The Museletter

Mental clutter distracts. It also accelerates — the more I'm already carrying, the more each new piece costs.

When I'm holding five things and add a sixth, I lose maybe 5 to 10% more of my attention. When I'm holding nine and add a tenth, I lose 25 to 30%. The tenth distraction doesn't cost one unit; it costs one times everything already open.

I call this cognitive overload. The brain has a load capacity, the same way a computer does. Run five or six apps and the machine doesn't slow — performance is flat through seven and eight. Open fifteen, and app sixteen risks freezing the whole thing wholesale. Not slowing it. Freezing it.

I don't know why the same holds for my head. But it does.

So when you stall out, don't add discipline. Subtract load. The fix was never trying harder on the sixteenth thing; it's closing tabs until you're back under the line.