Digital shortcuts and cognitive load

The general rule is that the fewer cognitive resources are available, the more your brain will rely on biases, heuristics, and salient cues in the environment.

The more of the details of our daily life we can hand over to the effortless custody of automatism, the more our higher powers of mind will be set free for their own proper work. There is no more miserable human being than one in whom nothing is habitual but indecision, and for whom the lighting of every cigar, the drinking of every cup, the time o

Embrace boring and single-purpose technology. Digital distractions are so seductive because they seem to offer the chance of escape to a realm where painful human limitations don’t apply: you need never feel bored or constrained in your freedom of action, which isn’t the case when it comes to work that matters (here). You can combat this problem by

The key is to find ways to minimize context shifts and overload while still getting done what needs to get done.