What is cognitive load, and why is it important?

Have you ever seen (or heard) that joke where someone says, “My mind is like my internet browser: 19 tabs are open, 3 of them are frozen and I have NO IDEA where the music is coming from”? They’re talking about cognitive load.

It sounds like an overly scientific term, but cognitive load basically says that the brain can only carry so much and do so many things at once. Where humankind once prized multitasking and putting our brains through the wringer, we’re now seeing that doing so puts unnecessary stress on our brains and, generally speaking, inhibits our ability to do our best work.

As a society, we’re moving faster than ever. Technological advancements have turned up the speed of daily life. Where it once took a week to send and receive a letter, you can now send a text or DM in seconds. Where we once would’ve had to travel for hours or even days to meet, you can now schedule a video call across time zones. And yes, there are certainly advantages to these advancements — but they also come with a cost.

Burnout is on the rise across the globe, and many of us have limited options for the brain to be bored. And that’s a shame, because it’s during that downtime that our brains can rest, recharge and make some brilliant connections. There are few situations in modern life where we can truly unplug — perhaps a shower, for example (but even that has its limitations, and many people regularly bring music, audiobooks and even TVs into the bathroom).

It’s for that reason, among many others, that we love simplicity. We know that other apps and platforms offer you dozens (if not hundreds or even thousands) of potential integrations, but we think that’s just too much. It’s like standing in a store faced with way too many choices and feeling paralyzed by it all.

That’s why we’ve focused our efforts on the main integrations and features that people use regularly, the ones that are more closely associated with actually getting stuff done rather than dawdling and spending time fine-tuning inconsequential features. (Case in point: Have you ever spent way too long adjusting the way something looks only to realize that it didn’t add context and that the content itself needed more substance?)

With the expertise of our amazing developers, we’re on a mission to build something better: a responsible productivity platform that makes time (and space) for everyone to engage productively with their work and with the world around them. We’re happy you’re here with us, joining us in our message that it’s about time things change.