We’ve all been there.
Sitting in a meeting… a conference… a presentation… or a pitch…
quietly thinking:
“Please. Just get to the point already.”
Somewhere around slide 42, your brain starts planning dinner, organizing your closet, and wondering whether anyone would even notice if you quietly disappeared into the parking lot.
That’s the idea behind Leadership, Edited.
Leadership today can feel noisy.
Too many meetings. Too many priorities. Too many notifications. Too many opinions. Too many tabs open.
And honestly? I’ve missed writing.
I missed sharing observations, leadership lessons, and practical ideas that help people lead better in the real world.
So this newsletter is my attempt to simplify leadership a bit for you and a way to add a little joy to my routine too.
No corporate buzzword bingo. No 47-slide presentations. No fluff.
Just practical leadership insights, edited down to what matters.
Which brings me to this week’s edition.
Close the Tabs
Quick question.
How many browser tabs do you have open right now? Don’t down play it.
I’m looking at my screen as I write this and the answer is 30.
Yes, Thirty.
Some are important. Some are reminders. Some are things I intend to come back to. A few have probably been open so long they’ve become permanent fixtures.
The funny thing is our brains work the same way.
As leaders, we often have dozens of tabs open at any given moment:
- The employee who needs coaching
- The customer issue that isn’t quite resolved
- The initiative that keeps getting pushed back
- The budget discussion next month
- The meeting you need to prepare for
- The idea you don’t want to forget
- The conversation you need to have
- The fire that might become a bigger fire
Every tab feels important.
And eventually, all those open tabs create something many leaders know all too well:
Decision fatigue.
Not because we’re incapable of making decisions.
Because we’re making too many of them.
Let’s Simplify It:
Most leaders think decision fatigue comes from having difficult decisions to make.
I think it often comes from having too many decisions that should never have reached them in the first place.
Or from carrying decisions around in their heads longer than necessary.
The goal isn’t to become a better firefighter.
The goal is to create systems that reduce the number of fires.
1. Start With a Decision Framework
One of the simplest ways to reduce decision fatigue is to stop treating every problem like it’s equally urgent.
When everything is a fire, nothing is.
I like to mentally sort issues into three buckets:
Triage
Something that requires immediate attention.
Intervention
A problem that needs attention before it grows.
Preventative
The work that keeps future problems from occurring.
Before reacting, ask:
Is this triage, intervention, or preventative?
You’ll be surprised how many “urgent” problems aren’t actually urgent.
2. Build Problem Solvers
Decision fatigue is often a byproduct of a team that isn’t solving problems.
If your team brings you every problem, eventually you become the bottleneck.
Instead of immediately providing answers, start asking questions:
- What do you think we should do?
- What options have you considered?
- What recommendation would you make?
Over time, you build thinkers instead of escalators.
And leaders who build problem solvers make fewer decisions because their teams are capable of making more.
3. Create Systems for Recurring Decisions
When life gets busy, the best thing we can do is remove unnecessary decisions.
If you don’t want to think about dinner every night, you automate it.
Meal delivery. Recurring grocery orders.
If you don’t have time to clean your house, you hire help.
The goal isn’t convenience.
The goal is preserving mental bandwidth.
Leadership works the same way.
Nobody wants a calendar packed with meetings.
But a few strategic recurring meetings can eliminate hundreds of unnecessary decisions.
Good systems create clarity.
Good rhythms reduce mental clutter.
Good routines prevent firefighting.
4. Close the Tabs
One of the most helpful habits I’ve developed is creating a place for things to live.
If I have an idea for the team, it goes into my sales meeting notes.
If I have coaching feedback for an employee that isn’t urgent, it goes into our next one-on-one notes.
If something needs discussion later, I put it where future Abby will find it.
Then I close the [mental] tab.
Because carrying something around in your head is not the same thing as making progress on it.
Often it’s just consuming mental energy.
Pro Tip: Take a Reset
Back-to-back decision making is exhausting.
Take a walk.
Grab water.
And my favorite…
Step outside. [ I call this a sunshine break, it’s a cure all, I promise.]
Give your brain a chance to reset.
The best leaders don’t operate at full speed every minute of every day.
They create space to think clearly.
One Final Thought:
Leadership isn’t about handling more.
It’s about creating enough clarity that you can focus on what matters most.
The goal isn’t to eliminate every tab.
The goal is to stop loading every tab at the same time.
Let’s lead with more clarity and less noise.
Abby
About the Author
Abby Cornelius is a Leadership Advisor and lifelong student of personal growth. Over the past 20+ years, she’s been a corporate trainer, led teams, coached leaders, built processes, and improved performance.
Through Leadership, Edited., Abby shares practical leadership insights, real-world lessons, and frameworks designed to help leaders create stronger teams, make better decisions, and spend less time in the weeds.
When she’s not leading sales teams or writing about leadership, you’ll likely find her reading a good book, sipping [cold, not on purpose] coffee, testing a new idea, or convincing herself she only needs three browser tabs open.
