How to deal with cognitive overload

Everything right now feels Grand.

And Important.

And Big.

And frankly, pretty overwhelming.

It feels like everything must be said.

Explained.

Re-explained differently than the person before you.

Supported.

Defended.

Argued.

At speed.

All deserving of its own incredibly important #Hashtag of demonstrative outrage.

It’s overload.

But if you’re like me, and you still want to listen, hear, know, and understand, and hopefully, play some small role in making a difference to something somewhere for someone – all the while acknowledging there’s very little you can actually do – what is the solution right now?

Choices seem to be:

• Doom scroll
• Lie awake at night and worry
• Leave Twitter in a huff
• Stay on Twitter and feel super worried
• Buy a big tech company and try and influence elections
• Get involved in international (and interplanetary) geopolitics
• Become a Warlord
• Move to Mars (although it does sound like the neighbours might take ‘unpredictable’ to next level)
• Stick your head in the sand and hope this too shall pass
• Drink a lot of gin/wine/beer/(insert preference)
• Eat chocolate

But I got to thinking, there’s got to better options.

And that, right now, feels like exactly the right thing to do.

But what does it mean?

Normally, I break things into ‘no more than five’ categories, but feeling a little overwhelmed, this time I’ve broken it into just four categories.

• Do your work well
• Keep being a good colleague
• Lead well
• Join a choir

There’s a little more detail below.

The reality that society works pretty well when we all do our bit. Someone runs the bank well, someone teaches school kids well, someone births babies safely, someone plays football well, and someone drives the bus, stopping every time it should.

We might have different views on politics, or AI, and who plays the football best, but generally speaking, we all appreciate the work others are do.

So, first step, let’s all just do our work as well as we can, for the people relying on us.

That solves about 8-10 hours a day for most of us. Busy doing our best.

While we’re doing our job well, look after each other, and be a good decent colleague. Help the person next to you. Make sure everyone has someone to have lunch with, someone to listen to their opinions of who knows what, someone to laugh with, and someone to answer questions or solve tricky problems.

Make sure they’re included and feeling confident to give their best.

After all, the best research on high performance and Belonging, collide not at “one excellent person doing brilliantly well”, but on everyone doing their bit to the best of their ability and feeling valued for doing it.

For those with the opportunity to go beyond the colleague role and have the opportunity and responsibility to lead right now, it is more important than ever.

As they say, anyone can sail in fair weather, but good sailors can deal with any wind.

So, if you’re leading right now, lead well.

Calm and clear direction. Good timely decision-making. High standards and high accountability.

Respect, appreciation, and inclusion for every person on the team.

Keep growing and expecting those around you too as well.

And with all that calmness and clarity, we’ll have a little time on our hands to join the important choirs on the most important topics.

Join whichever is important to you, but for me it’s these things:

• Being an ally and stopping the hate around diversity but particularly around LGBTI and Trans,
• Not importing that divisive language from overseas just now. Have a different opinion, a different experience or perspective, but don’t hate on those who disagree with you. Keep debates open and interested. Hear perspective

I am an enthusiastic but bad singer. (Someone – one person – once told me I hold a tune, once again proving that not all feedback is helpful or worth listening to). There’s room for everyone in the choir. There are seven different voices in a choir. Find yours and go as loud as you’re comfy. When we’re up against hate, we’ll need to step loudly as we can for those whose voices are shaking right now. Stick side by side. Let the most vulnerable stand behind us as they need to, especially when there are body blows coming.

That’s what a decent community and society does.

Lately, I’ve also been reminded by a Debbie Downer skit from Saturday Night Live – from the wedding scene from those of you who are fans. The advice when someone is doom-scrolling, outraging, exhausting you with minute-by-minute recaps from Twitter – “Don’t delve”.

Keep the overwhelming chats bite-sized.

Maybe add “Mmm, interesting” and a smile of support and care.

Then, let them add their outraged hashtag, while you get back to what’s yours to do.