The Mental Offload Podcast

Decisions, decisions, decisions. We live in a world of plenty…and it's overwhelming.  There are so many options, and so much pressure to make the right choices. And the sheer number of decisions that we need to make in a given week is mind-boggling. Think about the time you spend in an average week researching, analyzing, and getting agreement on options.  It's exhausting. But there is a way to wi...

Is your work week best described as a daily grind? Like, the kind of work where you are constantly working at max capacity, only to find yourself…slowly…grinding…down. Most corporate jobs operate with a go-go-go mentality that keeps everyone in a permanent state of exhaustion. This is disastrous for your stamina.  And not just at work. The "hangover" of working like this usually carries straight i...

Albert Einstein allegedly said, "We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used to create them." Wise words, whether they come from Einstein or not.  But how do you actually develop higher-level thinking skills?  One technique I use is Superthinking. It puts the amazing power of your human brain as a problem-solving machine onto your biggest challenges, and guides your brain to solve...

Women tend to disproportionately bear the weight of the mental load. That translates into a "second shift" at home: more hours spent on parenting, housework, emotional caretaking, and more. When it comes to managing that mental load, so often the advice to women is one of two things: Delegate it. Or lower your standards. And while there's nothing wrong with either of those approaches, that's not t...

"It's lonely at the top", so the saying goes.  Which makes it all the more surprising that leaders rarely discuss the feelings of loneliness that can come as you rise. It's paradoxical. You're surrounded by colleagues. You lead a team who look up to you and follow you. And at the same time, it can feel distinctly lonely to be the person standing out in front, making the big decisions. Leadership l...

Imagine if you could sit down with your future self—the version of you who has achieved your wildest dreams, overcome your biggest challenges, and is living your best life. What would that conversation be like? How would it transform the decisions you make today?  Last month, we focused on the important relationships you have at home and at work. But there's one relationship we haven't talked abou...

Executive Presence. Most leaders know it's a powerful ingredient for success. It's that bit of leadership sorcery that allows some to command a room, influence key decisions, and inspire confidence. You might be able to get ahead without it, but I don't recommend trying! But can you actually develop executive presence? I've heard leaders describe it as, "you just know it when you see it."  That ma...

Are you ready to rise in your organization? Maybe you're not sure. It's a topic that can create a lot of ambivalence when you have kids.  "I'd love to do more, but I can't work any harder…and I'm already so drained." This is a phrase I hear often.  The problem is that there are two thought errors that underpin this phrase. First, you might think that rising means doing more. More hours. More deliv...

Valentine's Day is in the air. And whether you consider yourself a romantic or not, let's do a quick status check on your relationship with your partner. Does your relationship with your partner feel fantastic? Or is it weighed down by a growing list of resentments? Maybe you'd consider your relationship more of an afterthought…something that gets your time and attention once in a blue moon? It's...

Many high achieving women work by the old adage "just keep your head down and do good work, and you'll be recognized." Sometimes the advice comes directly from a mentor or a parent. For others, it's an implicit to the way a meritocracy is supposed to work. The good girls who do stellar work without making too much of a stink are supposed to get rewarded.  Right?! But here's the unvarnished truth:...

More and more employers are offering coaching as a perk at work. But it wasn't always this way. 20 years ago, executive leadership coaching was a perk limited to a very small subset of employees: people at the very top, or those leaders who were at risk of failing. And in many organizations, coaching retained that reputation: either unavailable to all but the highest rungs, or remedial instruction...

Many companies require development planning. But few teach you how to it. In many firms, development is a "tick the box exercise": you build out a plan, file it away, and pull it out at the next review cycle. Despite your best intentions, development may be an afterthought for you and your team. And yet, you probably realize that continued growth = continued success. So, how do you make sure that...

It's well-known research: merely writing down your goals makes it more likely you'll achieve them. And yet, writing down a goal is usually not enough to get us to the finish line.  What gives?! Yes, writing down a goal is useful. And it's definitely better than doing nothing. But often, this makes your goal little more than a wish. A nice intention. But not something you actually follow through on...

