Reducing Cognitive Load as an Engineering Leader
Designing systems, habits and delegation that scale your leadership
Steve Bissett
How did you get here?
Abstract Problem Solving
Analytical Thinking
Competence-Reward Loops
Curiosity
Tolerance for Complexity
Attention to Detail
Opportunity
How did you steer into leadership?
Multiplying Problem-Solvers
Seeing Patterns Across Teams
Fixing Root Causes
Clarity & Alignment
Trusted When Things Got Messy
Someone Needed to Step Up
Chances are, you have a strong capability for high cognitive load and complexity.
Cognitive Load
The total amount of mental effort being used in your working memory.
It's Not the Workload. It's the Open Loops.
Open loops drain your working memory.
Your brain fixates on unfinished work.
The Numbers Are Hard to Ignore
Burnout Correlation
Intention to Leave
Teams experiencing high cognitive load showed a 76% correlation with burnout rates and a 68% correlation with turnover intention.
That's how many things your brain can actively hold at once.
Engineering leadership routinely demands more than that.
Not all of our brains work the same way.
Some carry more open loops by default.
Some are carrying more worry before the work starts.
Some burn significant energy processing ambiguity.
Some start the day already at capacity.
When It Fails, the Stakes Are Real
Short Exercise
Write down every open loop in your life that comes to mind.
On your phone, on paper, or count on your fingers.
No structure. No filtering. Just empty your head.
Avoiding
A conversation you keep putting off
Undecided
A decision you haven't made yet
Unclear
A project without a clear next step
Home
Something at home you keep remembering
Committed
Something you said you'd do but haven't
If it lives only in your head, it's costing you.
How many of the loops you just listed exist only in your brain, with no external record, no owner, no next step written anywhere?
Locus of Control
Cognitive overload pushes you toward the external, even when that's not who you are.
"You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems."
— James Clear, Atomic Habits
5KM · Day 366
Systems compound.
A single habit, repeated consistently.
Three Proven Ways to Reduce Cognitive Load
The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
Do fewer things. Do them better.
Externalise Your Working Memory
Get it out of your head and into a trusted system.
Design Your Schedule
Before someone else designs it for you.
1. The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
The Essentialist Model
Nonessentialist
"All things to all people."
Energy scattered in every direction.
Busy but not impactful. Reactive by default.
Essentialist
"Less, but better."
Energy focused on what actually matters.
Intentional. In control.
Nonessentialist vs. Essentialist
2. Externalise Your Working Memory
The second brain as your single source of truth
Pick One. Any One.
TickTick
Todoist
Obsidian
Google Tasks
/
A Word of Warning
The trap isn't that you don't have a system. It's that you spend more time perfecting the system than actually using it to reduce your load.
A slightly imperfect system you use beats a perfect one you're still setting up.
Why Your System Fails
No review habit
A graveyard of good intentions.
You capture but don't use it to plan your time
It becomes a collection of tasks and notes.
It gets too complex
Too much mental overhead becomes another open loop.
You lose trust in it
And fall back to keeping things in your head.
The Daily Second Brain Habit
What exists only in my brain right now?
Capture it immediately. An open loop written down is a loop closed.
What are my 3 most important things today?
Where do they sit in my calendar?
What can I delegate, defer, or decline?
Not everything needs to be done by you, or done today.
3. Design Your Schedule Before It's Designed for You
Timeboxing
Decide what gets your time and attention.
How It Works
- Put thinking time on your calendar as a non-negotiable block
- Give tasks a fixed container - 30 to 60 minutes
- Stop when the box ends, even if imperfect
- Review and adjust weekly
Why It Works
- Reduces decision fatigue throughout the day
- Prevents reactive, Slack-driven days
- Forces prioritisation before urgency forces it for you
Have I left enough space for reactive or unexpected work?
Duration & Dependencies
A personal framework that has helped navigate competing demands
The Eisenhower Matrix
The 4 D's of Sustainable Workload
Decline
Not everything deserves a yes. The most strategic thing you can do is a confident no.
Delegate
Hand it to someone who can own it. You're building capacity, not protecting work.
Defer
Not now isn't never. Schedule it, or it becomes another open loop.
Do
What actually deserves your focus.
Effective Delegation
The 70% Rule of Delegation
The Rule
If someone can do it 70% as well as you, delegate it.
Why It Works
- Perfectionism is what blocks scale
- The 30% gap is coaching space, not failure
- Your time is better spent on higher-leverage work
- Small loss today → long-term team growth
Key Principles of Delegation: Part 1
Delegate Expectations & Outcomes - Not Tasks
Define the result you need. Let them decide the how.
Ownership follows clarity.
Be Explicit About Context
Why does this matter?
What does good look like?
What are the constraints?
Don't assume they know.
Match Level to Capability
Stretching is good.
Overwhelm is not.
Key Principles of Delegation: Part 2
Clarify Decision Rights
Are they recommending, deciding, or just informing?
Ambiguity creates delay.
Set a Check-In, Not Control
Agree upfront when you'll review progress.
Trust first, verify on schedule.
Let Go of Method
If you care deeply about the approach, you haven't truly delegated.
Ensure agreement on decision rights, or keep it yourself.
AI Brain Fry
Mental fatigue from excessive AI tool use or oversight beyond your cognitive capacity.
— BCG, March 2026
The Cognitive Load Multiplier
The Headlines Are Landing
Exhaustion is looming
"Using coding agents well is taking every inch of my 25 years of experience as a software engineer. And it is mentally exhausting. By 11am I'm wiped out."
— Simon Willison
Creator of Django. Coined "prompt injection" and "agentic engineering." Popularised "AI slop."
"The only universal skill is being able to roll with the changes"
One AI workflow change per week. Consistency Compounds
Tomorrow Morning
Close One Loop
Write it down or close it. Pick one.
Delegate One Thing
Find the 70% person. Hand it over.
Block Thinking Time
40 minutes. On the calendar. Protected.
Start small. Systems compound.
Further Reading
Atomic Habits
James Clear
Build systems that make good behaviour the path of least resistance.
Essentialism
Greg McKeown
The disciplined pursuit of less, but better.
It Doesn't Have to Be Crazy at Work
Jason Fried & DHH.
Calm is a competitive advantage.
What Got You Here Won't Get You There
Marshall Goldsmith
The skills that made you successful may be holding you back.
This slide is intentionally left blank