#mental bandwidth

[legogradstudent]

Breathing a sigh of relief about the state of democracy, the grad student gains the mental bandwidth to fully contemplate the state of his dissertation.

[anti-capitalistlesbianwitch]

I want to write posts about things but am currently lacking the mental bandwidth to form coherent thoughts and non-rambly sentences.

[optimalmindsetllc]

The content discusses the detrimental effects of overthinking on entrepreneurs, emphasizing its role in stealing time, energy, and opportunities. It describes analysis paralysis as a barrier to effective action, highlighting the importance of decisive habits to combat this issue. By overcoming overthinking, entrepreneurs can reclaim their time and enhance productivity.

The Hidden Costs of Overthinking: Time, Energy, and Missed Opportunities

[mollyfamous]

I really prefer to discuss my mental and emotional energy levels as "bandwidth" instead of "spoons." Bandwidth just seems more... intuitively comparable to me. Like when I can't think because my brain is too noisy and chaotic, it uses up a lot of bandwidth , so "I don't have the bandwidth," to deal with a lot of things. When I can't think because I'm too tired/exhausted/spent, I've used up all my mental bandwidth allotment for the time being, so again, "I don't have the bandwidth." When I'm anxious, or upset, or frantic or having an easily frustrated day, my emotional bandwidth feels bottlenecked. When I'm worn out from feeling too much, I've used up my emotional bandwidth.

[daveinediting]

There are times when I change my work process because I want to. There are also times when I change my work process because I have to.

One of the projects on which I'm working right now involves two different pieces I have to create. And those two pieces are different enough that I can't think about the second one while I'm working on the first one. Literally. Can't consider it even a little bit. It's like there's a steel-reinforced brick wall in my mind preventing me from addressing these other thoughts.

Not exaggerating, by the way. It's really quite specific like that.

Which means I can only work on the second when I'm not doing anything at all with the first. Which means I have to consciously stop working on one before starting work on the other, or... I finish the first one completely before moving on to the second.

All of which is obvious and straightforward. 

The reason I mention it today, though, is because it's rare for such a creative block, such an either/or situation to pop up in my work. Its extreme presentation is actually a reminder to me that creative mental efforts really are a zero sum game. That is, one effort occurring simultaneously with another effort draws on the same amount of mental bandwidth. There are no simultaneous 100% efforts when it comes to strategic or creative thinking. Each one takes some fraction of the 100% each of us has.

That 100%, by the way, isn’t actually 100%. Much like when you buy a new hard drive, it never has the exact amount of drive space advertised on the box. It’s always something less because of such space as is needed to run the hard drive.

Make sense?

Because it’s the same deal with human beings plus... our focus always splits in some way. Our bandwidth is chipped away by more than just our creative attention.

These things, whatever they are, are mostly small. But you never know. Some days you’ve got more draw on your mental bandwidth than others depending on what’s happening in your life. So yeah. You never have the full 100% to play with. And everything you choose to do with the rest at the same time takes some fraction of that. Meaning, we don't multitask the way we think we do. The way we hope we do.

Yeah.

There are times when I change my work process because I want to. There are also times when I change my work process because I have to.

Ugh.

Apparently, this is one of those time...

I have to.

☹️

[daveinediting]

Healthy Creativity is a set of practices that fosters our best creative work. Even under time constraints. Even under pressure.

And yes. I’m still working on the name.

So far, here are the practices I’ve got...

1. Be strategic in how you use the time you have... rather than allow your creativity to be bullied by a clock that's ticking down.

2. Exercise your creative muscles both inside and outside paid projects.

3. Come to your work prepared.

4. Bring your mental and physical best.

Which lands us on number five today which is:

No multitasking.

That's obviously not possible... but how we deal with tasks that pile onto a single moment is hugely important if for no better reason than that circumstance constitutes a monster opportunity for mistakes.

And.

It's also important to remember that multitasking is a zero sum undertaking. With a finite amount of bandwidth at our disposal, we assume a second simultaneous task at the expense of the first. We take on a third simultaneous task at the expense of the first two. And so on.

We don't. Multitask.

We use an ever diminishing amount of our processing power on each subsequent effort.

And the tasks?

They can be anything. They don't have to just be work. They're anything that consumes your processing power. My... processing power.

Also this. Simply jumping from one task into another into another results in a kind of mental interference because we don't cleanly switch between tasks. We mentally drag some pieces of the previous task into the new one. Which is what causes the interference.

Anyway.

We don't multitask.

Not like we think we do. Not like we assume we do. Not like we hope we do.

So how we manage that hardwired limitation has a huge impact on our creative efforts.

