Do you ever feel mentally exhausted?

Foggy-brained?

Forgetful?

Like even doing the smallest task feels like moving through mud? 

If so, cognitive fatigue could be to blame. 

In this episode, I break down what cognitive fatigue is and what it might feel like. I also give you some ideas on what might cause cognitive fatigue and what you can do to start healing. 

Prefer the audio? Listen here.

What Is Cognitive Fatigue?

In short, cognitive fatigue is mental exhaustion. 

Many times, we experience this mental exhaustion after we do a full day of heavy psychological, emotional, or mental lifting. Especially when we don’t give our brains a break. 

(For clarity: cognitive fatigue is sometimes related to brain injuries. For our purposes, I am focusing on how we get cognitive fatigue from over-functioning, over-doing and over-thinking.) 

Think about it: if you were to run a marathon or work out every single day of the week for hours with no breaks, you would have a certain amount of physical fatigue. If you don’t listen to your body, or you don’t rest, you may become injured. 

Cognitive fatigue is similar. We don’t think about our brain or mental capacities in the same way that we think about our physical capacities, yet our brains are always working.

What Are the Signs of Cognitive Fatigue?

So how can you tell if you are cognitively fatigued? Here are some of the signs:

• You might become easily distracted
• You might feel wired at night, despite the exhaustion (I experience an electrical feeling in my body, which prevents me from resting)
• You might feel like you are never well-rested, even after a night of sleep
• You might be irritable 
• Tasks that you used to do with ease might feel overwhelming

If you’re experiencing any of these symptoms, know that you are not alone and that cognitive fatigue is a very real thing. 

Common Causes of Cognitive Fatigue 

Let’s move into why we might feel cognitively fatigued: 

A lack of mental bandwidth. We have a tendency to minimize how much bandwidth daily tasks take, like replacing the toilet paper roll, figuring out what to wear, and planning what to make for dinner. 

A lot of this falls under emotional labor, which is the unpaid, often invisible work that keeps the family/lifeboat afloat. Examples of emotional labor are knowing what the kids need to do and where they need to be each day, remembering all the birthdays, organizing get-togethers, or making the weekly grocery list. 

These tasks consume bandwidth and can be incredibly exhausting, and they need to get done, so we do them without a second thought. We don’t think about how draining they are. 

That is why it can be a good idea to write out every single solitary thing that you do: the cooking, the cleaning, the lists, the calendar management, corresponding with the teachers, with doctors, with family, etc. 

Writing out everything you do will give you an understanding of why you might be so exhausted. 

Sustained work on tasks that require a lot of mental focus. “Sustained” is the key word here. When I wrote Boundary Boss, I was definitely cognitively fatigued even though I worked incredibly hard not to be, because I knew I had to finish the book. 

Not taking mental breaks. If you are constantly going and never giving your brain a break, you will reach cognitive fatigue much faster. 

8 Ways to Heal From Cognitive Fatigue

So what can you do if you feel cognitively fatigued? Here are some solutions: 

Acknowledge that cognitive fatigue is real. Know that there is nothing wrong with you if you are experiencing the symptoms of cognitive fatigue. You may just need to make a few changes in your life to prioritize restoring your energy. 

Build mental breaks into your day. These breaks don’t have to be that long. Make yourself a cup of tea and give yourself 15 minutes to do nothing. A lot of us have been conditioned by hustle culture to always be on the go, but that isn’t for our highest good. 

Create a beginning-of-work time and an end-of-work time. This is especially for my entrepreneurs and folks who work from home because it is so easy to say, “I am going to check my email one last time before I go to bed.” There must be an end to your workday, and it cannot be five minutes before you are trying to go to sleep. You need more expansive time to rest your brain and unwind from the day. 

Don’t overschedule. Do you feel like you are scheduled within an inch of your life? It is not helpful. In fact, it is a one-way ticket to cognitive fatigue. Build in ample time to do the tasks that require a lot of mental focus, and then build in 15 or 20 minutes after to have a break. 

Stop multitasking. A common misconception is that multitasking is efficient. A study conducted by the University of Connecticut showed that students who multitasked while studying or in class had to study longer and got lower grades than students who didn’t multitask. There is a mental cost to switching tasks, so stick to one task at a time for less cognitive fatigue. 

Redistribute emotional labor. In traditional gender roles, women tend to take on more emotional labor. After writing out everything you are responsible for on a daily and weekly basis to keep life going, see if there is a way to redistribute some tasks to your partner, other adults in the home, or older children. I know this isn’t a choice for everyone, but if it is, it is certainly worth looking at. 

Dial into your body. When it feels like you are walking through mud, what bodily sensations are you experiencing? Are you more forgetful than usual? More easily distracted, or easily irritated? Do simple tasks feel difficult, if not impossible? 

Does your brain fog cause you to feel disconnected, almost like you are floating through the motions, but you don’t feel present? 

You might feel cognitive fatigue physically, too. Tension headaches, constricted muscles, or a faster heartbeat might point to cognitive fatigue. 

Create better internal boundaries. If you work from home or for yourself, make a solid decision about when you will begin work, end work, and take breaks so your brain isn’t on all the time. If you work for a company, leave work at work if possible. 

All of these combined will help you create a mental expansion as well as mental resilience, which is the opposite of cognitive fatigue. In the same way that you can’t force your body to run a marathon seven days in a row, you need to build in time to rest, relax, and restore your brain. If you don’t, then everything starts to feel like you are just checking a box, which is no way to go through life. 

I have more tips and ideas for how to handle cognitive fatigue in this week’s downloadable guide, so be sure to grab that right here.

I would love to hear from you: have you experienced cognitive fatigue? How do you prevent it, or how have you healed from it? Drop me a comment or connect with me on Instagram @terricole. 

Have an amazing week taking mental breaks when you need them, and as always, take care of you.