My kids love to give me grief about my laptop.
I have, at any given moment, hundreds of tabs open.
They'll watch me work and say, "Mom, this is why it doesn't run quickly. You have all of this going on!"
Thinking about this idea inspired this newsletter.
How many tabs do you have open right now?
Not on your browser but in your head.
→ The running list of things you need to do.
→ The conversation you should have had differently.
→ The worry about next week.
→ The story you're telling yourself about whether you're doing enough.
We carry cognitive overload like it's a badge of honor and we don't even realize it's slowing everything down.
Naval Ravikant once described meditation as the process of getting your mental inbox to zero. That phrase stopped me in my tracks - because before reading that quote, I had never really stopped to consider just how full that inbox was.
It's not just the tasks but the mental chatter underneath.
It doesn't just slow you down.
It prevents you from being here at all.
You're at dinner with your family, but you're mentally drafting tomorrow's email.
You're in a meeting, but you're rehearsing what you'll say instead of listening.
You're walking outside, but you're not seeing the sky.
We fill so much of our lives with noise.
Not because we want to, but because stillness feels uncomfortable. Because when you stop moving, you start hearing yourself.
And sometimes that's unbearable - or we don’t even remember how to listen.
What if we created just enough structure to remove some of the noise?
There's a reason people talk about Steve Jobs wearing the same black shirt every day.
One less decision = one less tab open.
There's a reason time blocking works.
When you know what you're doing next, you stop spending mental energy figuring it out.
There's a reason that the most profound moments of clarity often come in the shower, or on a long walk, or in those first few minutes after waking.
The inbox is momentarily quiet.
The work isn't about emptying it completely. That's not realistic, and probably not even desirable.
The work is noticing how full it is. And then gently, intentionally, closing a few tabs.
Not all at once.
Just enough to make space for what matters.
So here's my invitation this week.
Pick one moment.
Maybe it's your morning coffee or the walk from your car to your office.
Or maybe it's the ten minutes before your kids wake up.
And in that moment, close the tabs.
Don't rehearse. Don't solve.
Just be there.
Notice what happens when you let the inbox breathe.
Would this be helpful for you?
You’re welcome to reply and tell me what you're noticing.
Erica
Executive & Leadership Coach
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