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How many tabs are open on your browser right now? How many in your brain? For most leaders, the answer is the same: way too many. Ive been theredesigning organizational development experiences, coaching executives, writing books, hosting a podcast, and managing the operational realities of running a business. My calendar can become a patchwork quilt of 30-minute calls, quick turnarounds, and constant urgent pings. I told myself I thrived on variety, but what I was really doing was fragmenting my attention. And heres what Ive learned: the true cost of mental switching isnt just time. Its the erosion of the spacious thinking that we all need to see patterns, explore ideas, and create breakthroughs. Research from the American Psychological Association indicates that shifting between tasks can result in a loss of up to 40% of productive time due to the switch cost of reorienting to a new context. Gloria Mark, author of Attention Span, found that once distracted, it can take an average of 23 minutes and 15 seconds to return to full focus on the original task. A Stanford University study revealed something more troubling: heavy multitaskers perform worse at filtering irrelevant information and are more easily distracted. The more you switch, the more your brain treats everything as equally urgent, making it harder to prioritize the big picture. Why This Matters for Leaders Mental switching is a tax on your most valuable leadership currency: clarity. When your attention is split, you default to reactive thinkingresponding to the next ping, the next fire, the next question. Strategic thinking, creativity, and visioning require expansive thinking: time and space to explore ideas without the pressure to act on them immediately. In my work with executives, Ive seen this play out countless times. A CEO told me, Im so busy putting out fires that I havent looked at our three-year vision in months. Another leader said she was never more creative than during a weekend hike because her brain had room to wander and make new connections. As someone who thrives on variety, whether designing a team offsite, painting, or leading deep coaching sessions, I once believed mental switching was a creative strength. But theres a difference between cross-pollination and cognitive whiplash. Cross-pollination occurs when you intentionally bring insights from one area to another. Cognitive whiplash occurs when you switch so quickly that your brain never forms a deep connection with anything. Practical Strategies to Stop Mental Switching Leaders often assume that the only way to get more done is to push harder, fill the calendar, and stay always on. But real breakthroughs rarely happen when your mind is sprinting from one demand to the next. Spaciousness is not the absence of work; its the presence of focus. Creating that space involves intentionally designing your environment, schedule, and mental habits so that your brain can shift from survival mode into expansive mode. Its in that stateunhurried, undistracted, and fully presentthat your best thinking emerges. This isnt about doing less; its about creating the mental conditions for your most important work to surface, the ideas that change the game rather than keep it running. Here are some strategies you can use. 1. Tab audit. Once a day, close every browser tab. Reopen only what you truly need for the next focus block. This visual reset cues your brain to start fresh and primes you for intentional focus. 2. Context clustering. Group similar work together. Put all one-on-ones in the same half-day. Dedicate an afternoon to strategic work. Batching related tasks improves performance and reduces fatigue. 3. Strategic pauses. Before switching, take 60 seconds to write down where you left off. This creates a mental bookmark so your brain can release the task and reengage faster later. 4. The weekly spark check-in. Once a week, block 60 to 90 minutes for a personal spark sessiona structured pause to step back from the noise and reanchor in what matters most. Using specific prompts to reflect, envision, and act on what is important. Once I am done, I choose a single illuminating move for the week ahead. Leaders I have worked with find this ritual not only clears mental clutter but also sparks expansive, pattern-making thinking that doesnt happen in the middle of back-to-back calls. Expansive thinking isnt a luxury; its a leadership necessity. Without it, youre not steering the ship; youre just bailing water. So heres my challenge: audit your mental tabs this week, close what you can, and batch the rest. It is time to protect space for your most important thinking because the open tabs will always be there, but the breakthroughs? They need room to breathe and take shape. Spaciousness is where strategy gains clarity, creativity catches fire, and your leadership shifts from reacting to shaping the future. Guard it as fiercely as any meeting on your calendar, because your next big leap will rarely come from a crowded mind.
