Breaking Down Overwhelm: 5 Tech Rituals That Reset My Brain

Growth Stage: 🌱 Sapling

You know that feeling where your brain’s in a case of popcorn?

Each ping is a kernel bursting. Email, phone, voices, meetings, tasks—not even tasks, just the memory of them, the idea of something you might be forgetting. And suddenly you’re not just overstimulated, you’re frozen.

It happens to me most often in office environments, where the sensory inputs stack up and I start to lose track of where I am. One moment I’m in motion, the next I’m locked up, staring at my screen, wondering if I’ve missed a meeting, unable to even check.

Sometimes I get snappy. I slam my headphones on a little too urgently. I shut down. There’s shame in that. But I’ve learned that the answer isn’t to blame the stimuli—it’s to return to my signal.

These 5 tech rituals help me do exactly that.

1. 🔥 The Tab Apocalypse

Close every tab. Every single one.

Then open exactly three:

One for the task at hand
One for your brain (Notion, Roam, your personal system)
One for your soul (music, ambience, silence)

Why it works: You’re clearing invisible bandwidth debt. Tabs are open loops. Close the loops.

2. 🎤 The 5-Minute Voice Dump

Open a voice recorder (or ChatGPT) and just talk. Ramble. Stumble. Rant. Let the popcorn fall.

Why it works: This isn’t journaling. It’s jettisoning. You’re releasing pressure in a way that bypasses the perfectionism filter.

3. 📚 Notion Reground

This one’s sacred. Open your Notion home base and do nothing but look around.

Breathe. Scroll. Search. Reconnect.

Why it works: Your Notion is your sensory chamber. It’s not just a dashboard—it’s a map of where your mind has been. When you maintain it with care, it becomes a space you can re-enter and instantly remember: "Oh right. This is who I am. This is what I’m doing."

Treat it like your brain's living room. The more familiar it is, the faster it grounds you.

4. ✈️ Airplane Mode Affirmation

Switch your phone to airplane mode. Put on noise-canceling headphones. Whisper (or shout):

"I decide what enters my field."

Why it works: It reclaims the permeability of your mental space. For extra impact, block off two senses: digital and auditory. Own your inputs.

5. 🤼 Micro-Move Reset

Stand up. Move with intent—fast, but controlled. Then do one small, purposeful task:

Rename a file
Bold a heading
Color-code a block

Why it works: It’s the jab and the hook. The movement resets your nervous system. The tiny task builds proof of capability. You’re back in motion.

🔄 The Loop Closing

Overwhelm isn’t a personal flaw. It’s what happens when you lose contact with your internal rhythm.

And when that happens, it’s easy to lash out. To withdraw. To feel ashamed of who you were in the moment.

But here’s the thing: you can re-enter yourself. These aren’t just tech rituals. They’re points of reconnection. Micro-choices that pull you back into your own gravitational field.

And that’s what matters. Not being perfect. Being reachable.