☹️

[daveinediting]

This year's definitely drawn me repeatedly to cognitive psych. I've thought about how the discipline relates to my work as an editor. I've thought about my own mental bandwidth. I even dipped my toe into optical illusions and how to fool a human perceptual system.

The reason for my interest, the reason I'm choosing to spend time with these interests across the year, is that I'm about to multitask… when everything I've studied so far indicates that I can't.

And I believe that.

The thing is, I'm about to fully embrace wearing three different hats for an upcoming travel series: editor, composer, and motion graphics. Which makes me a true bottleneck if ever there was one as I can't do any of those jobs at the same time.

My concern, though, is that this is a juggling act. And there's no question how easy it is to become fully engaged by the logistics of the juggling.

But.

These hats I'm wearing are all creative pursuits. And I need to bake into my process, well first... a process that's a healthy creative process.

It can't just be juggling against the clock. This can't be like time trials — go as fast as you can — even though we do have deadlines to hit and this is a time trial.

I need a healthy creative process.

Hand to God, I just thought of it that way.

Because I've never thought of the creative process as something that can be healthy or unhealthy.

So okay. Yes.

I'm gonna take a little time and think about this.

Be back tomorrow.

🙂

[conceptsnest]

MENTAL/ BRAIN BANDWIDTH

Everything we do (thinking and doing) occupies some bandwidth. Some things occupy a little and others a lot. Examples of things that occupy a little, for most people, are walking, drumming your fingers, or tapping your foot, and things that we are expert at because we have done them often. Examples of things that occupy a lot are talking, listening to information, doing anything we have to concentrate hard on, doing things that we are not expert in because we have not done them before.

Driving a car is a good way to envisage this. When we were learning to drive, we had to concentrate extremely hard. We would not have been able to hold a conversation while driving. Almost all our attention was involved in trying to drive. Now that we are an expert, we do not usually have to use so much of your attention. Of course, we still must use a fair amount, but we could also have a conversation while driving. But then, every now and then while you’re driving along, something happens that means you have to focus more: the traffic increases, you come to a part of the journey where you have to look out for a turning, roadworks happen, the weather becomes difficult. Then you will find that you tend to stop conversation; you might turn the radio off; you have instinctively realised that you need more brain bandwidth for the driving.

A few more interesting examples:

1)      If someone is walking at their own pace while being asked simple but increasingly difficult mental arithmetic questions, or questions that need concentration, they will begin to walk more slowly as it become harder. Eventually, they usually stop.

2)      When someone is working while listening to music, they will almost always voluntarily turn it down or off when they come to something, they need lots of concentration for.

3)      Air force pilots practise managing disasters repeatedly because the least amount of bandwidth should be used, freeing the rest for reacting to the unexpected. Such unexpected takes a lot of bandwidth, so as many as possible scenarios must become “expected” or at least practised and automatic.

What is Mental Bandwidth (or Cognitive Bandwidth)?

Bandwidth is what allows us to reason, to focus, to learn new ideas, to make creative leaps and to resist our immediate impulses. Bandwidth refers to our cognitive capacity and our ability to pay attention, make good decisions, stick with our plans, and resist temptations. Cognitive bandwidth is the maximum amount of thinking that is available per unit of time. It can be simplified a step further. We use the term ‘bandwidth’ to refer to two broad, related components of mental function:

1) Cognitive capacity: the psychological mechanisms that underlie our ability to solve problems, retain information, engage in logical reasoning, the ability to think and reason abstractly and solve problems.

2) Executive control: our ability to manage our cognitive activities, including planning, attention, and initiating and inhibiting actions.

Time Scarcity Vs Mental Bandwidth

Scarcity creates a powerful goal that inhibits other considerations. By constantly drawing us back to that urgent unmet goal, scarcity taxes our bandwidth and our most fundamental capacities. Busy people all make the same mistake: they assume they are short on time, which of course they are. But time is not their only scarce resource. They are also short on bandwidth. For instance, although the room seems quiet, it is full of disruptions—ones that come from within. Such internal disruptions stem from scarcity. An unrealized need can capture our attention and impede our ability to focus on other things.

The impacts of scarcity on mental bandwidth can be a vicious cycle. Feelings of scarcity, whether money or time, prey on the mind, thereby impairing decision-making. When you are busy, you are more likely to make poor time-management choices – taking on commitments you cannot handle, or prioritising trifling tasks over crucial ones. A vicious spiral kicks in, your feelings of busyness leave you even busier than before.

