I was confused people wished me a great weekend when I was 100% sure it was Thursday, only to realise it was indeed Friday. Getting up in the morning was no picnic. I felt more tired than when I went to sleep. Coffee was my best friend. I wasn’t even able to check emails on my phone before getting a few bitter sips. I pushed through these things, but what got me worried was the way I perceived time. I couldn’t focus, and that threw me in a vicious cycle that I had no idea how to escape. Because I couldn’t concentrate, I wasn’t getting much done while time seemed to slow down, and because I wasn’t advancing on my to-do list, I was working late again.
Mental fatigue affects many people. Your mind gets so tired that its cognitive performance decreases. This happens after the cognitive activity is prolonged far more than what the brain was designed to sustain. If you’re working more than 8 hours per day, and you don’t take enough breaks during those eight daily hours, mental fatigue will manifest itself as directed attention fatigue, lethargy or somnolence.
Directed attention fatigue (DAF) can be a bit tricky to understand, but it’s not that complicated once you’re thinking about your day-to-day experiences. This neurological phenomenon results from putting your brain’s inhibitory attention mechanisms into overdrive. Those mechanisms are blocking incoming distractions so you could focus on a particular task. When there are too many distractions, for too long, you get to experience directed attention fatigue.
When you’re multitasking, you’re making it hard for your inhibitory attention mechanisms to keep up. When you’re mentally fatigued, it isn’t perfect to have to pay attention to something that doesn’t interest you, and it’s just challenging. Focusing on something that genuinely interests, you’ll discover that you can concentrate on ease. This happens because attention can be voluntary or involuntary.
Involuntary attention requires no effort. It’s what you experience when your child does something for the first time when you see something new and exciting happening. You don’t have to force yourself to pay attention.
Voluntary attention is what requires a lot of effort because it’s directed attention. When something is boring or unpleasant, it will take a toll on your inhibitory attention mechanisms.
What helped me and what will surely help you too to rest your mind when mental fatigue sneaks into your life, is to get away from your office or home working space. You need to spend time in nature, no matter if it’s a forest or just a local park. Connecting with nature has an incredible effect on your mood and mental wellness; it helps your mind reset.
Also, if you feel your mind is getting tired, stop multitasking, use a white noise app rather than listening to music, don’t work in a room where other people might have a meeting or a discussion.
One other thing you could do is to attend to the things you love throughout the day so you would break your directed attention and give your mind enough time to rest while you complete the tasks you enjoy.
