Hello friends,
For those of you who are new here, my name is Deepu Asok. Every week, I write a newsletter that deep dives into ideas that help you think, feel, and do better. I explore these ideas through the lens of my engineering background and translate the principles into mental models and actionable steps. And yes, I use visuals to make them easy to grasp.
Here’s a snapshot of what’s in store for this edition:
The Idea of the week: Cognitive overload.
Tweet of the week: A Thread about the book Willpower.
What I am reading: Ogilvy on Marketing.
Moment of the week: A long overdue family selfie.
When our brains can take no more.
We live in an age of information overload. From emails to social media feeds to news, we are bombarded with tons of new information every day. This is resulting in a lifestyle where we are constantly overloading our senses, minds, and emotions. This kind of information overload can make us feel exhausted and overwhelmed.
How does cognitive overload happen?
Every new piece of information finds its way into our working memory before it gets sent to long-term memory. The problem is that our working memory is limited. Studies have shown that we can only hold four to five elements of information at the same time in our working memory. Our working memory was designed to hold small chunks of information for short periods of time. As a result, any input beyond its natural capacity results in an overload of our mental capacities.
Our working memory was not designed to be a warehouse where you can dump information. Instead it was meant to be an intermediate receiving dock where we receive a new stock of information. Once the information is processed, it is then sent to the warehouse of long-term memory. Here, information gets cataloged and stored as schemas and mental models that can be retrieved for future use. The information age has thrown a wrench into this whole system.
Our brain did not evolve in an information-saturated environment. During our hunter-gatherer times, we received information from our environment through day to day living, not by reading dense packets of information. So, our working memory evolved to facilitate the collection of information in short chunks spread out over a long period of time. Today, everything has changed. We are now swimming in an ocean of knowledge and we are struggling to keep our heads above the water.
The Main Sources of Cognitive Overload
Browsing: The Internet has given us access to all the information in the world at our fingertips. However, if we are not conscious enough to filter the information we receive, it can crush us. One google search, one social media feed, or one email inbox is enough to burn through your mind’s information budget.
“Try reading a book while doing a crossword puzzle. That’s the intellectual environment of the Internet.”
— Nicholas Carr, Author of Shallow, How the Internet is changing our brains.
Choosing: Making choices is hard. Making good choices is even harder. Every moment, our brain has to process a lot of information and weigh the options to decide what’s best for us. All this processing strains our mental resources and leads to cognitive overload.
“Learning to choose is hard. Learning to choose well is harder. And learning to choose well in a world of unlimited possibilities is harder still, perhaps too hard.”
- Barry Schwartz, Author of The Paradox of Choice
Switching: Even though you may think that you are a multitasker, studies have shown that there is no such thing as multitasking. You are simply switching between tasks. This comes with a switching cost that leads to a loss in IQ and concentration. It has been shown that it takes an average of 25 minutes to return to your regular work after being interrupted by an email.
“Task switching comes with a biological cost that ends up making us feel tired much more quickly than if we sustain attention on one thing,”
-Daniel Levitin, Author of the Organized Mind
How does cognitive overload impact our life?
Poor decisions - Information overload leads to an overworked mind. An overworked mind is poor at conscious decision making. As we go through the day depleting our mental resources, the quality of our decisions takes a toll. We go for the impulsive choices instead of the conscious ones. This means we fall into the trap of choosing junk food, making impulsive purchases, and losing our temper over silly things.
Loss in productivity: Cognitive overload can result in a state of mind where you feel more distracted and your attention span is reduced. In today’s knowledge economy, the quality of your work depends on the amount of deep work you can invest into it.
What can we do about it?
Setup Filters- The only way to limit information overload is to set up good filters. A good filter should allow you to see the signal from the noise. Spend some time to set up filters for your information sources such as social media feeds and email inboxes. Use services like Instapaper to save things to read later at your own pace.
Reduce the choices- Choice is a good thing, however too much choice is actually bad for you. It leads to confusion and anxiety. Steve Jobs famously wore the same attire every day to work. He was saving his energy to make the important decisions at Apple instead of the trivial decisions involved in day to day life.
Reduce Screen Time- I think this is an obvious one. But, controlling your screen time is extremely crucial for your mental health and well-being. Keep your phone away 1-2 hrs before bed time. Use an app like forest to schedule time for undistracted deep work. Configure social media notifications so that you are in control of what you see.
Tweet of the week.
This week, I wrote a thread where I distilled the key ideas and learning from a book called Willpower. We all know that we need to use willpower to get hard things done. But, willpower is not some mystical thing that you can draw upon when you need it. There is a science behind how willpower works and how we can use it to our benefit. The irony is that author himself recommends us not to rely on willpower for achieving our goals. Instead, he asks us to use willpower to build systems, routines, and habits. You can read the entire thread here.
What I am reading
I am fascinated about the science of human behavior. Marketing might be the only domain that has fully tapped into this science for practical purposes. David Ogilvy was a British advertising guru, founder of Ogilvy & Mather, and known as the "Father of Advertising”. I will be posting a thread with my notes/learnings from the book this week. You can follow my twitter profile here.
Moment of the Week.
It’s been a while since we took a family picture together. When life gets crazy and you are stuck in a lockdown with nowhere to go, you forget to capture the good moments. After all, isn’t life just but a bunch of moments? So this was my favorite moment this week.
(That’s Me, Mia and Santhi)
Thanks for reading! I hope this edition gave you some food for thought and ideas to think, feel, and do better. If you liked it, please share it with someone else who may also enjoy it. If you have any feedback or comments, you can write them in the comment box below or drop me an email.