This scarcity mindset consumes ‘mental bandwidth’ — brainpower that would otherwise go to less pressing concerns, planning ahead and problem-solving. This deprivation can lead to a life absorbed by preoccupations that impose ongoing cognitive deficits and reinforce self-defeating actions. When you focus heavily on one thing, there is just less mind to devote to other things. We call it tunnelling — as you devote more and more to dealing with scarcity you have less and less for other things in your life.

A Cognitive Bandwidth Formula

A simple but different approach to cognitive bandwidth can be demonstrated by a formula that we can all use to find mental balance:

(Cognitive Throughput + Cognitive Overhead) ≤ Cognitive Bandwidth

1)      Throughput: The actual amount of thinking done per unit of time…the throughput depends on the complexity of the stuff we are working on.

2)      Overhead: Overhead is the cost of doing stuff where we must care about organization, task switching, etc, and is paid against the bandwidth limit.

3)      Bandwidth: The bandwidth is fixed at some level which we can barely change.

The idea is to try and always make sure your throughput and overhead do not exceed your perceived total bandwidth. If you know your overhead is going to be high one day, try to plan for a reduced throughput (and vice versa).

Why is this brain bandwidth theory so relevant to wellbeing, stress and performance? 

1)      Stress and preoccupation. Three main disadvantages (among others) are:

a)      That you can have too much adrenalin and have a sense of panic instead of simple alertness.

b)      Cortisol has a habit of building up and over time causing problems with sleep, mental health, focus, mood, performance, and physical illnesses.

c)      Preoccupation. This describes the fact that if our brain bandwidth is occupied, then we have less available to focus on the task in hand.

2)      Things that occupy a lot of bandwidth:

a)      Worries, anxieties, intrusive negative thoughts – if we are worried about something or someone, it’s hard to focus on our work; we’ll make more mistakes; and we’ll be snappier.

b)      Processing information or tasks – such as things we are trying to learn, understand or remember

c)      Anything new and unfamiliar

d)      Other people being around us – they could be distracting us or making us feel unrelaxed; other people are hard to ignore

e)      Working on screens – because when we are using a screen there is almost always competing information on the screen, adverts and icons and notifications designed to attract our attention away from what we are doing.

3)      The consequences of that:

a)      Exhaustion.

b)      Mistakes and forgetfulness – the times when we have “a lot on our mind” are the times when we make mistakes.

c)      Loss of executive control –the times when you snap, say and do things you don’t mean.

d)      Loss of cognitive ability – it is harder to learn new things if we can’t devote our full attention. 

Tips for managing your mental bandwidth

A)     Ignore the Generic Methods and Experiment

There are several conflicting philosophies. For instance, a penny saved might be a penny earned, yet we're also told not to be penny smart and pound foolish. The same holds true with advice for mental bandwidth, where one source might encourage multitasking, while another demand absolute singularity of focus. Rather than trying to adapt your working style to someone else's, experiment with different techniques and keep those that are functional for you, while casting aside those that do not.

B)     Actively manage your mental bandwidth

Perhaps the biggest mistake many people make is allowing their mental bandwidth to be managed for them. The beeping phone, meeting request, or act performed for ritual or obligation all rob our limited mental bandwidth, and many perform these actions unquestioningly. If you allocate your focus as you see fit, and actively choose what you want to focus on, you'll be in command of your mental bandwidth.

C)      Do a bandwidth cost/benefit

Most of us are awash in meeting requests and accept without question. Everyone complains about excessive meetings, yet it's often a guilty pleasure to summon a group at your whim, or join a discussion under the assumption that your input is necessary and valuable. Simply asking yourself whether requesting or attending is worth the cost in mental bandwidth is a great start.

D)     Plan for focus time

There are tasks that require great focus, whether performing precision or dangerous manual work, or designing a complex system or bit of code. Or, you may need to spend some time with a small group, free from distraction. Book a block in your calendar, shut off your phone, move to a different physical location, or do whatever is required to create the right circumstances to have the necessary focus to get the job done.

E)      Know when to throw in the towel

For many of us it can be tempting to put in the extra hour at the office, or delay vacations for what's perceived as a critical set of meetings or deadlines. Trying to squeeze out the last ounce of mental bandwidth can be tempting in the moment, but it's ultimately an effort with rapidly diminishing returns. Calling it a night, taking that long-delayed vacation, or even the simple act of a quick walk around the office will recharge your mental energy and make you more effective in the long run.

F)      Don't make assumptions about your team

It can be tempting to assume that what works for you will be effective for others, even to the point of designing your physical spaces and policies around what you assume will allow your team to best manage and deploy their mental bandwidth. Rather than assuming, ask your team how you can help them be most effective. Allow your teams to experiment and find what works for them, and use the end result as the benchmark for success.

Content Curated By: Dr Shoury Kuttappa