Brain Tabs
A SCARS Institute Scam Victim Recovery Insight
The feeling of being utterly exhausted without having engaged in any physical labor is a modern paradox that is becoming increasingly common.
It is the fatigue of the person who collapses onto the sofa at the end of the day, their body perfectly rested, but their mind feeling like it has just run a marathon.
The reason for this profound weariness can be understood through a simple yet powerful analogy: our brains function much like a laptop browser with too many tabs open. Each unfinished task, each pending decision, and each nagging reminder is a mental tab, left running in the background, slowly draining our cognitive resources.
This phenomenon, known as mental exhaustion or cognitive fatigue, occurs when our brain’s processing power is overwhelmed by the sheer number of open loops in our consciousness.
Think about the tasks you know you need to do but are not currently doing. There is the email you need to reply to, the song you promised to give feedback on, the wedding decision you have been avoiding, the message you typed but never sent, and the unfolded laundry you keep promising to tackle tomorrow. You are not actively engaged in any of these tasks, yet they are not closed. They exist in a state of limbo, and your brain continues to dedicate a portion of its finite energy to maintaining them.
The critical insight is that our brains spend more mental energy thinking about doing a task than actually doing it.
You might spend three days worrying about a difficult text message, replaying scenarios in your head, and feeling the weight of its importance. When you finally take the thirty seconds to send it, the immediate relief is palpable. The mental energy consumed by the anticipation and the rumination far outweighs the energy required for the action itself. This is the core of the problem. The constant, low-level hum of all these open tabs in your head creates a state of persistent cognitive load, preventing your brain from ever truly entering a state of rest or focus.
This is why you can feel completely drained after a day spent “not doing anything.” Your brain has been working overtime. It has been juggling priorities, maintaining reminders, and managing the anxiety of unfinished business. The system starts to run really slowly, and eventually, nothing works. Simple decisions become monumental, concentration evaporates, and a sense of being overwhelmed takes over. This is not a physical tiredness that can be solved with a good night’s sleep alone. It is a deep, mental fatigue that blurs the line between being and doing.
Recognizing this is the first step toward reclaiming your energy.
The solution is not to work harder but to work smarter by closing some of those tabs. This means making a decision, even a small one, to bring a task to completion or willfully throw it in the trash.
It means sending that text, making that phone call, or simply deciding to delegate or delete a task from your to-do list. Each closed tab frees up a chunk of mental bandwidth.
The exhaustion you feel is real, but it is not a sign of physical weakness or a mysterious medical ailment. It is the predictable outcome of a brain that is overextended (not overwhelmed, that is a different thing). By understanding that you are not tired from what you have done, but from what you have left undone, you can begin to take back control, close the tabs, and allow your system to run smoothly and efficiently once more.
Check, task done!
Prof. Tim McGuinness, Ph.D.
January 2026
