To think my brain won't get any bigger? 🤯

[Squishybopbadobop]

Does anyone's brain just seem to give up when it gets full? Mostly work related, when it's busy but mine seems to refuse to function when I have a lot of detail to manage, or if it's busy, I start making mistakes but don't even realise how stupid they are, like my brain has just given up. Obviously this isn't ideal and I'd like to think I'm relatively intelligent but only when things are slow paced and not overwhelming me. Will I get used to this and start to process things quicker or am I destined to a small brain capacity forever?

Thanks for your help!

One of the many wonderful things about the brain is that it never gets "full".

It’s not about brain capacity it’s about mental clutter. If I have a lot of competing priorities I write them down. I then break down things into sub tasks that I can tick off. That way my brain is freed up to think about performing the task rather than trying to keep score.
Even Sherlock Holmes didn’t try to hang on to every bit of information 😉

I think it was Einstein who said that you don't have to remember everything, you just need to remember how to look it up.

For instance: Nobody has to remember all the dates of wider family birthdays, anniversaries, celebrations etc. Have a 'birthday book', write them all in there, and then all you have to do is look in it once a month to find out what's coming up.

Executive functioning issue?

Thanks everyone. I think it's just the pace and detail of everything at work that I have to keep re-prioritising throughout the day and then deadlines are looming with things that require a lot of thought as it's so detailed and then I get more coming in and the cycle continues and then I feel mentally exhausted. I have lists upon lists and am a really organised person but I just don't seem to think quickly enough. Maybe it's normal and just need to be kinder to myself and relax more during breaks.
I'll have a look at executive functioning, thank you.

How old are you? I’ve always had a photographic memory but as soon as I turned 40 it started to get slower and it’s harder for me to learn now. I started taking magnesium at night and it was a game changer.

I need to get things out of my brain or I can no longer do anything. I just can’t motivate myself to ‘do’ when my brain is too full. I have a lot of systems to work around this (mostly my Outlook calendar, Microsoft To-Do and lots of spreadsheets) but I feel physically lighter once my brain is no longer responsible for remembering as it’s in my “system”

And I’m a high achieving, senior professional member of Mensa so it’s not intelligence or ability related - I think it’s a stress response to feeling responsible for remembering too much.

You probably have to learn to be more ruthless at parking things that you can't deal with straight away. I am very good at going back to people and saying "yes I can look at this but it won't be today." I add it to the list then ignore it until the other tasks are done. If your job allows for it - block out time when you just get your head down and work - shut your email and ignore calls. I've even started a solo zoom call before now so people stopped trying to call me every few minutes because they could see I was in a meeting.

I'm 37 so it could be that @HashBrownandBeans, I'll try Magnesium, thank you.

I really appreciate the advice from everyone, some really interesting ideas that make so much sense. Needing to park and a stress response hit the nail on the head, thank you all so much!

Try Lamberts multi guard ADR vitamins. Bloody miraculous for memory and brain fog. I get mine from Landys Chemist.

Thank you @Wallywobbles I will have a look

Do you get proper switch off time?

I would do some reading into rest and the importance of - both time off in the evenings and weekends and breaks during the day.

If that doesn’t help, try a coach - either your job needs strumming, or you are in an environment that doesn’t suit you so you need to figure out it you can adapt or not.

@continentallentil I do try to switch off but get bored and looking for things to do. You're absolutely right about how important it is though, I need to just get into the habit of being bored and properly relaxing when I'm not working and ill be more productive when I am. Thank you!

Which magnesium do you take?

You have described me to a T! Turned 40 in December and I seem to be forgetting all sorts recently