Does anyone else struggle with brain fog? I swear I can barely focus, and I often forget what I was going to do or write in the middle of the action. It's pretty frustrating.

I do. The kind where anxiety fogs my mind and even shows up in my vision, white haze, blurriness, and disorientation. My head gets heavy, I lose focus, and it all comes from chronic stress. My eye exam was normal...No clue how I still am working, but it gets better day by day.

I take magnesium when my anxiety runs high. It calms down my nerves and helps me focus

This is difficult. Here’s how it effects me:

1. I have a hard time concentrating, but don’t really recognize what’s happening yet. Just that my work isn’t going well.
2. I realize it. Now it’s not just that my performance is off, but now I know why. I’m in one of these distracted/can’t work/procrastination zones.
3. Knowing what’s happening makes me feel bad about myself. Why can’t I just snap back to attention?
4. I know I should take a break. Take a walk! Get some air! Grab a snack! But … while I’m doing this I feel guilty about it, and even worse about myself.

It’s really hard to get out of the rumination and guilt and negative self-talk at this time.

This works for me … sometimes:
1. When I recognize what’s happening, I will stop and tell myself that this is normal, everyone deals with it, and you’ve been here before. So don’t feel too bad.
2. I will write a kind note to myself. Like a permission slip. I think: “if someone were telling me about this, what would I say to encourage them.” This isn’t about telling yourself how to fix it. Instead, it’s about saying my feeling are valid.
3. I’ll write down all the tasks I’m working on. Putting them on paper means I can walk away for a while and not focus on them too much because I know I won’t forget them when I get back at my desk. I try to make it positive, not a hard to-do list with a lot of “musts” on it.
4. I step away. If another task pops up, I set a reminder on my phone so I can get it out of my brain.

Your mileage may vary. I don’t think there’s a single strategy that works for everyone. I hope you find some value in learning about what I do and can find something that works for you.

I had a bad case of the flu two months ago and I came out of it feeling like there was something wrong upstairs. I couldn't concentrate like normal and simple tasks could seem confusing. It faded after a few weeks, but it was pretty scary as it was happening.

Yes I have it at times. I have to take really good notes and everything down from meetings.

What do you think the root cause is? Too much multi tasking? Workload too high? Or consulting life? I’m trying to figure it out.

Yup - that’s a good indicator to take a break, take a nap or walk around, talk to someone and drink some water. At least for me. YMMV

Use copilot and just write down notes for every meeting in reply to the meeting invite and email it to yourself. Then when you forget you have your notes handy. I am quite forgetful due to my thyroid, but writing everything down means everyone thinks I have a great memory