Six Strategic Ways for Leaders to Lighten Their Mental Loads
IN A HURRY? HERE’S THE BOTTOM LINE
The “mental load” encompasses all the invisible energy we spend keeping track of details, solving problems, and managing responsibilities that aren’t captured on traditional to-do lists. To combat this draining mental load, leaders should first step into true strategic leadership by releasing control of day-to-day operations, then implementing five additional key strategies.
These are: emptying our brains (using project management tools and documentation), establishing workflows and processes, using automation intentionally to reduce manual work, delegating responsibilities by giving true ownership (rather than just tasks), and establishing clear communication boundaries to prevent constant interruptions.
GOT A MINUTE? HERE ARE THE DETAILS TO CONSIDER
Do you ever feel like you're just spinning your wheels and not actually moving your business forward? Do you feel maxed out, even if your calendar isn't particularly full?
This becomes a problem when you find yourself busy “on the hamster wheel” every day, but it's not necessarily increasing your revenue. You may have a ton of things on your to-do list (or maybe you don’t) - but you also carry a lot from an emotional and energetic standpoint.
These are all signs that you are carrying a lot on your mental, “invisible” workload.
Understanding the Invisible Workload
Diving in, what exactly is the invisible, mental workload in the context of a CEO?
At a high level, we could describe this as “behind-the-scenes thinking.” It could be an idea for a new revenue stream, thoughts about team members that you want to bring up, context switching, and multi-tasking - all the things swimming around in the back of your mind at any given moment. These are the things that wake you up at 2:00 a.m. in the morning.
Early in my career, maybe 20 years ago, the ability to multitask was listed as a skill on a job description. I don’t know if this is still a thing (I’ve been self-employed for 13 years, now) because science has proven that multi-tasking does not work! Nobody is really good at it, since it’s just forcing your brain to switch focus constantly, sometimes multiple times a minute.
The invisible workload can also look like emotional or energetic “pulls” - the things taking away your energy. Events like dealing with crises, solving problems, and coordinating things that don’t necessarily show up on a to-do list.
Here’s a personal example: A simple task like “buy a birthday gift” involves many invisible mental steps - from considering the recipient’s preferences and your budget to researching options, making decisions, and handling logistics. This single to-do item requires a lot of behind-the-scenes mental energy that never appears on your to-do list.
The same goes for so many of the things that happen in our businesses, every single time. You could have just 2-3 things on your to-do list today that look relatively simple and straightforward, but there is still mental preparation that goes into getting those things done.
Here’s a business example: As the owner of a Virtual Assisting company, I know which team members are best at certain tasks and who work well with specific types of clients and industries. This information isn’t written down anywhere; it’s just floating in the back of my mind.
Are you the problem solver in your business? When something isn't working or someone's feeling frustrated, do they bring it to you? That’s a sign that you’re the one carrying the mental workload, managing “all the things” - the planning, strategy, people, and projects. You're carrying it all, and it all begins in the mind.
The invisible workload is absolutely real. I don't need to convince you because you're living it day to day, just like I am. That’s the mental load: All of the things you are holding in your mind throughout the day.
When does the “mental workload” become a problem?
The mental load has a huge impact on our energy, clarity, ability to focus, and ultimately the results of growing our businesses or organizations.
You’re experiencing frequent interruptions. When my phone goes off or someone messages for help, or when I’m trying to focus while a situation has blown up, it becomes hard to concentrate because I'm thinking about other problems and trying to solve them.
The “mental load” overcapacity can manifest as decision fatigue. I experience this when I’ve spent all day making decisions and giving directives.
It can also look like a bottleneck in your business. Are you solely responsible for client communications while your team works behind the scenes? Are you the only one who can perform certain strategic work?
When does the “mental workload” limit your business growth?
As a result of your mental load becoming too heavy, you might find yourself avoiding growth initiatives because you're buried in daily operations. The idea of adding more to your life and business feels like it could be the final straw.
Have you missed opportunities? Perhaps you had an ideal potential client who would have elevated your company, but it didn't work out. You might have missed or declined opportunities because “now isn't the right time.” You've secretly felt relieved when an opportunity fell through, even though it should have been exciting. When you think about taking on something new, you feel completely overloaded because you can barely manage your current responsibilities.
If you're identifying with anything I’ve mentioned so far, it’s because you're using so much mental space that you don't have room for creative thinking.
6 Strategies to Lighten Your Mental Load
Now that you recognize that the mental load is real, what can you do about it? Let's unpack this one step at a time.
