Strategies to Avoid Decision Paralysis (or Cognitive Overload) in the Modern Workplace
Every day we are bombarded with massive amounts of information from the moment we wake up, reading the news highlights or scrolling social media, to answering emails before bed. We crave data to make us feel comfortable that we’ve accounted for the whole picture, and our decisions are based in sound reality. We pose questions to our too-happy smartphone assistants and make queries into unfathomable indexes of information. Are we forcing ourselves to see too much? Eventually our brains become fatigued from the constant barrage of stimulus and are no longer able to effectively process what is experienced. This is known as Cognitive Overload by cognitive psychologists. Cognitive Overload can lead to frustration, a negative impact on mental health, and decision paralysis.
The Cognitive Load Theory postulates that there are three main types of cognitive load and how that effects learning and understanding:
Extraneous Load – Irrelevant factors that add cognitive burden.
Intrinsic Load – Complexity of the subject matter.
Germane Load – Mental effort directed toward integrating the new information.
To be most effective in preventing the decision paralysis that comes with cognitive overload, we need strategies that account for these different types of load effectively. To take a real-world example in our industry, let’s consider a source of data related to work projects.
Here are some strategies we can employ to reduce our cognitive load:
Break the data into smaller chunks, to understand all the constituent parts of it before trying to understand the whole picture (this is known as Chunking).
Group your data together into like buckets such as project type, starting quarter, or project sponsor.
Organize the data into a known sequence or pattern (this is known as Sequencing).
Sort your data by date, priority, cost, or other major factors that can be easily sorted can reduce your intrinsic load.
Reduce the amount of extraneous information. It requires effort to ignore the information that is irrelevant to your task, do yourself a favor and remove it altogether.
Pre-filter your data set to only what is relevant before you start to fully analyze it. Think of this as reducing the number of rows in an excel sheet.
Remove metadata and other data points that are not relevant to your current task. Think of this as reducing the number of columns in an excel sheet.
Reducing cognitive load goes beyond the data, you also need to employ strategies with your working habits:
Reduce distractions in your workspace. Just as it requires effort to ignore irrelevant information, it also takes effort to ignore distractions and outside influences.
Put yourself in do-not-disturb mode in your workplace chatting platform and email client to avoid notifications.
Put your phone into silent mode and put it elsewhere. Leave it in a pocket, drawer, purse, or backpack. If you leave it on your desk, it can easily become a distraction.
Close all irrelevant applications and windows on your computer to keep only the relevant applications visible.
Close irrelevant browser tabs and windows.
Modify and customize your working tools and applications.
Many modern applications and tools have a myriad of customization options where you can show or hide entire sidebars, toolbars, icons, menu items, outline views, etc. Reduce the visual noise your brain needs to ignore.
Some applications even support a "zen” mode or similar where the interface is drastically reduced and enters a full screen mode to keep you hyper focused.
Employing some of the above strategies will make you more effective in the modern workplace, and can aid you in reducing your cognitive load, which will allow you to accomplish more in a given time, and hopefully avoid overload altogether.