Category:
E-Commerce
When times are good and the economy is expanding, companies grow in a variety of ways. They build in some redundancy so that key functions survive even if an employee leaves. They add capacity hoping to grow the size of the core business. They consider new projects or products that might enable the company to enter new markets. All of this is reflected in a growth in the number of employees at the firm. When the economy takes a downturn, leaders immediately look for places to trim costsand the base of workers is often an easy place to start. That is when the layoffs may begin: this year companies have already eliminated 800,000 jobs. So, what can you do to minimize the chances that one will find its way to you? Be good at your job Perhaps the most important thing you can do to protect your job is to be really good at it. When a company first starts to consider downsizing, they usually start by looking for candidates to lay off whose contributions wont be missed that much. So, the first people to go are usually those whose performance has been lackluster. Continue to develop your skills to become expert in your job function and facile with any new technologies that may improve your productivity. Work to stay motivated to provide great service to your team, your clients, and your customers. Even on the days you arent feeling it you still need to bring a positive attitude to your work. Be the kind of person that your leadership notices. That effort will get you past that first round of layoffs that often targets the folks that management is perfectly happy to see walk out the door. Be mission-critical When companies look for ways to trim costs, they often focus on their core businesses. The dreams of new products and services take a back seat to a focus on the central drivers of revenue in the near term. That means the safest place to be in the organization is working on things that are recognized to be mission critical. Take a look at your daily responsibilities. If you have some latitude about where youre spending your time, focus most on those tasks that are easily identified as contributions to the core current drivers of revenue and success. You may have a passion for some of the more innovative or future-focused parts of your job, and you can continue to do some of that work. But, make sure that the bulk of your focus is on projects that are not potentially expendable. Play well with others When high-level leadership wants a reduction in force, they often send headcount or budget targets to managers who then have to identify the people who are let go. When it reaches that stage, managers are in a mindset of rejection. They are thinking about which individuals will not make the cut to stay with the firm. Whenever youre looking to eliminate people (or options) from a set, you tend to focus on the negative characteristics of those options more than the positives. That means that your negatives are going to loom particularly large at that moment. One factor that is easily under your control is whether you are a pleasant colleague to work with. Being nice to others, doing favors, and being a team player puts you in a camp of individuals who make the workplace pleasant rather than unpleasant. So, you are unlikely to stick out of a list of people being considered as potential layoff targets. On top of that, managers are also human. They are likely to give more consideration to people they generally like than to those they dont. Being nice to others wont guarantee youll keep your job, but it will make the decision as difficult as possible for the manager faced with making tough choices.
Category:
E-Commerce
Hurricane Erin began pelting part of the Caribbean with rain and wind Monday before it’s expected to churn up dangerous surf and rip currents along the U.S. East Coast this week. Evacuations were being ordered on a few islands along North Carolinas Outer Banks even though the storm is unlikely to make direct landfall. Authorities warned that some roads could be swamped by waves of 15 feet (4.6 meters). The monster storm intensified to a Category 4 with 140 mph (225 kph) maximum sustained winds early Monday while it started to lash the Turks and Caicos Islands and the southeast Bahamas, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami. Forecasters are confident that Erin will turn northeast and away from the eastern U.S., but it’s still expected to produce dangerous waves and rip currents and could bring tropical force winds to the North Carolina coast, said Dave Roberts of the National Hurricane Center. Evacuations were ordered beginning Monday on Hatteras Island and Ocracoke Island on the Outer Banks, coming at the height of tourist season on the thin stretch of low-lying barrier islands that jut far into the Atlantic Ocean. Coastal flooding was expected to begin Tuesday and continue through Thursday. There are concerns that several days of heavy surf, high winds, and waves could wash out parts of the main highway running along the barrier islands, the National Weather Service said. Some routes could be impassible for several days, authorities warned. But there were no signs of panic on Hatteras Island, said Angela Tawes, a co-owner of Conners Supermarket. Its so beautiful outside. Its hard for people to feel like theres a hurricane coming when its so gorgeous, she said. Erin, the years first Atlantic hurricane, reached a dangerous Category 5 status Saturday with 160 mph (260 kph) winds before weakening. It is expected to remain a large, major hurricane into midweek. Youre dealing with a major hurricane. The intensity is fluctuating. Its a dangerous hurricane in any event, the hurricane center’s Richard Pasch said. Early Monday, the storm was located about 110 miles (180 kilometers) north of Grand Turk Island and about 880 miles (1,400 kilometers) south-southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. Tropical storm warnings were in effect for the southeast Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands, the hurricane center said. Erins outer bands hit parts of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands with heavy rains and tropical-storm winds on Sunday. Scientists have linked the rapid intensification of hurricanes in the Atlantic to climate change. Global warming is causing the atmosphere to hold more water vapor and is spiking ocean temperatures, and warmer waters give hurricanes fuel to unleash more rain and strengthen more quickly.
Category:
E-Commerce
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