Strategy 1: Step Into Strategic Leadership
If you are reading this, you are leading an organization. Whether you’re an owner, CEO, leader, or executive director, you need to show up as that leader. That means you need to be the visionary and strategist in chief. But your business or organization isn't scalable if everything has to run through you.
At Melissa Swink & Co., I've released a lot to my team, but it’s also a situation of “new level, new devil.” There's always more we need to shed from our day-to-day operations and reassign to others on the team. If everything's running through you, or significant things are still running through you, eventually you'll hit a point where you cannot continue to grow without stepping away from some of your current responsibilities.
This means making time to work on your business or organization, not just in it. You need to accept the fact that you don't need to know or do everything. Things happen in my company daily that I have no knowledge of - good or bad. My team solves problems, works with clients, and collaborates independently. I don't need to hear about everything, and depending on your leadership level and team structure, that might seem scary.
Think about CEOs and executives you admire who've built incredible organizations. They don't have their hands in every aspect of daily operations because it's physically impossible. If they insisted on controlling everything, they wouldn't be at their current level, and their organizations wouldn't be experiencing their current success.
I recall a speaker discussing how the most challenging part of her career growth was transitioning from being the knowledge leader to becoming the visionary. She started in an entry-level healthcare billing position, excelled, became a supervisor, and then a department head. At some point, her role shifted dramatically. While she knew billing inside out, she started leading teams in areas where she had no operational experience.
This was challenging because she suddenly had to lead people whose jobs she couldn't do herself. If someone called in sick, she couldn't fill in for them. Instead, she had to listen, provide improvement suggestions, encourage team members, and cast a vision for the department and the company's future. It marked a dramatic shift from being the knowledge leader to becoming the visionary.
That may be where you need to go to continue growing. Taking time to step into that strategic leadership role is the first step in relieving this invisible workload. You need re-evaluate what your role truly is. Once you make that mental shift away from doing everything yourself, you can look at strategies to lighten the mental load, which I’ll cover, next.
Strategy 2: Empty Your Brain
Remember how I talked about all the things running behind-the-scenes in our brains, all the time? Your brain doesn't need to carry everything! Use tools for this.
In my business, we use Asana for all project management. All tasks and projects go into our project management system, no matter how big or small, so we don’t have to carry them in our brains anymore, which would be an imperfect system.
Do you have a written to-do list or meeting notes with action items sitting on your desk or in a folder? That’s not a space where others can help you. Put as much as possible into a project management system.
Strategy 3: Establish and Document Processes and Workflows
Next, establish and document processes and workflows. I know many people shut down at this idea, because it seems like a lot of work. While it can be, but there are ways to make it easy.
One way to simplify and streamline this process is getting your team involved in documenting processes. I use Loom to record myself doing a task while screen-sharing. I get the actual work done while showing how to do it, and it's documented for anyone on my team who needs to know how to do that task.
Another approach is to have the person who will take over the tasks sit with you, either physically at your desk or (more likely with remote teams) join a Zoom call where you share your screen and discuss the work while they take notes. There are many AI tools to help with creating SOPs, too.
The bottom line is just taking the time to document what needs to be delegated.
Strategy 4: Use Automations Intentionally
A word of caution: With so many fancy tools available, more isn't necessarily better. Some clients get excited about different tools and automations, but end up with overlapping systems. We aim to explore opportunities to leverage software and tools to automate manual tasks effectively. This could be as simple as creating a welcome email series for new clients, so they get the necessary information without you having the same conversations repeatedly.
Strategy 5: Delegate by Giving True Ownership
When you delegate responsibilities to team members, give them true ownership. Instead of saying “I need you to take over this task,” say, “I would like you to handle client billing for our company. Here are all the related tasks. This is your responsibility now. I'll show you how it's been done, but once you learn the ropes, you're empowered to make improvements.”
We don't want to hand off work, but then constantly review it or micromanage our team member. Establish true ownership for aspects of daily operations so you're not the constant problem solver.
Strategy 6: Set Communication Boundaries
The final way to lighten the invisible load is to set communication boundaries. I use a tool called Booomerang with my Google Workspace to pause my email inbox after my initial organization that my Executive Assistant does each day and I triage my emails in the morning. This pauses incoming emails until specific check times. This helps keep me out of reactive mode and the constant distraction of new messages.
You could also consider establishing office hours when you're available for team questions or ideas, rather than fielding constant “got a minute?” interruptions. For remote teams, this may involve managing chat messages through platforms like Slack. Set parameters around communication so you can focus on deep work and batch your responses throughout the day.
Are You Ready to Reduce Your Mental Workload?
Did this article motivate you to step back into your true leadership role and take steps to reduce your mental workload? If you still feel stuck and want help, I invite you to schedule a no-obligation consultation!