Brain
When Brain Fog Is Not Your Fault
Persistent cognitive impairment, often termed 'brain fog', can be a symptom of occupational stress and workload, rather than a personal failing.
Work Survival Club · 2 days ago · 3 min read
02Stress, burnout, attention, rest
Brain
Burnout is a workload problem, not a character flaw. Overwhelm, burnout, nervous-system recovery, focus and fatigue — treated as occupational conditions, not personality defects.
Brain
When Your Memory Is the First Thing to Go
Chronic occupational stress can affect the brain's ability to form and retrieve memories, leading to a frustrating decline that is often mistaken for personal failing.
Work Survival Club · 25 Aug · 3 min read
Brain
When Cognitive Fatigue Makes Small Tasks Feel Huge
Cognitive fatigue, a state of mental exhaustion often accumulated during demanding work, can diminish our capacity for effort and make even routine tasks seem overwhelming.
Work Survival Club · 20 Aug · 3 min read
Brain
When Email Notifications Hijack Focus
Email, a fundamental communication tool, can paradoxically disrupt concentration and contribute to cognitive fatigue when its alerts are left unchecked.
Work Survival Club · 18 Aug · 3 min read
Brain
AI: Are You Losing Your Edge?
For mid-career professionals, daily AI use can prompt concerns about skills erosion, raising questions about the long-term value of hard-won expertise.
Work Survival Club · 15 Aug · 3 min read
Brain
Feeling Unproductive? Blame Task Switching
The modern knowledge worker’s routine of jumping between multiple tasks throughout the day may create a persistent cognitive cost, regardless of how efficient one feels at the time.
Work Survival Club · 13 Aug · 3 min read
Brain
The Stress of Imagining Future Work
Anticipatory stress, the cognitive burden of imagining future work, can deplete mental resources before tasks even begin, contributing to feelings of overwhelm and fatigue.
Work Survival Club · 11 Aug · 3 min read
Brain
A Colleague's Rudeness Is Contagious
Working alongside someone whose behaviour, though not malicious, consistently grates on your nerves may be more detrimental to your focus and performance than you realise.
Work Survival Club · 7 Aug · 4 min read
Brain
The Drained Pause: Why Short Breaks May Not Restore You
Brief interruptions throughout the workday, often lauded as restorative, may not offer sufficient recovery for cognitive demands, potentially exacerbating mental fatigue.
Work Survival Club · 6 Aug · 3 min read
Brain
When HR Says Something Unclear
Human Resources departments serve an organisation's interests first, which means their advice to employees can sometimes be incomplete, biased, or simply incorrect; this guide outlines how to identify and navigate such situations.
Work Survival Club · 4 Aug · 4 min read
Brain
Executive Stress Carries a Life-Shortening Load
Senior leadership roles come with distinct physiological and psychological costs, degrading cognitive function and measurably shortening lifespan, according to a growing body of evidence.
Work Survival Club · 4 Aug · 4 min read
Brain
A Depressed Boss Can Strain the Team
When a leader experiences depression, the effects can ripple through a team, influencing workload, communication, and overall workplace atmosphere in ways that can be difficult to quantify but are acutely felt.
Work Survival Club · 4 Aug · 3 min read
Brain
Thinking About Work Is Also Work
The persistent internal monologue, often a quiet companion, can escalate into a significant cognitive burden under the pressures of modern work, contributing to mental fatigue and overwhelm.
Work Survival Club · 4 Aug · 3 min read
Brain
The Burnout Field Manual
The occupational drivers of burnout, and what actually reverses each one.
Work Survival Club · 30 Jul · 9 min read
Brain
Jagged Days Cost More Than Long Ones
Modern work often abandons predictable rhythms for fragmented, irregular schedules, creating a silent physiological burden that can contribute to chronic stress and fatigue.
Work Survival Club · 28 Jul · 3 min read
Brain
Falling Up
They called it a family until they didn't need you. Here's what the research actually says about coming back after your work family kicks you out — and why the way you got hurt matters as much as how you heal.
Work Survival Club · 26 Jul · 6 min read
Brain
Burnout Is Not a Personality
It is an occupational condition with identifiable causes, and treating it as a character trait is how people stay in it for years.
Marta Vieira · 25 Jul · 7 min read
Brain
Planning the Work Is Not the Work
While often presented as a solution to overwhelm, excessive or rigid planning can paradoxically contribute to mental fatigue and a diminished sense of agency, particularly in high-demand work environments.
Work Survival Club · 21 Jul · 3 min read
Brain
The Workday Recovery Stack
Recovery is not what you do on holiday. It is a set of small, unglamorous moves distributed through an ordinary Wednesday.
Marta Vieira · 14 Jul · 6 min read
Brain
Attention Is Not Infinite and Your Calendar Knows It
You have roughly three to four hours of genuinely good thinking in you per day. Most workplaces spend them on status updates.
Dev Ramanathan · 11 Jul · 6 min read
Brain
Slack Ate Your Morning
The modern digital workplace often demands constant shifts between communication platforms, imposing a measurable and often underestimated cognitive burden on workers.
Work Survival Club · 30 Jun · 3 min read
The Thursday email
More brain, once a week
One useful thing for your body, one for your brain, one for your calendar.
Free. Always.
Join for nothing and stay current: one email a week with our newest evidence-based pieces on working well — what to change in your body, your brain and your calendar.
No spam. No hustle-culture pep talks. Unsubscribe anytime in one click.