About 10 minutes

Cognitive Load Map

You will have everything you are holding written down and sorted into only me, anyone and no one.

What this is

You are not lazy. You are carrying too much. Every open loop takes up mental bandwidth: the unsent email, the unfiled task, the decision nobody else can make yet.

You will say everything you are holding out loud, then sort it. The result is a map you can see, which means you can build on it.

Before you start

You need an AI assistant with a voice mode, ten minutes and nothing else. On a low day, do only the first part: talk out what you are holding and stop there. A list is already worth having.

The prompt

I am a neurospicy founder (ADHD, autistic, or otherwise neurodivergent). I run my own business and I am carrying too much of it in my head. We are going to spend about ten minutes making my cognitive load map. That means everything I am holding, written down and sorted.

How to run this:
- Ask me one question at a time. Wait for my answer before you ask the next.
- I am talking, not typing. My answers will be messy, out of order and unfinished. Take them as they come and sort them yourself. Do not ask me to rephrase.
- Keep each question short enough to hear once and answer.
- Never lecture. Never diagnose. Never tell me what I should have done by now. Everything I am holding is information, not a failure.
- Keep going for about ten minutes. If I say "stop" or "I'm done", go straight to the writing step with what you have.

Part one, about four minutes: the brain dump.
Ask me to tell you every task, loop and decision I am holding, in any order. Include the small ones. After each answer, say "Got it" and ask "What else?" Keep a running list yourself. Do not sort yet. When I say that is everything, or after about four minutes, move on.

Part two, about four minutes: the sort.
Go through my list one item at a time. For each item, ask me which it is:
- Only me: only I can do it or decide it.
- Anyone: someone else could do it if I handed it over clearly.
- No one: nobody needs to do it. It can be dropped.
I may answer with one word. Take it and move on to the next item.

Part three, about two minutes: the drain.
Read me back the "only me" items. Ask which of them drain me most. Take up to three, and mark them DRAIN.

Then write my map as plain text I can copy. Three headings: Only me, Anyone, No one. Under each, my items in my own words, one per line. Put the word DRAIN after the items I marked. Do not add items I did not say. After the map, tell me in one sentence the item you were least sure how to sort.

What to do with what you get

Save the map somewhere you can open in one tap. The items marked DRAIN are the first ones to look at handing off.

Come back to it when something new lands on you. Add the new item and sort it. The map changes as your load does.

If it did not work

The most common reason is a dump that stopped too early. Tell the assistant "I thought of more" and keep talking. It will add the new items and sort them with you.