reduce Cognitive Overload in Your Team. 1️⃣ The ‘No-Meeting’ Filter 🗓️ → Every meeting should have a clear purpose—or an email alternative. Impact: Fewer unnecessary meetings = more deep work & faster decision-making. 2️⃣ The Deep Work Shield 🔕 → Protect focus time by minimizing interruptions & Slack pings. Impact: Continuous task-switching can lower productivity by 40%. 3️⃣ The Simplicity Rule 🎯 → Too many options = mental fatigue. Reduce choices where possible. Impact: Decision fatigue leads to slower responses & poor judgment. 4️⃣ The Priority Clarity Test ✅ → Not everything is urgent. Make it easy to see what truly matters. Impact: Teams that prioritize effectively are 31% more productive. 5️⃣ The Workload Reality Check 📊 → Burnout happens when expectations don’t match capacity. Keep it balanced. Impact: Overloaded employees experience 56% higher stress levels. 6️⃣ The 5-Minute Mental Reset 🧘♂️ → Encourage short, intentional breaks to reset the brain & boost efficiency. Impact: Even a 5-minute break boosts focus and prevents mental exhaustion. 7️⃣ The AI & Automation Advantage 🤖 → Free up mental space by automating repetitive tasks. Impact: AI can save up to 30% of time spent on manual tasks. 8️⃣ The ‘Single Tab’ Hack 🖥️ → Keep only one work-related tab open at a time. Context-switching kills focus. Impact: Reducing multitasking can improve efficiency by 50%. 9️⃣ The Evening ‘Brain Dump’ 📝 → Before bed, jot down tomorrow’s top priorities to free up mental space. Impact: Writing things down can improve recall by 40% and lead to better sleep. 💡 Small shifts = big impact. A clear mind is a productive mind. 🔄 Which of these do you need to improve in your team? Let’s discuss in the comments! ------------------- I’m Jayant Ghosh. Follow me in raising awareness for mental health that inspires growth and well-being.

Your best ideas don’t happen at your desk. 72% of people report breakthroughs in the shower. Here’s why: Your brain needs space to think. When you're constantly working, your mind is in execution mode, analyzing, processing, deciding. But clarity doesn't happen without space. Here’s how to reset and optimize mental performance: 1. Physical Rest Prioritize deep breathing. Gentle stretching. Active recovery. Your body processes while you move. 2. Mental Rest Your brain needs white space to connect dots. Build in 'thinking breaks'. Plan 2-hour deep work blocks, no interruptions. 3. Emotional Rest Every decision depletes your mental bandwidth. Set boundaries. Reduce decision fatigue. Say no strategically. 4. Social & Sensory Rest Your nervous system is processing constantly. Limit the input. Choose energizing connections. Create space for insights to surface. 5. Creative & Spiritual Rest Experience beauty. Connect to nature. Practice gratitude. Let your mind wander. When your system needs a reset: • Solutions feel forced • Decision-making is unclear • Creative blocks appear • Motivation disappears • Everything feels harder than it should 💡 Peak performance isn't about pushing harder. It's about creating space for your best ideas to emerge. -- ♻️ Repost if this resonates. ➕ Follow me, Melody Olson, for more like this.

It’s easy to feel like we're constantly juggling too many tasks at once. It's like having a browser with too many tabs open, each one demanding attention and slowing down our mental processing speed. To avoid mental clutter and improve focus, treat your brain like your computer. Here are some strategies 👇 ✅ Close The Open Tabs: Make a list of all unfinished tasks, such as unpaid bills or pending conversations. Addressing these can significantly reduce mental load. ✅ Free Up Memory: Regularly perform a "brain dump" by writing down all your thoughts and ideas. This frees up mental space for new ideas and reduces stress. ✅Improve Your Inputs: Conduct a media audit by evaluating the impact of the content you consume on your life. If it doesn't add value, consider reducing or eliminating it. ✅Maintain Your Hardware: A healthy body supports a healthy mind. Regular exercise, sufficient water intake, a balanced diet, and quality sleep are fundamental. By implementing these habits, you can streamline your mental processes, similar to how decluttering a computer can improve its performance. Whether it’s through a to-do list app or a personal journal, keeping track of your thoughts and tasks can bring clarity and peace of mind. Moreover, being selective about the media you consume can enhance your overall well-being. Lastly, taking care of your physical health is crucial for maintaining the mental energy needed to navigate daily challenges. Adopting these practices can lead to a clearer mind, better focus, and an enhanced ability to come up with creative solutions and ideas.

Email isn’t going away anytime soon. But it doesn’t have to run your day. Try these 5 habits to take back control of your inbox and reduce the overwhelm. They’ll save you time, sharpen your focus, and help you feel on top of your game. (And yes, they actually work.) 𝐄 – Exit your inbox • Schedule 3–4 set times to process email (AKA batching). • Stay out of your inbox in between. • This one shift boosts focus and wins back loads of time. (You’re welcome.) 𝐌 – Mute notifications • Turn off email alerts (yes, on both desktop and phone). • Fewer dings = fewer distractions. • You’ll stop playing inbox defence and feel more in control. 𝐀 – Apply the 4 Ds • Read once, then:  • Delete  • Do  • Delegate  • Defer • Defer with intention. Use a task app. Or add a category if you write your to-dos by hand. • Decide and move on. 𝐈 – Integrate simple systems • File emails in just 1 folder! Feels counterintuitive, but it saves time. • Use rules or filters to triage and stay organised automatically. • A few smart systems = a calmer inbox. 𝐋 – Leverage AI to draft emails • Let AI write the first draft, then make it yours. • Use BLUF: start with the bottom line up front (AI helps with this!) • Clear replies, less mental load, faster responses • Try Smart Compose (Gmail) or QuickSteps (Outlook) to speed up repeat replies. 💙 Thanks for reading. 💬 What’s your favourite timesaving email tip? Share it in the comments. ♻️ Repost to help your network master their inbox too.