When Your Day Feels Like Too Many Tabs Are Open
A client texted me this week with a question that made me laugh out loud…not because it was funny, but because it was painfully, universally true.
“When in this job are you not having three conversations live at the same time? Is that an unreasonable expectation?”
My recent text thread.
I read it and thought: Fair question.
Because most teams I work with (nonprofit or consulting firm, doesn’t matter) feel like they’re living in at least three conversations at once.
Slack or Teams pings.
Email threads.
Back to back to back Zoom meetings.
A drive-by hallway question.
A client request that just landed.
A “fire” someone discovered two minutes ago.
A meeting starting in 60 seconds.
And somehow… we’ve normalized this. The assumption becomes: This is just how it is.
But what if it’s not?
And underneath my client’s text was a quieter question — one many teams are feeling:
“Is this reasonable…or am I the only one with brain fog?”
Let’s take a breath and say it out loud: Just because constant context switching is common doesn’t mean it’s healthy.
Why Everything Feels Urgent All at Once
There’s a moment in the movie Everything Everywhere All at Once where Michelle Yeoh’s character is experiencing too many realities simultaneously — including the one with the unforgettable hot dog fingers. It’s chaotic, bizarre, disorienting, and somehow… she’s still trying to function inside it.
That’s what workplace overwhelm feels like. Hot dog fingers!
You’re technically doing the job, but none of it feels natural or sustainable. When teams are stretched like this, the cause isn’t a lack of competence or effort. It’s usually a mix of:
shifting or unclear priorities
work landing through ten different channels (okay, even four is too many!)
“quick questions” that multiply
tools that produce noise instead of clarity
an unspoken expectation of immediate response (after all, your green status indicator says you’re online)
bandwidth that looks fine in a spreadsheet but not in real life
When a system isn’t creating alignment, people try to compensate with sheer [sometimes awkward, brute-force] effort.
That effort is noble.
But not renewable.
And rarely rewarding.
That overwhelmed feeling?
It’s the system signaling (“Danger, Will Robinson!”).
Not the people failing.
A People-Centered Reframe: We Just Need Shared Clarity
Teams don’t need harsher productivity rules or pressure to “focus harder.”
They need a shared understanding of:
what truly matters right now
what matters soon
and what isn’t a priority today (even if it’s LOUD… in full, shouty ALL CAPS)
We already have a familiar, accessible metaphor for this popularized by Stephen Covey in his time-management teaching, woven throughout productivity culture for decades, and widely used today inside EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) planning rhythms.
Enter: rocks, pebbles, and sand.
Elemental Prioritization Tips
You may have heard this before, but it’s always worth a refresher. Think of your team’s workload as a jar.
Rocks
The most important outcomes — the ones that must move this week. If everything is a rock, nothing is a rock.
Pebbles
Important but not urgent tasks that need attention soon. This is where most teams find immediate relief once things get named and scheduled.
Sand
Everything else that feels urgent because it’s loud.
The follow-ups.
The pings.
The “do you have a minute?” items.
The inch-long Slack thread that somehow becomes a saga.
Sand expands to fill all available space unless you intentionally keep it in its place.
Whether your organization uses EOS to plan its “big rocks” or not, the beauty of the rocks–pebbles–sand metaphor is that it gives teams a shared language…one that makes prioritization feel human and doable instead of rigid and stressful.
And when everyone aligns on what’s a rock, what’s a pebble, and what’s truly just sand? The swirling browser tabs in your brain start to settle. There’s room to breathe again.
The Tiny Communication Habit That Changes Everything
One of the kindest, most effective ways to reduce context switching is incredibly simple:
Be specific about when you’ll get to something.
(And then actually get to it by then.)
Not:
“I’ll get to it soon.”
But:
“I can’t get to this right now, but I can look at it at 3:00,”
or
“I’ll review this tomorrow morning after our 8am meeting…does that work?”
This tiny shift does three big things:
It lowers anxiety for the person waiting.
It protects your bandwidth.
It prevents sand from disguising itself as a rock (or from becoming that metaphorically gritty annoyance that clings to you after a day at the beach).
Small clarity is still clarity. And it’s often the kind teams are missing the most even though it’s the simplest to implement.
If Too Many Tabs Are Open… You're Not Alone
If your team is always juggling three conversations at once, or if you personally feel like your mental browser is overheating, let me offer this reassurance:
You’re not scattered.
You’re not behind.
You’re not “bad at multitasking.” (Truly, who’s great at it? Humans aren’t built for it.)
Your system is signaling that it needs shared clarity…the kind that’s human, sustainable, and actually works.
A few big rocks.
A handful of pebbles.
And enough space for the sand to stay sand.
That’s when the overwhelm finally starts to loosen its grip.
