You're not exhausted because you do a lot. You're exhausted because you're constantly switching focus.
There is a brutal difference between working hard and living in a state of constant fragmentation.
Many leaders aren't tired from overwork. They're exhausted from a lack of continuity. From switching between spreadsheets and phone calls, from conflict to WhatsApp, from strategy to operations… without ever truly tying up loose ends.
Harvard Business Review explained it in a recent article: executive burnout doesn't always stem from volume, but from unmanaged context switching . They call it "context switching burnout." Every time you change focus, your brain expends more energy to regain depth. Do it 30 times a day and you'll understand why you end up drained, even if you haven't produced anything tangible.
In leadership, this dynamic becomes critical. Because when the leader loses the ability to think deeply—to analyze calmly, to see the big picture—the entire team starts operating on autopilot. And the urgent always takes precedence over the important.
McKinsey & Company proposes something we should adopt as a standard: intentional alternation between deep focus and a panoramic view. It's not a task-heavy agenda, but one that knows when to think and when to execute . Real silence for real decisions. Uninterrupted blocks of strategy.
And then, yes: time to review, adjust, coordinate, and put out fires if necessary.
But not at the same time. Because when everything is simultaneous, thinking becomes superficial. And so does leadership.
The solution? It's not doing less. It's protecting the type of energy you use for each task.
Thinking isn't just another chore. It's a mode of being that requires specific conditions. And if you don't safeguard it, it will disappear.
