I was thinking about cognitive burden the other day. I wish I could say it was because there was a really interesting problem I was trying to solve for, but instead I was speaking with someone about the parking situation in Hoboken.
When we lived in Hoboken using our car was a pain in the ass. It wasn’t uncommon to spend up to 45 minutes looking for a parking spot after the evening commute. And while there were certain windows of time on Saturdays and Sundays when the likelihood of finding a spot increased significantly, there were others when it was so difficult I contemplated letting my car run into the Hudson River. Owning a car in Hoboken and not paying $300+/month for parking meant I had a lot of things to consider:
What time do I need to leave here (wherever “here” may be) so I arrive back in town during a window when the odds of finding a spot are increased?
Will there be a spot?
Is the spot big enough?
Am I close enough to the curb?
Will the cars on either side of me have enough room to pull out?
Do I think the drivers of the cars in front and behind me will be careful when pulling out, regardless of how much room they have?
Do I think the next person who pulls in in front of me or behind me will know how to parallel park and do so responsibly?
What day is street cleaning?
What time is street cleaning?
Is this spot next to where people put their garbage? And will the sanitation workers lift the mattress that’s propped up against the telephone pole next to my car up and over my car, or just slide it across?
I just listed ten things I needed to think about every single time I used my car Hoboken. And while none of those things were actively stressful, accounting for all of the various factors was covertly stressful. Needless to say, we weren’t inspired to use our car very often.
Parking is such a mundane task – one I’m sure lots of people around the country take for granted. Living in Austin, I’ve started to take it for granted. Having two assigned, covered parking spots makes getting around significantly easier. If we want to use the car to go somewhere, we get in and go without giving it a second thought.
There’s way less coordination. Way less worry. Way less stress. Way less cognitive burden. It sounds strange but my brain actually feels lighter. I think that’s because the cognitive burden required for rote tasks has been reduced across the board:
Living in Austin, I don’t need to bundle up before leaving the apartment. No scarf, hat, or gloves. It sounds silly, but because I wore a scarf, hat, and gloves every day from mid-November to mid-March, I had multiple options for each. When preparing to brave the outdoors I had to choose which scarf, hat, and gloves I wanted to wear. It’s a small thing, but that simple task required more brain power. Here in Austin, on the “cold” mornings I need a jacket. And I only brought two jackets with me so my options are limited (when I lived in Hoboken I had 4 different jackets just to go to work).
I usually commuted via bus. Most mornings my stop was the last one where you still had the possibility of getting a seat…assuming the previous buses had been running on time. If I didn’t get a seat, and everything ran smoothly, I was standing for 10-15 minutes. NBD. If things didn’t run smoothly, I could wind up standing for an hour (and yes, that happened one morning because of an accident in the Lincoln Tunnel – thankfully I was wearing flats). So when a bus pulled up and looked full, I had to quickly assess whether I wanted to take my chances and stand, or wait for the next bus. Most people would assume checking the schedule would make the decision process easier, but that sort of thinking would require NJ Transit to preserve the integrity of its schedule, which it rarely did.
Those are just three of the daily activities that required more brain power than I think they deserve. Three examples of how I’ve reduced my stress level by reducing my cognitive burden by simply changing locations. Of course, living in Austin isn’t without its own demands…but so far I feel the demands on my brain power here are more worthwhile.