Ever felt like you have 47 open tabs running in your brain, all demanding your full attention at the same time?
If so, you're in good company. Almost every leader and business professional I’ve spoken with over the last few weeks is feeling that same mental drag.
I compare this to being an air traffic controller. (Instead of 47 tabs, those are 47 planes in the air.)
Air traffic controllers stay aware of planes scheduled to land even hours from now. But their primary focus—where their deep time and energy must go—is on the planes landing in the next 30 minutes.
Those are the ones requiring more specific instructions to prevent a crash.
⬇️ Btw, watch instead of reading, or read on below.
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Overwhelm usually isn't caused by how much you have on your plate. It happens when you try to keep every future project and task crammed into the immediate circle of your mind.
When you treat a plane landing six months from now with the same urgency as one landing in ten minutes, fatigue and noise take over.
Here's a simple, practical exercise I recommended to a leader this week to quiet that noise:
- Audit your airspace: Write down every single plane (project, task, or goal) currently circling in your mind.
- Create your containers: Draw a simple bullseye with concentric circles—Immediate (landing now), Next 30–90 days, and Future.
- Place your planes: Assign every item to its proper circle, and get a clearer view of what is more of a priority and why.
- Protect your center: Before pulling a task from the outer ring into your immediate circle, ask: Does this actually deserve space here right now?
Take a pause today and look at your mental runway:
- Which planes are you giving immediate energy to that don't actually land for months? (Sure, they still may need to be touched...but are they taking too much of your immediate energy?)
- What needs to be moved out of your center circle so you can regain focus?
When you give your tasks a clear container, you free up mental capacity and step back into clarity and momentum.
Love doing life with you,
Dawn
PS - If you'd like guidance on sorting throught the through the noise, September's Momentum Reset is a perfect place to do that. Our LIVE event is just about sold out, but you can still run with us at Momentum Reset ONLINE.
I’ll livestream directly to your desk--we'll meet online over lunch in 2 hour sessions, spread out over 3 days. Learn more here.
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