Mental Overload is Sabotaging Your Success: Here’s How To Fix It.

Mental Overload is Sabotaging Your Success: Here’s How To Fix It.

Sometimes when I am feeling overwhelmed, I get this mental image of a little librarian with big glasses trying to run through a card catalog of index cards. She has a huge wall of drawers and she’s running up and down the wall, climbing ladders, and going through her file of cards looking for the location of all the things I am trying to put together.


This makes a great visual for a cartoon or meme, but not exactly how you want to feel when it comes to running your business.


Does your brain feel like a messy card catalog with no labels?


As a founder and entrepreneur, you’re not just running a business - you’re juggling every idea, plan, and process in your head. But what if this mental load is silently holding your business back?

The Invisible Burden: What It’s Costing You to Hold It All in Your Head

Did you know that 72% of all small business owners report feeling overwhelmed? There are so many things to do and keep track of that they struggle with anxiety and stress.


As a Visionary you are known for your ideas and problem-solving. Yet there’s a hidden cost that often comes with that creativity: the overwhelming mental load of trying to keep everything in your head. From managing day-to-day operations to dreaming up the next big offer, the mental clutter can be stifling.


This overwhelm isn’t just a feeling - it has real-life consequences for your productivity, your ability to delegate, and even your long-term success.


The longer you try and do this the more often you feel stuck, unable to focus, or like you’re constantly spinning plates. The mental toll of trying to remember every idea, task, and responsibility is immense. Here’s what it’s really costing you:


  • Decision Fatigue: Every day, you make countless decisions. But when your brain is overfilled with ideas, unfinished tasks, and future plans, your capacity to make clear, effective decisions dwindles. Decision fatigue sets in, making even small choices feel monumental.
  • Missed Opportunities: When great ideas get lost in the chaos of your mind, you risk missing out on opportunities to innovate or grow. The next big thing for your business might already be in your head—but without capturing it, it’s as good as gone.
  • Inefficient Delegation: One of the hardest challenges is delegation. When everything lives in your head, it’s nearly impossible to hand tasks off to your team effectively. This leads to bottlenecks, miscommunication, and frustration.
  • Burnout: Constantly carrying the weight of every idea, task, and goal isn’t sustainable. Over time, the stress of trying to manage it all can lead to burnout, zapping your energy and creativity.





How do we give our little librarian a break and make her job easier?


The Brilliance Bank Method:

A Strategy for Clarity


When I start working one-on-one with clients, I often recommend creating a “Brilliance Bank.” This is a centralized repository where my clients can store all their ideas, inspirations, and goals. We store it in their project management tool.


I do this because I know that one of their biggest roadblocks and hurdles is that we need to get things out of their head and into a space where we can start to organize it and allow them to delegate things.


But I also know this is one of their biggest stressors and one of the reasons that many of them feel so overwhelmed.


This practice allows them to:

  • Offload mental clutter.
  • Identify trends and patterns in their ideas.
  • Allows us to prioritize which projects are in alignment with their North Star Plan.


The clients who fully embrace this practice often see the best results. By capturing their ideas and thoughts in one place they can relax and know they can revisit them later.


This works especially well if you have someone that can help you go through these thoughts like what I do with my clients.

What if you don’t have a DOO walking you through your ideas every few months?


Let’s Go Old School:

The Science of Writing It Down


One of my clients recently suggested that I create an app for the Brilliance Bank. Something they could just open up on their phone and jot down their idea.


While that might be nice, it isn’t in alignment with the clarity that I want to create for the owners and founders I work with. Part of my mission is to simplify things and take as much tech out of their businesses as I can while still creating systems and automations to streamline their growth.


While I love tech for all the many things it can do for us there are some things that I feel should be old school and done “unplugged”. Getting clear on your ideas and focus is one of them.


There is so much digital clutter and distraction when it comes to our businesses. This is why I strongly feel for the initial idea phase writing it down with pen to paper just works better. It allows you to capture the idea when it is freshest in your mind and gives you a chance to write down all the things that lead to that thought before you get distracted.


There are several studies that show that writing things down by hand not only improves recall and retention but also boosts your creativity because it activates other areas of your brain. It has been shown to allow you to recall and organize information 25% faster than typing it out.


And I am sure if you have studied goal setting you have heard about the Dr. Gail Matthews study that shares that those who write out their goals are 42% more likely to achieve them.


I can remember early on in my entrepreneurial journey I was dubbed the “Queen of Notebooks”. I had notebooks for notes from trainings and ideas that I had, this was the start of my own Brilliance Bank.


I also had notebooks for my clients and would write down their ideas and notes from our meetings.


One of the questions I get asked often by my clients is, “How do you remember all this stuff and keep it straight?”


My secret: I write it down.

Keeping It Organized: Knowing Where It Is and How to Access It Quickly


At first I would just open a new page and start writing, great for the early day stuff when you are just trying to figure stuff out.


Most of my early ideas were reactive and not proactive. So I would have a thought reacting to something I was experiencing rather than being proactive to building the flow I wanted in my business.


This turns out to be not so great when you are trying to optimize workflows and your thoughts on how to improve something and create a plan to move forward.


Many of my clients do this as well at the beginning of building their own Brillance Banks. They start off reactive and we shift to being proactive in their ideas and what we are working toward building.


One of the struggles I had earlier on with all my notebooks was trying to find notes on a specific training or idea I had. Over time when I had about 20 notebooks of notes I knew I needed to change up my system.


That’s why I created my own business journal to keep track of my ideas and plans. It’s called My Little Book of Big Ideas and I recently published a version of it on Amazon.


In the introduction, I share a few thoughts on how to best use the book and what sections to break the book into for easy use to find your thoughts and ideas fast.


I recommend breaking it down into at least 3 sections. Although in mine I go a bit further and add my mission, vision, values, and North Star Plan for the year to the first few pages.


It is set up to allow you to both mind map, brainstorm, or add workflows as well as write out your thoughts.

  • Capture Every Idea: Inspiration strikes at the most unexpected times. Whether you’re driving, doing dishes, or in the middle of another task, you have a dedicated space to jot down those sparks of brilliance before they fade.
  • Organize and Categorize: With my sections and tab suggestions, the structure helps you keep everything in one place, so nothing slips through the cracks.
  • Refine and Revisit: Not every idea is ready to be implemented immediately, and that’s okay. I encourage you to revisit and refine your thoughts, turning raw inspiration into actionable plans when the timing is right.

Go From Overwhelmed to Empowered


It’s time to let go of the mental clutter and free yourself up for some peace of mind and a little less stress.


Whether you pick up your own copy of My Little Book of Big Ideas or just start your own notebook I do hope you start to create your own Brilliance Bank and capture down all those ideas and processes floating around in your head.


Overwhelm, stress, and anxiety should not be the norm. And getting things out of your head and into a centralized location will help with this. You deserve to allow your nervous system to relax.


Here’s to allowing for more calm and clarity in your business this year and giving your little librarian a much needed break.


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