Not Enough Time? You Might Have a Tab Problem

How many tabs do you have open right now on your browser, and in your brain?

If you’re like most leaders, it’s probably more than you’d care to admit. And while it’s easy to blame a packed schedule, the real issue isn’t time. It’s attention.

In this episode, Gayle Lantz reframes one of the most common challenges she sees in her work with leaders: not time management, but attention management. Using the simple but surprisingly powerful metaphor of a browser with too many tabs open, she invites you to take a closer look at what’s quietly consuming your mental bandwidth and what to do about it.

You may recognize some of the usual suspects: the nagging task you keep putting off, the worry loop running silently in the background, the habit of saying yes a little too quickly. These aren’t just time drains. They’re attention drains. And they slow down the whole system.

But awareness is the first step. Gayle walks you through a practical “tab audit” to help you identify what’s open, what deserves to stay open, and what you can finally close, delegate, or schedule so your leadership system can run faster and cleaner.

The goal isn’t to get more hours in the day. It’s to be more intentional about where your most valuable leadership asset–your attention–actually goes.

This episode covers:

• Why attention, not time, is the real leadership resource at stake
• Common “tabs” leaders leave open that drain focus and energy
• How to conduct a quick tab audit for your own mind
• The difference between being busy and being deliberately focused
• What high-impact tabs actually look like and how to protect them