how to reduce mental drain
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Hi Reader, I was at dinner with my family last week when my son Ari asked me a question. I had no idea what he said. Not because I didn’t hear him, but because part of my brain was still at work. My mind was too busy thinking about a client issue and mentally mapping out my to-do list for the next day. I was physically there. But I wasn’t actually present at the dinner table. 👉 The Problem Whether you work at an office or from home, you don’t just leave at the end of the day. All of the mental stress comes home with you. You’re also thinking about whether your kid put their homework in their backpack, whether you responded to that text about the weekend away with friends, and if you bought enough juice boxes for school lunch that week. You’re trying to be a good employee, a good parent, a good partner, and a good friend… all while managing a hundred background thoughts that won’t turn off. Being present is how you hear what matters, connect with people, and make decisions from a clear head instead of a scattered one. But it’s hard to do any of that when your brain never leaves work. 👉 The Big Small Thing Here’s 3 things I’ve started doing to reduce mental drain and be more present with my family: #1: Delete the email app from your phone. I check email constantly, and it’s a habit I’m trying to break this year. Now if I want to check email, I have to a) manually open my email through my browser, or b) have my computer nearby. This makes it annoying (in a good way!) to check. It sounds small. But that mental break from constantly checking it has saved a lot of time. #2: Eliminate a decision before you even have to make it. Every choice you make drains mental energy. For nearly 18 years at Google, I eliminated decision making in what I wore to work each day. Same thing every day: t-shirt, blazer (I have 18 of them, same brand/style, in different colors), jeans, and sneakers. I didn’t realize I’d stolen this concept from Steve Jobs, but it’s the same reason he wore that iconic black mock turtleneck every day. He needed to save his decision-making reservoir for bigger decisions leading Apple. Every decision you eliminate is mental space you get back. #3: Remove one source of background anxiety you can control. For me, it’s peace of mind about my family’s information online. With everything happening around AI and data scraping, I realized how much of our personal data was searchable and available. So I switched to DeleteMe (this week’s newsletter sponsor!). It continuously monitors and removes our family’s information from data brokers. It’s completely hands off: I set it up once and get quarterly reports showing me what data’s been removed. With DeleteMe, there’s one less thing my brain is quietly worried about. My readers get a special 20% off discount. Check it out here or go to joindeleteme.com/wildcourage and use my code WILDCOURAGE. 👉 How This Helps You Get What You Want You can’t be fully present when your brain is running a hundred background processes. So today, delete your email app, have a go-to outfit for work or handle one source of anxiety that’s been sitting in the back of your mind. Not a total life overhaul. Just one thing. See what happens when you free up that space. Let’s do this, P.S. One of the things that’s given me the most peace of mind is DeleteMe. With DeleteMe, I know my family’s personal information is protected. DeleteMe continuously monitors and removes our data from data brokers, so I’m not carrying that worry anymore. If that’s something you’re concerned about too, my readers get a special offer at joindeleteme.com/wildcourage. Check it out here. |
