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. 

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. 

Squeezing the most from learning

When we embark on a course or learning program, we can want to ‘soak it all up’ and learn ‘as much as we can’. 

We want to squeeze all we can from it. 

But learning ‘as much as we can’ puts pressure and expectations on the act of learning ... and on ourselves. 

If we’re trying to learn as much as we can, the problem is, there is no end to that. It could be limitless. 

You can keep learning, soaking and absorbing, but until we put some of it into practice, our mind will fill up to overflowing. 

This is cognitive overload. 
Over. Load. 

Instead of ‘learning as much as’, go for ‘learning enough to ...’. 

That’s 
- Enough to get started
- Enough to put something into practice
- Enough to try it out. 

Putting learning into practice sooner gives us feedback, insights, and ... opportunities for more learning. 

This is how to get better value from learning. 


Are you going for:

- as much as, quantity, an amount of learning? 

or 

- learning via experiments and practical applications?

It’s the second that will help with the adoption of newly found skills. 

The great reminder

‘This book is a great reminder’
‘This story is a great reminder’
‘Thank you : what a great reminder...’

So what do we mean?

◻️We knew it already. Tick. 
◻️We knew it but didn’t do anything with it last time. No problem. 
◻️We forgot it, have now been reminded of it and still won’t do anything with it. Also no problem. 
◻️We forgot it and this time we will do something with it. Aha - action time!


There’s so much information we’re reading and listening to, trying to make sense of to make ourselves better. 

The great reminder tells you that you knew it already. Do you want to do something with it for the longer term? 

You don’t have to. 

We can’t put EVERY piece of advice we read into practice!

But if it’s a great reminder for you, what does it remind you of ... AND what might you decide to do with it this time around? 


Q: What do you think when you say ‘that’s a great reminder?’