Your brain loves closed captioning

It seems captioning has taken off among the non-hearing impaired — and for good reason! 

The subtitles on that film or series you’re watching 
- help boost retention 
- improve comprehension 
and 
- help fill the gaps when someone talks over the dialogue! 

It’s proving effective for people learning a new language, for children building their reading skills and can lift levels of engagement in those with conditions such as Autism Spectrum Disorder, ADHD and Mild Cognitive Impairment. 

For many other reasons too, this mixed mode of taking in information is booming. 

We know people love watching a YouTube video with the sound off and taking in the captions. It’s booming elsewhere on TVs and screens the world over. 

Are you a subtitles fan? 

Read more about the boom in this article.

Beware of zombie overload

You know those ‘big days’: back-to-back meetings, little time for a break, lunch disappears and zero quiet time to finish things before the day is done!

Sleep. Wake. Do it again tomorrow. 

A reason for zombie-like feelings is overload. And not just of our diary or schedule, but of our minds too. 

Were these brains of ours ever designed for this huge quantity of information we insist on shoving in there? 

It’s a big black hole; information in different formats, styles, themes and categories, a challenge to process, store and retrieve. Not unlike the junk draw every kitchen has! 

Here’s how to fight the zombie feeling and win: Pre-emptive strikes. 

That’s is, do something BEFORE you feel overloaded. 

This. 
Empty your brain:
- write notes 
- capture thoughts
- jot ideas
- list worries
- catch outcomes 

...and most of all, stop trying to soak it all up. That’s exactly where zombies like to hang out - in damp, crowded, messy corners of the mind - where there’s too much junk and not enough space.

Your cognitive load is your business. That zombie feeling will come if you let it. 

Strike back. Unload as you go. Die zombie die. 

6 ways we’re overloaded

We know what overloads and overwhelms us: information, overwork, deadlines, social issues, politics, uncertainty. 

While we need to keep a handle on managing our own overload, it’s important to consider others and how we might be overloading them...accidentally or unknowingly.  

Here’s how we overload:
1. Meetings are too long
2. Focusing on the work for too long
3. One person speaking for too long. 

These are about the pressure and expectation we have of ATTENTION. There’s no break and pressure piles up with no relief or release. 


And then there’s:
4. Rambling, unstructured information 
5. Too much context or background 
6. Lengthy presentation packs. 

These are about the quantity and types of INFORMATION. We expect we can keep processing, analyzing, digesting and synthesizing information... endlessly. 

All 6 of these overloads are “too much”: too much unreleased pressure and too much wrestling with information. 

Combined, they lead to the reduced engagement, slowed progress and increased confusion of overload. And exhaustion. 

Take each in turn and use it as a kind of gate, filter or checklist. 

We can’t expect others to ‘just deal with’ what we haven’t considered, constrained or refined. 

Managing the overload

It’s not just information. It’s emotions and overwhelm too. It’s workload, decisions, news, and everything that changes. 

Our ability to make sense of what’s going on is often in overdrive as we juggle complex issues and our reactions to them. 

So there is the information. 
And there is our reaction to it. 

The information can be overwhelming. 
And so can our response. 

Acknowledging there is a load is a good place to start. 

There’s a lot going on. Don’t expect to get your head around everything that’s happening all at once. 

Sense is made by looking back on things. 

And our responses to that can come and go for some time. 

We don’t need to be an automatic victim to overwhelm. 

Make sense of it step by step, piece by piece, scene by scene. 

Where overwhelm and overload come from

The words were right there in the job ad - “must be able to multitask”. 

Does the employer really want someone to join the team who: 
- Divides their attention across multiple tasks. 
- Stops and starts those tasks. 
- Juggles too many things at once. 
- Doesn’t finish them. 
- Wastes time. 
- Lowers their IQ. 
- Feels overwhelmed. 
- Is exhausted at the end of the day. 

And will show up and do it all again tomorrow?

Sadly this is what multitasking looks like and what it’s doing to us. 

Our inability to focus for longer than a few minutes is getting worse. An employer looking for multitasking as a capability is crazy.

C. R. A. Z. Y. 

The rise in our overwhelm and overload is made worse by dated work practices and expectations like ‘must be able to multitask’. 

Thinking it is efficient is an old way of thinking, working... and leading. 

A daily battle of multiple multitasking sessions leaves us overwhelmed, overloaded and exhausted. 

How to work instead? 

- One thing at a time. 
- Stop starting. Start finishing. 
- Focus for shorter periods of time.
- Take a break. 
- Focus again. 

It’s more productive and efficient. And it’s easier, simpler, kinder and smarter for us all.