What overload actually does to your thinking
This past week I attended a large, in-person global kickoff event and spent time talking with people from all over - different regions, different roles, different teams.
When I asked what was blocking people right now, hands went up in my session.
“No time to focus or think.”
“I feel like I can’t keep up. There are too many changes happening too fast.”
And I realized I’m hearing this everywhere.
From people I’m working with and coaching.
In my DMs.
From senior leaders across industries.
From people who are objectively excellent at their jobs.
So I’ve been sitting with this question for a few days:
What’s actually happening when smart, capable people start to feel like they’re drowning?
It turns out, it’s not about capability at all.
What overload does to judgment
When your brain hits capacity with too many inputs, too many decisions, not enough space, you don’t just slow down.
You start making different kinds of decisions.
Worse ones.
The research is clear on this. Under sustained time pressure and information overload, decision accuracy drops. You take in less information, rely on simpler cues, and fall back on shortcuts and old habits.
Not because you stopped caring.
Not because you suddenly forgot how to lead.
Because the brain goes into protection mode.
As mental energy drains, the part of the brain that helps you weigh trade-offs, think long-term, and make sense of complexity starts to quiet down. What takes over instead is habit and threat response.
What’s left is motion.
This is why so many overwhelmed environments feel frantic and stuck at the same time.
The illusion of momentum
From the outside, it all looks productive.
Calendars are full.
Decisions are getting logged.
Deliverables are being checked off.
Things are moving quickly.
But inside your head, something else is happening.
Decision fatigue sets in. After extended periods of decision-making, people default to what’s familiar, easy, or avoidant. Quick choices win over better ones. Band-aids replace real fixes.
Over time, this doesn’t speed anything up.
It creates what researchers call an overload paradox:
more activity, more decisions, but lower-quality judgment.
Which leads to rework.
Blind spots.
Corrective loops.
That gnawing feeling of always being two steps behind no matter how much you cross off your list has a name. It’s called perceived overload, and science shows that it’s strongly linked to strain, burnout, and the feeling of being adrift.
That feeling isn’t a personal failing.
It’s what happens when the environment routinely exceeds human processing limits.
A steadier way forward
I’m not saying everything should move slowly.
Some decisions should be fast.
But speed without space to think isn’t really speed.
It’s compression.
And compressed thinking doesn’t sharpen choices, it does the opposite - it narrows them.
Constant task-switching and fragmented work drain cognitive resources and increase errors, which then require corrective work. You end up super busy without actually advancing much.
Real progress comes from fewer, better decisions.
Not from doing more things.
Calm leaders don’t move slower.
They protect the conditions that allow good judgment to survive when pressure is high.
One thing to try this week
When everything feels urgent and your head feels full, pause and ask:
“Which one decision would get better if I gave it just a little more room to breathe?”
Not all of them.
Just one.
Clarity often returns when you stop treating every choice like a five-alarm fire.
And if we're honest, that's not avoidance.
It’s working with how human thinking actually functions.
🩵 What I’m loving this week
🛠️ Tools/Tips: A simple decompression habit
Keeping my own decision log - writing down decisions made in a day, not tasks completed. It makes all the cognitive load I'm carrying visible and helps to separate actual progress from all the noise.
📖 Reading/Listening: Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke
A grounded practical reminder that good decisions aren’t about being fast or certain, they’re about how well you think when the information is incomplete.
🫶 A small pleasure:
Making my coffee early in the morning before everyone else is awake and sitting in silence for a few minutes before opening anything electronic or having to respond to anyone. It’s not about mindfulness but it is intentional. It’s about giving my brain space to prepare for the day.
If work feels heavier than it should right now, pause before you judge yourself.
When the pace accelerates, clarity doesn’t come from pushing harder.
It comes from protecting the conditions that let good judgment work.
This kind of clarity doesn’t happen by accident.
It’s built slowly, deliberately - even in noisy systems.
Clarity isn’t gone - it’s just crowded.
Warmly,
Heather
