Reducing Cognitive Load

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Reducing load on ourselves

  • GTD Getting Things Done

    • How to organize your lists - see website for details

  • Organize tasks into short term critical, short term not critical, long term less critical, not critical

  • Declutter your inbox

    • Archive immediately no action items

    • Do it if one minute or less

    • If need more time, set a “snooze” to get it later

    • Keep emails 5 sentences or less

    • Make templates

    • Unsubscribe from all lists or bundle promos

    • Stop organizing your email

    • Turn off notifications and create custom notifications for specific people

      • Only check a few times a day

  • Art of efficient thinking

    • Download your mind

      • Dictation service, voice recording, copytalk

      • Idea journal - storage space for ideas - not time sensitive

      • Google keep - writing things down

      • Avoid straining your brain by reducing decisions made each day (prepare lunch/clothes day before). Reduce amount of unimportant information.

  • Bullet Journals

    • Lots of You Tube videos

    • We discussed whether this would actually reduce cognitive load because it takes so much time

  • Hacker Noon

    • If something is incomplete, it’s in your mind

    • Slight positive things have a small mental positive effect, while slight negative things have a large negative effect

    • Read books over articles, avoid newspapers, facebook, etc.

    • Writing alot reduces cognitive load

    • “Decision exhaustion” has not held up in replicated studies

    • Deep work and flow states - as you do something more often, you need a shorter buildup to the point to become super productive

Unsuscribe (Glei)

  • Negativity bias (Goleman research)

    • If we perceive our email as positive, the receiver perceives it as neutral

    • If we perceive our email as neutral, the receiver perceives it as negative

    • This happens because of absence of normal social cues

    • Play close attention to phrasing

  • Busy bias

    • Every email is colored by how busy we are and if we feel we have time for it

    • 10 years ago we spent 0 time on social media because it didn’t exist. Now we spend 1.72 hours a day.

    • Corrosive choice anxiety

  • Map work onto your calendar

    • Start your day with meaningful work

    • Daily routine - check email once at noon and once at end of day

      • Switching cost - creative work requires at least 25 minutes to get into the task after an interruption

    • Outline your goals

    • Signal to noise - thinking on the decade span instead of the day span “Days are long but the decades are short”

  • Close the loop - if you are asking a question, propose an answer

  • Attention to detail:

    • Compose first, add address later

    • Any grammatical errors show lack of attention to detail

    • To remove someone from a chain, bcc them and make sure to mention it in the email

Reducing the load we impose on others

  • Six strategies

    • Maintain signal to noise ratio - get rid of all the noise

    • Promote generative strategies - get learner to interact and generate their own ideas

    • Write concisely

    • Supplantive strategies - small steps to bigger problem/tasks

    • Collaborative learning - divide cognitive process across several individuals

    • Provide cognitive aids - lists, tools, strategies to offload task complexity

      • Mindmap on kumu.com

  • Use F-pattern emails

    • 5-second test - can someone else understand it in 5 sec?

    • Predictability - email templates

    • Visible flow - heading organization and white space

    • Ease of skimming/scanning -

      • people skim emails in an F pattern - use pointed headings to convey message and short paragraphs

      • most important information at the top

  • Write an email with military precision

    • Informative subject line with keywords

      • What do I want by emailing this person and distill it to one word

    • Bottom line up front (BLUF)

      • Most important information at the top

    • Don’t make recipient scroll - keep it short

    • Use active voice