Lighten Your (Cognitive) Load

Modern life asks you to do more, do it faster, be more productive, and keep up with everything around you. At work or at home, there are always new things to do and changes to keep up with. Maybe you are getting new projects precisely at the time a major software update demands that you learn a new computer interface, right when your children’s new schedules are forcing you to change all your shopping and housekeeping routines. And right then, you remember that important call you needed to make.

Cognitive Resources Are Limited

Trying to keep too many things on your mind is what psychologists call “cognitive load.” And not having enough time to do what you need is what they call “time pressure.” When researchers in psychology want to study people’s mistakes, cognitive load, and time pressure are well-tried methods (called “manipulations”) to increase the number of mistakes people make in the lab. This means that if you keep too many things on your mind or are always trying to rush, you are setting yourself up for failure.

There are two reasons for that. The first is that cognitive resources are limited, which is just a way of saying that your mind can only do so much. Can you quickly memorize three digits (427), read this post to the end, and then recall the three digits? Sure. What about five digits (64734)? Nine digits (291639825)? How far you can go is a rough measure of “working memory,” which reflects a kind of cognitive resource. If you keep too many things on your mind, you tie up your cognitive resources, which are then not available when you need them, for instance, to solve problems or make good decisions.

For instance, can you multiply 12 times 7 in your mind? Sure thing. Now, keep the number 5387289 in mind. Do not write it down. You will be asked later to repeat it.

You are probably repeating that number to yourself again and again now. That’s fine. We all do. It’s called the “phonological loop,” one of the tools of your working memory.

Now, multiply 14 times 9 in your mind.

Did you notice how much harder it is to multiply while keeping a long number in mind? This is because your cognitive resources were tied up by the memorized number, and not available for the task. In this previous post, we discussed how this can affect your self-control.

Intuition Jumps In

The second reason why keeping too much in your mind makes you prone to mistakes and poor decisions is your intuition. “Intuitive processes” are just a catch-all term for all the fast and impulsive reactions that you either were born with or have trained yourself to have (on purpose or not). Those might include good reflexes, like moving your hand away from the fire, but also bad habits, like eating the next potato chip on the table, or poor decisions, like jumping to buy stocks because they just went up or to sell them because they just went down (hint: you are buying high and selling low).

Researchers in psychology routinely use cognitive load and time pressure to study intuition. The logic is that when you are short on cognitive resources, you need to use processes that use less of them, and hence, you shift toward intuition (impulses and feelings) instead of cognition (thinking). This is part of the so-called “dual process theories,” made popular by the late Daniel Kahneman. Essentially, when your cognitive resources are not available, intuition jumps in. That might be good if you have a well-honed, trained intuition, but it might be catastrophic when you face a difficult task or decision. See this previous post for more on the dangers of intuition.

Help Yourself

Once you realize that cognitive load and time pressure are problems, it is not so difficult to think of solutions. In fact, solutions can be embarrassingly simple.

Let us start with cognitive load. Remember when you kept a long number in memory and multiplying two other numbers became harder. If you really needed to remember the long number and do the math, what would you do? Simple: you would write it down. I know that sounds like simplistic advice, but there is more to it than it seems. When you write things down, your mind can let go of them, and you ease the pressure on yourself. You do not need a sophisticated method to keep track of tasks, facts, and reminders. All you need is a notepad and the habit of checking it at specific times.

Getting in the habit of carrying a notepad and checking it at set times has added benefits. Have you ever struggled to remember good ideas that you had earlier in the day? Write those in your notepad right away (but don’t be surprised if not all those ideas are still good when you review them). See this post for more on that and other self-help tricks.

Self-Help Essential Reads

The Art of Navigating Unfairness

How to Use a Mantra

Of course, you can replace “notepad” with “app so-and-so in your phone.” What matters is that it is always available (well, maybe not in the shower) and that it is easy to use. Do not download a new note-taking program that runs only on your laptop and needs Javascript plugins and twelve YouTube tutorials before you can start (more on that here).

What about time pressure? There will be times when you need to hurry. There is no way to avoid that. But whenever you feel in a hurry, ask yourself whether the pressure is real. Modern life can easily lure you into a false sense of urgency. If a decision is important, you should be able to make time for it. Start treating important decisions as tasks that need time and deserve a slot in your busy schedule. Literally, block a slot in your schedule for them. The emphasis here is on importance. By all means, keep deciding what to eat for lunch on the spot (unless you are watching your weight). But do not say “yes” to a new project until you have scheduled time to check whether you can fit it and decide whether it is worth the added work. Do not click “buy” in that online shop until you have had time to consider your options offline (and whether you really need and can afford the item). Again, this might sound simplistic, but it has more benefits than you might realize. It will help recognize self-made pressure and, possibly, reduce your stress.

We are all limited human beings with limited capacities. When we forget that, we ask too much of ourselves. If we accept it, sometimes it can be easy to lighten the load.