Whether you're looking at the business press, or the motivation quotes on Pinterest, you'll often get a one-dimensional look at what it takes to be successful. "Go for GROWTH!"  It's so ingrained in our culture's approach to success, that you can feel like a failure if you're not constantly trying to achieve the Next Big Thing, personally or professionally. I was sitting in my office with a client...

The start of a new year is an invitation to change. You think about what you want to achieve this year. Make a few New Year's resolutions. As the clock starts midnight, you're ready to get started: new year, new you. Right? But the statistics tell a depressing truth: most new year's resolutions fail. In fact, most resolutions are abandoned before January is even over. What's going on with resoluti...

Is it possible to thrive in a biased world? It can feel like an impossible task, one where we're always at risk of failing someone else. Or our own standards. Trying to navigate a world that has soooooo maaaannny rules for how we're supposed to do things can be utterly exhausting. And thankless. It also leaves many of us as perfectionistic people-pleasers. But where did those rules, standards and...

When overachievers become mothers, something strange can happen. And it's rarely discussed. It's Mom-poster syndrome.  Most people have heard about imposter syndrome. Those feelings of being not good enough, of feeling like a fraud, that can sneak up on us.  We mostly think of imposter syndrome in our professional lives. But our inner critic can also come up around our "other" job as mothers. It m...

Mom Guilt seems to lurk everywhere. Especially if you're a working mother. Work long hours? You're supposed to feel guilty about not being a good enough mother. Missing meetings when your kid is sick yet again? You're supposed to feel guilty about not being a good enough employee. How to escape from the guilt trap? Is it even possible?! In this episode, we go deep into Mom Guilt, and how to get ri...

In an always-on culture, where work is more and more "greedy" about wanting our time and availability, how can we achieve balance? At the Mental Offload, we've created a framework for achieving balance. It has 4 elements, that work together to support – or undermine – your balance. Your time, your team, your systems, and your mindset.   Your balance will only be as good as the weakest of these 4....

'Tis the season…for school holiday events. But what happens when those events clash with your work schedule?  Whether you're dealing with multiple events scheduled right in the middle of the workday, a busy season at work that makes taking any time off tricky, or every working mom's favorite…that last minute notice about a school event, the result is usually the same. You feel terrible. This was d...

Sometimes, we get so busy on the hamster wheel at work that we lose sight of the longer-term picture.  It might feel like it's impossible to slow the wheel down and catch your breath. But it's necessary if you're in the world of knowledge work. Being strategic at work requires us to slow the hamster wheel down to a comfortable jog from time to time. This allows you to see the bigger picture and se...

'Tis the Season. Fall is a holiday time in so many cultures: Halloween, Diwali, Thanksgiving, Chanukah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, New Year's…they're all on the calendar. But whether you're celebrating one holiday or several, there's so much extra stuff to take care of. Hosting relatives, parties, religious gatherings, cooking, shopping, decorating…It's all packed into a short spurt of time, and it's ove...

Anxiety at work usually seems like a problem to be managed. Or even a crisis. Definitely something to get rid of. Especially when your anxiety has you sweating over your upcoming meeting. Or has work living rent-free in your brain around the clock. But, is anxiety all bad? Work from Morra Aarons-Mele (author of The Anxious Achiever) asks us to rethink anxiety. Data suggest that leaders disproporti...

We're living in a fraught time. The nightly news is filled with calamities, on every continent of the planet.  In the face of so much turmoil in the world, women hesitate to speak about their own struggles at home and at work. We self-deprecatingly tell friends that we've got "first world problems".  Women tell me they're ashamed to even complain about feeling overwhelmed at home, or undervalued a...

Almost no one loves a performance review. Even top performers can feel dread in the face of an upcoming review.  Performance reviews will amplify our insecurities and leave us ruminating on our perceived shortcomings. We know that these reviews can be make or break moments for raises, promotions, and more. And yet, we're rarely given transparent, direct advice on how to approach this important car...