Know how you get overloaded

I'm posting on cognitive overload this week. We feel overload at conferences or training when we feel 'full', overflowing with information and can't take any more in.

Here's how it happens:

🐞G-r-a-d-u-a-l

This mental overload happens over a long day. You feel like a zombie and the simplest tasks can seem difficult. As the day wears on, you might think the sessions are less interesting or less captivating, but it's usually because we are less able to discriminate and determine what's of value.

🚀Rapid

You can get overloaded in a single presentation or meeting; this is over a shorter period of time; too much information and too high a degree of difficulty (yes, like Olympic divers or gymnasts executing a tricky move!)

Cognitive overload is a common problem in the modern workplace. We're confronted with so much information from so many different sources, and in so many different styles.

It's not going to fix itself ... we'll need to do something about it. The skill is 'cognitive load coping.'