Move and Groove 46 - Simplify

I walked into Trader Joe's needing five things - bananas, avocados, bread, milk, and ... For the life of me, I could not remember the fifth thing! My wife had told me to pick up ... as I walked out the door, but my brain was occupied and I forgot to write it down.

I figured I would remember it as I wandered through the aisles. I didn't. I ended up leaving with five things because I fell for the chocolate by the checkout line, but forgot the one thing.

I came home and emptied the bag. My wife says "where's the celery juice?"

"Argh, celery juice, that was it!"

I totally maxed out my working memory and had failed.

This is common in knowledge work. It might feel like you are juggling multiple balls.

Trying to remember all the things you need to do, juggling current tasks, and processing lots of information in short periods of time.

If you feel overwhelmed, you may have high cognitive load...

And you might have to go back to the grocery store!

Neuroscience Nugget

Think your brain is an infinite supercomputer? Well, research shows our brains actually have some limits on working memory.

Your brain's working memory can only handle about 5-7 items at once.

When you are working on a problem, you are shuttling information back and forth to working memory, and, if you don't use it, you lose it. You need to move the information to long-term storage through rehearsal or elaboration or the brain will free up those resources within a few seconds.

Your brain wants to work on one problem at a time. When you have too much cognitive load, it can cause your performance to suffer. High performers learn how to limit the amount of cognitive load by filtering out the noise and focusing on what really matters, right now.

"High performers are good at selecting only the most relevant objects from the immediate environment to be represented in memory and to restrict irrelevant items from consuming capacity" (Vogel et al., 2005).

The bottom line? Your brain performs better when we simplify the current problem we are looking at by filtering out all external noise.

Pep Talk

Ready to simplify your life, reduce your cognitive load, and increase your performance? Try some of these practices to help:

1. Clear that desk, remove your phone, declutter to free up extraneous noise.
2. Unsubscribe, unfollow, unfriend. Your inbox isn't a task list – it's cognitive quicksand.
3. Prioritize your top 3 tasks daily. Everything else? Pull from backlog when ready.
4. Cancel meetings that do not provide value or you do not provide value to.
5. Detox before downtime - Instagram and Netflix-scrolling isn't relaxing, it's a cognitive all-you-can-eat buffet. Try some good old-fashioned staring up at a tree instead before jumping into the buffet.

Remember, your prefrontal cortex has limited processing power. Use it wisely. So, go forth and simplify to do your best work yet!

Now, move, groove, and do more by doing less at the same time.

Be well,

Eric

P.S. Enjoy these resources on your journey:

• Winning at Work - our signature course on doing your best work, while feeling great at the same time. Access the promotion and get $300 off, 1 hour coaching, and surprise bonuses.
• Be Well Mind - blogs on neuroscience, sports science, and performance.
• Schedule a free call - enjoy a powerful one hour coaching session for free.
• Group Flow Checklist - improve your team's ability to enter group flow for more productivity, innovation, and joy.
• Friday Afternoon Strategy Hack - when your competition is choosing where to go for happy hour, outmaneuver them with this strategic tool.
• Calendar Coding Exercise - use this to see where you are actually spending your time and adjust to where you should be spending your time, with visual indication of success.