Your Attention Is Exhausted (And That’s Why You Feel Anxious)

January often arrives with a pressure to “start fresh” from January 1st, but this week I’ve been having very different conversations with my clients.

Women who are highly capable, emotionally intelligent, and deeply self-aware… yet feel flat, overwhelmed, and strangely disconnected from themselves. No where near feeling "fresh" and excited for the new year.

What I'm seeing is that their attention is too exhausted to even begin to think about  the step to start "New Year - New Me"!

We live in a world that expects or demands "instant" everything. That's created a habit of constantly fragmenting our focus in order to meet those expectations.

Every day we end up splitting our time multi-tasking to get everything done:

• Answering emails during dinner
• Processing work thoughts and issues while trying to sleep
• Scrolling to “relax” our mind
• Doing three things at once and calling it normal!

But your nervous system doesn’t experience that as normal. 

​It experiences it as never being safe enough to rest.

Why multitasking drains your emotional resilience

We are taught that multi-tasking is a productivity skill. It's something women do extremely well and often pride themselves on being able to juggle many things at one time. 

However, what they don't tell us is that multi-tasking is also a stress amplifier.

When your brain constantly switches from one task to the next task without closing down any of the tabs, it burns our brain's energy faster, reduces our emotional regulation, and unfortunately increases anxiety.

Over time, the more we mutli-task this shows up as:

• Shorter patience
• Poor sleep
• Decision fatigue
• Brain fog and burnout
• A loss of clarity and confidence

As our brain never gets to fully recharge!

Which then leads to... you guessed it LESS PRODUCTIVITY! The one thing we're trying to achieve by multi-tasking.

Now, I know you probably love multi-tasking. I definitely used to, it was almot a badge of honor I wore. We all love being able to tick things off the list FASTER than lightning!

And you're probably reading this thinking there is no way I can stop multi-tasking, I'll never actually get anything done... 

And I get it, there are so many shifting priorities and deadlines to meet every single day.

So, if you can’t stop multitasking at work (and many can’t), start where you do have control.

Stop multi-tasking at home

One small practice I’ve been giving clients this week, to help calm their nervous system: 

• Stop scrolling while watching TV (just scroll OR watch TV!)
• Stop checking emails on your phone while eating ( just take 30mins to work OR eat and play music instead)
• Cook meals without trying to answer emails at the same time (I've burnt dinner numerous times while trying to edit/post a reel!)
• Stop listening to podcasts or watching TV while working (your brain will be grateful if you just pick one focus!)

Be intentional with your time!

Your brain has a limited attentional capacity. When you try to do two things that both require focus (reading emails + watching TV, listening in a meeting + replying to messages), your brain doesn’t split attention evenly.
 
Instead, it rapidly toggles between tasks. That toggling uses A LOT of mental energy.
 
Where you can = just focus on one thing at a time!
 
You'll feel more grounded, and it's a big first step to helping you be "more present" this year, if that is something that you're wanting to achieve.

If you work from home and find it hard to concentrate or stay motivated

If you work from home and notice your focus slipping, your motivation dropping, or the urge to multitask creeping in, this is important to understand:

Your brain doesn’t recover by pushing through. It recovers through rhythms of focus and rest.

One simple technique I often suggest to clients is based on the principle behind the Pomodoro Technique. Not as a productivity hack, but as a way to preserve brainpower and reduce mental fatigue.

The idea is simple:

Instead of working continuously until you’re exhausted, you work in short, intentional bursts of focus, followed by brief, regular breaks.

Research shows that taking breaks before you feel depleted helps:

• Maintain concentration
• Reduce mental overload
• Extend emotional and cognitive stamina

In other words, you’re working with your brain, not against it.

What this can look like at home

Here’s an example of how this might work in real life scenario, especially if you’re juggling work and home responsibilities:

• First work cycle: Write or focus on a work task 25mins
  Take a compulsory five-minute break when the cycle ends
• Second work cycle: Prepare breakfast or attend to a simple home task
  Take another five-minute break
• Third work cycle: Return to the unfinished work task 25mins
  End again with a five-minute break
• Fourth work cycle: Complete another low-demand task 25mins
  Then extend the break to 10 minutes

This approach reduces the temptation to multitask because your brain knows:
“I don’t have to do everything at once, there’s a pause coming.”

Why this helps anxiety too

When your nervous system knows rest is built in, it doesn’t stay on high alert waiting for the next interuption of your attention.

Focus improves. Overwhelm eases. Mental energy lasts longer.

This is about protecting your attention and reducing exhaustion. Which is one of the most powerful ways to support emotional regulation and reduce anxiety.

Sleep is not optional for emotional regulation

Another theme I've been talking about A LOT this week with clients = SLEEP.

​Not just how many hours you lay there and close your eyes for, but also the quality of sleep you're getting. Which leads to how deeply your system is actually recharging  (or not) every night.

When sleep is compromised:
​

• Anxiety increases
• Emotional resilience drops
• Everything feels harder than it should

 your nervous system is just tired.

Rebuilding boundaries is how you rebuild yourself

Weak boundaries around work, health, lifestyle, relationships don’t just affect your emotional state and energy levels,  they can also erode your sense of self as you continue to put everyone else's priorities BEFORE yourself. 
Over time, you lose:

1. Emotional steadiness
2. Confidence in your decisions
3. Connection to who you are outside of productivity

This is the work I meet a lot of women and we do the work inside Rediscover Your Spark.
It’s a coaching program specifically designed for restoring energy, identity, and emotional stability so confidence can return naturally.

If this blog resonates and you'd like to learn more about these topics - reach out today!

~JB

Work With Janel