What's actually making you
overwhelmed at work.
It's not a focus problem. It's a decision load problem — and it's measurable.
The research finding: Knowledge workers carry an invisible backlog of unmade decisions, open loops, and unprocessed inputs. This cognitive overhead compounds throughout the day — by 2pm, most people are running on depleted capacity without knowing why.
Measure my decision load
Free. Private. 5 minutes. Instant results.
Two kinds of overwhelm. One is measurable.
What feels like
Too much to do. Not enough time. Can't focus. Always behind.
What's actually happening
Decision backlog accumulation. Open loops consuming working memory. Context switching overhead.
The Decision Load Index quantifies the second column — the measurable part you can actually act on.
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What the data shows
47
Average DLI score (0–100 scale)
4:32
Average completion time
864
Knowledge workers assessed