May 25, 2023

How to keep a low mental load

How to keep a low mental load

โ€œ๐‰๐ž ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฌ ๐ฌ๐จ๐ฎ๐ฌ ๐ฅโ€™๐ž๐š๐ฎโ€, โ€œ๐ˆ'๐ฆ ๐ข๐ง ๐š ๐ญ๐ฎ๐ง๐ง๐ž๐ฅ ๐จ๐Ÿ ๐ฐ๐จ๐ซ๐คโ€, โ€œ๐ˆ ๐๐จ๐งโ€™๐ญ ๐ก๐š๐ฏ๐ž ๐ญ๐ข๐ฆ๐ž ๐ˆ ๐š๐ฆ ๐จ๐ฏ๐ž๐ซ๐ฐ๐ก๐ž๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ž๐โ€
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I have promised myself never to say something like this.
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These 3 simple rules help me maintain a super low mental load:

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โญ ๐——๐—ผ๐—ปโ€™๐˜ ๐—ธ๐—ฒ๐—ฒ๐—ฝ ๐—ถ๐—ป ๐—บ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ฑ ๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐˜‚๐—ป๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ ๐˜†๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ฟ ๐—ฒ๐˜†๐—ฒ๐˜€ ๐˜€๐˜๐˜‚๐—ณ๐—ณ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฎ๐˜ ๐˜†๐—ผ๐˜‚ ๐˜„๐—ผ๐—ปโ€™๐˜ ๐—ต๐—ฎ๐—ป๐—ฑ๐—น๐—ฒ ๐—ก๐—ข๐—ช
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If a task is not to be done now, set a reminder at a later date and make sure you stop thinking about it until then. You shouldn't even see it!


โญ ๐—ฌ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ฟ ๐˜๐—ผ-๐—ฑ๐—ผ ๐—น๐—ถ๐˜€๐˜ ๐˜€๐—ต๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—น๐—ฑ ๐—ฒ๐˜…๐—ฐ๐—น๐˜‚๐˜€๐—ถ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—น๐˜† ๐—ฏ๐—ฒ ๐—บ๐—ฎ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ ๐—ผ๐—ณ ๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜† ๐—ฐ๐—น๐—ฒ๐—ฎ๐—ฟ ๐—ฎ๐—ฐ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜€ ๐˜๐—ผ ๐—ฑ๐—ผ
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- All listed tasks should be crystal clear, even if it is a note to yourself (as if you had no context), with concrete ordered actions. The minutes you take to decompose and structure the next steps of a task in your to-do will immediately pay back.
- When taking notes, they must be cleaned, structured and added to the relevant documentation on the fly, rather than stagnating inside a random private document. Let's face it, we've all done thisโ€ฆ


โญ ๐—•๐—ผ๐—ผ๐—ธ ๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฐ๐˜‚๐˜€ ๐˜€๐—ฒ๐˜€๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป๐˜€ ๐˜„๐—ถ๐˜๐—ต ๐˜†๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ฟ๐˜€๐—ฒ๐—น๐—ณ ๐—ณ๐—ผ๐—ฟ ๐—ฑ๐—ฒ๐—ฑ๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฑ ๐˜๐—ผ๐—ฝ๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐˜€

- No one should disturb you during this time. Otherwise youโ€™ll never have time to tackle your projects.
- Donโ€™t be afraid to overestimate a bit the time needed for such sessions. At worst, youโ€™ll just have some time to fine-tune.
- Implicitly this means you should have zero popping notifications, except from one or two apps maximum (calendar & whatsapp for me).

If you ever hear me saying "Je suis sous l'eau" drinks are on me for a whole month.

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