That Feeling Has a Name
Episode two, cognitive overhead. You know that feeling where everything feels like too much — not because the tasks are hard or anything catastrophic happened. It just feels harsher than it should. You feel a little out of control. Like you'd give anything just to lay it down and be done for the day.
And the worst part is you really can't explain it. You don't know what went wrong. You just know something did, and you're in your feelings.
That feeling has a name, and it is not a weakness. I'm Darian Glausier and this is Head First. Let's talk about cognitive overhead — what it actually is, why it tips into overload, and what I actually do about it.
Overhead vs. Overload
Here's the distinction I wish someone had told me earlier.
Cognitive overhead is basically the background processing your brain is running at all times. Before you do a task, you're thinking about how you do it, how you break it down. You have unresolved things you're holding, emotional regulation, just existing under pressure. It's always there. It's basically the cost of operating.
Overload is what happens when that cost exceeds what you have left.
Everyone has overhead. Everyone experiences overload. The problem isn't that it exists — the problem is when it fills the tank and spills over into everything else.
For me, it shows up in a very specific way. My gears are always turning. That's just how I'm built. But some afternoons — usually around 4 p.m. — I'm just done. My brain hurts. I'm tired in a way that sleep doesn't fully explain. I'm trying to read something and it won't click. I'm reaching for text-to-speech. I close my eyes, try to just absorb it anyway. Thinking strategically, making fast decisions — that tank is empty. And I still have at least an hour left in the day.
For a long time, I did not have a name for that. I thought I just hit a wall. I thought it was something I was going to have to deal with because of chronic pain.
Overhead isn't the task. It's the cost of showing up to that task. And when it's higher than your available resources, it's not a character flaw. It's overload.
The Wrong Tool Problem
Here's the part that took me longer than it should have to believe.
People will tell you that you're one of a kind and then hand you the same system as everyone else. Every single productivity framework, every habit tracker, every time-blocking method — they were designed for a particular type of person. What they consider normal. What they consider a baseline.
Designed for someone who woke up consistently, just like the day before.
When that doesn't work, the assumption is that you didn't try hard enough. You weren't disciplined enough. You just need to want it more. Have you tried just doing it? Have you tried not being overloaded?
It's basically handing someone a hammer when they need a jigsaw and then blaming them for how the cut came out. The system didn't fail you because you were undisciplined. It failed you because it assumed you were fine, you were normal. It assumed your afternoon looked the exact same as your morning. It assumed yesterday's version of you was going to show up consistently every day and never get tired.
I have to improve things around me as much as I can so that I'm not blaming myself for not doing a good job when I wasn't even supporting myself in the first place.
That's the reframe. You weren't doing it wrong. You were just using the wrong tool.
What Actually Helped
I'm going to be specific, because vague advice is useless when you're already overwhelmed.
Keep It Simple
The first thing: the KISS method. Keep it simple, stupid. It sounds silly, but it works. Remind yourself as often as possible.
I have been guilty of building very elaborate systems — folders, subfolders, sub-subfolders — and then completely abandoning them because they took more energy to maintain than they ever saved me. The more complicated the system, the faster you leave it. And that's not a you problem, it's a design problem.
You're not going to have the perfect system for a long time. Don't think you can set it up in one afternoon. That's okay. You learn what you need as you go. And you change as a person — what worked yesterday might not work in a few months. A system that has flex built in, where you can change it over time, is worth more than one that's perfectly optimized for right now.
The Morning Check-In
The thing that made an actual difference for me was a small morning check-in I built into my setup. One command. I use AI. I run it, and what comes back is a daily briefing — my daily focus, my tasks, things I've been avoiding, my calendar, key dates coming up. It puts it all together into a single note.
That's my daily assistant. I don't have to think about how everything connects first thing in the morning or at the end of the afternoon to plan for tomorrow. I don't have to piece together what I was doing yesterday. It's already done.
At the bottom I have a daily notes section. Just for that day. Where I track what actually happened, what I need to carry forward, what I want morning me to know tomorrow.
That might sound small, and it really isn't. Those few minutes — what used to be a lot longer and a lot more effort — they're now offloading a whole layer of thinking before I've done anything else.
Planning for My Worst Self
Then in midday, if things start to go sideways, I don't have to spiral. I can look for the cracks. What went wrong? What did I need that I didn't get? Have I eaten? Have I had a break? Have I been in back-to-back meetings since 9 a.m. and now it's 3 p.m.?
Here's what I know about myself: I am not always guaranteed a good afternoon. So morning Darian takes care of afternoon Darian. I plan for my worst self — not because I'm pessimistic, but because when the hard afternoon shows up, I want something already in place for her.
I stopped trying to be consistent. I started trying to be sustainable.
The Benchmark Is the Broken Part
My brain isn't broken. Your brain isn't broken. The benchmark you're comparing it to is the broken part.
If systems you've tried haven't worked, it's worth asking whether they were built for variability — your variability. Because most of them aren't. They're built for a version of you that shows up at the same time every day. That version doesn't exist for most people on any consistent basis.
Start simple. Build for the day when everything's difficult. And the next time you feel overwhelmed and like everything's out of your hands, ask yourself: what did I need that I didn't get?
That question is useful in any productivity framework I have ever tried.
If this is something you want to learn more about, I can go deeper. If you want my system, I can give it to you — but it might not work for you like I've covered in this entire episode. You're free to message me anytime. I'm Darian Glausier and this is Head First.