Lunch & Learn

Beyond
Pushing Through

Protect your attention.
Protect your energy.
Protect what matters.
Charles Talbot
Charles TalbotBSc (Hons), PGDip, MRCOT
Consultant Neurological SpecialistOccupational Therapist
BAMBA RegisteredMindfulness Teacher
Fatigue isn't just being tired

Fatigue arrives in three buckets – and they drain at different rates.

Fatigue affects thinking, emotions and decision-making before it affects the body.

Most people notice the physical bucket first, and only then look back at the other two.

PhysicalBody, sleep, pain
CognitiveFocus, memory, decisions
EmotionalPatience, mood, care
When our attention drifts, it is no longer available for the present occupation.
Fatigue isn't just being tired

Fatigue whispers long before it shouts.

Whisper

Small slips in focus and patience

Talk

Errors, irritability, avoidance

Shout

The point most people call fatigue
Awareness always comes before change.
The performance trap

Recovery isn't time away from performance. It's what sustains it.

WorkEffort carries you down into the dip
RecoverThe turn back up happens here
SustainCapacity carried forward
Recovery protects attention. Attention sustains performance.
The performance trap

Every loop is a dip you came back from – and the line still climbs.

Work · RecoverOne loop of the rhythm
And againEach dip returns you higher than the last
SustainCapacity compounds
The loops never stop. That's the point – they're what keeps the line rising.
The brain's attention networks

Attention isn't one thing. It's a handover between three.

TPN
SN
DMN

Task Positive / CEN

Doing the work. Costly to hold, and the first thing fatigue takes.

Salience Network

Noticing. The moment you catch the drift, this is the network you used.

Default Mode / DMN

Wandering. Restorative in small doses, corrosive when it loops.

Protect your attention. Protect your energy. Protect what matters.
Task PositiveFocused effort on the task in front of you
Default ModeMind-wandering, rumination, replaying
SalienceThe switch that notices what matters
momenting
Becoming fatigue minded

Four habits that change the relationship.

1

Notice early signs

Catch the whisper: the reread sentence, the shortened patience.

2

Work with your energy

Match the task to the capacity you actually have today.

3

Build recovery in

Planned, small and unglamorous – not saved up for the weekend.

4

Replace guilt with awareness

Guilt costs energy. Awareness buys it back.

Awareness always comes before change.
Becoming fatigue minded

Awareness always comes before change.

Notice early signs
Work with your energy
Build recovery into your day
Replace guilt with awareness
Being fatigue minded is not lowering the bar. It is knowing where the bar is today.
Working with your brain instead of against it

The 1–90–1 principle, across a day.

Protect the first hour
~90 min
break
~90 min
break
~90 min
break
~90 min
Protect the last hour
Start of dayUltradian rhythm – attention runs in waves, not in one long lineEnd of day

1 – the first hour

No inbox. The clearest attention of your day goes to what matters most.

90 – a brain break

Two to five minutes. Away from the screen. Not a different screen.

1 – the last hour

Close loops, set down the day, protect the evening from it.

Momenting

Notice.

Pause.

Return.

Attention wanders somewhere new every time. Noticing it, and coming back, is the practice.

Take a moment

Before Monday gathers momentum… take a moment to gather yourself.

www.moment.ingjoin@moment.ingYouTube: @MomentingApp
Free Monday Moment

Every Monday
12:30–1:00 pm

Thirty minutes to notice, pause and return – before the week takes the wheel.

NoticePauseReturn

Thank you.

www.moment.ing