How Simplicity, Consistency and Functionality can Lessen the Mental Load
Because sometimes you don’t have time for sparkle when there are more important things to think about
Have you ever been on the road so much, and so tired and disoriented at the end of a long work week that you didn’t know where you just landed?
I have.
About 15 years ago, I was travelling up and down and round and round Germany on a huge project and late one evening when I made my way to the car rental desk at arrivals, I was convinced I was in a certain city when I was in fact somewhere else. I think I landed in Dusseldorf and thought I was in Hamburg, or something like that.
It is a peculiar feeling of disorientation – mild and short-lived but strange. For a type A hyper-independent person, it’s certainly jarring.
I was thinking about that and the toll that constant business travel, jet lag, lack of sleep, and staying in hotels takes. You see, today, for a full minute, I thought I landed in a particular city when in fact I wasn’t just in a different city but a different country. I was in the right place, I got on the right plane, that was all fine. It was just that the other city would have made just as much sense for me to be landing at.
Some business cultures are used to frequent travel as they work regularly across geographies. Other cultures are more location-specific, and there is little travel in the normal course of business. But once you reach the stage where travel is less excitement or more work – that’s when you’ve crossed over to our side. Welcome.
There’s a reason you can recognise frequent business travellers, and it is not about the suits. When you are on the road for non-leisure purposes, you develop certain protective mechanisms to keep yourself sane and focused on the job itself. (I know some of you find it disappointing that I don’t fly around on private jets, but I’m just a normal gal, really. Having said that, next time you want to offer me a ride, you know where to find me.)
You develop mental shortcuts. You never check in luggage – you want to be out of the airport fast, plus you can’t have your suitcase lost when on a 3-day work trip. You always pack the same things, all functional and in muted colours that work together in any variation, with perhaps a couple of interesting accents. People have their own small, functional “security blankets” – a Kindle, a big scarf, a particular game on their iPad, a pair of warm socks, whatever.
The reason I’ve been thinking about this is that this considered attitude can apply to so many other aspects of our lives too.
Sometimes you want to lessen the mental load that would distract you from what you need to focus on.
Other times, you need to keep your eyes and ears open and absorb everything that’s around you, finding the richness even in the mundane.
The trick is knowing when to do which.
And not confusing the two.
Being able to compartmentalise and, just as importantly, knowing when to use which skills you have in a given situation is the difference between being effective and just banging your head against the wall.
Let me explain.
Many of us