My brain has 47 tabs open—and they’re all loading

There are days when I look at my computer screen and think:

Google Chrome is judging me.

Not subtly, either.

I can almost hear it whisper:

“Girl… are you sure you need all of these?”

Yes, Google.

I do.

Please mind your own business.

At any given time, I can have a dozen tabs open for one client, another dozen for another client, several more for research, another collection for writing, and a few that I have absolutely no idea why I opened.

Then there are the tabs I need for Ettenyl Writes.

And email.

And Canva.

And WordPress.

And documents.

And the one tab I opened three days ago because I thought:

“I’ll need this later.”

I have absolutely no idea what it is for anymore.

But I’m afraid to close it.

What if it’s important?

This is how my brain works too.

Welcome to the chaos.

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I wear a lot of hats

I’ve been told more than once:

“You need to focus on one thing.”

Then there’s the other favorite advice from the business world:

“Don’t be a jack of all trades. Niche down.”

I understand the reasoning.

Really.

As a Growth Strategy & Systems Consultant, I spend a lot of my time helping businesses create structure, focus, and better ways of working.

So you’d think my own brain would be a beautifully organized dashboard with color-coded labels and everything neatly filed.

Absolutely not.

My brain looks more like somebody opened every drawer in the house and walked away.

And somehow…

I know where everything is.

That’s the part people don’t always understand.

I may have several projects happening at once, but they aren’t all competing for the same part of my brain.

Working on systems doesn’t kill my creativity.

Writing doesn’t make me less strategic.

Marketing doesn’t make me less of a storyteller.

And being a writer doesn’t mean I can’t spend hours happily figuring out where a business is losing time, money, or opportunities.

Apparently, my brain enjoys variety.

Who am I to argue with it?

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My tabs have tabs

Here’s what a normal day can look like.

I’m working on something for a client.

Then an idea suddenly pops into my head for a blog post.

So I open a document.

Then I remember something else I need to research.

Another tab.

Then I see an email.

Another tab.

Then I remember something I need to do in Canva.

Another tab.

Then I need to check something in WordPress.

Another tab.

Then someone messages me.

Another tab.

Then I suddenly realize I haven’t eaten.

That’s not a tab.

That’s a survival issue.

So I go to the kitchen.

Halfway there, I remember something else.

I return to my computer.

I stare at the screen.

And suddenly I have absolutely no idea why I stood up.

I know I’m not alone in this.

Please tell me I’m not alone.

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I get ideas at the most inconvenient times

Creativity has terrible timing.

It doesn’t care that you’re busy.

It doesn’t care that you’re brushing your teeth.

It doesn’t care that you’re about to fall asleep.

It certainly doesn’t care that you are currently in the middle of something completely unrelated.

I’ll be doing something ordinary and suddenly:

IDEA.

And because I know how easily ideas disappear, I have learned to write them down.

Sometimes it’s a proper note.

Sometimes it’s one sentence.

Sometimes it’s a collection of words that makes absolutely no sense the next morning.

Sometimes I look at my notes and think:

“What was I trying to say here?”

Apparently, yesterday’s creative genius has abandoned today’s woman.

Rude.

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Maybe I was never meant to have one lane

I’ve spent years hearing about the importance of finding your niche.

And yes, I understand why niching down can help a business become easier to understand.

But I’m also learning something about myself.

I don’t think I need to shrink my interests just because the internet likes neat little boxes.

I can be a systems person and a writer.

I can love strategy and storytelling.

I can spend hours thinking about business processes and then get ridiculously excited about writing something funny about a broken drinking glass.

These things don’t cancel each other out.

They make me who I am.

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My creative brain didn’t disappear when I became a systems girl

This one matters to me.

Because sometimes we assume that choosing a more strategic career means leaving our creative side behind.

I don’t believe that.

My creative juices didn’t disappear because I started calling myself a Growth Strategy & Systems Consultant.

They’re still here.

Loudly.

Occasionally inconveniently.

And sometimes at completely inappropriate hours.

But they’re here.

I believe God gave me the ability to write, think creatively, connect ideas, notice patterns, and make sense of complicated things.

Why would I deliberately use only one part of that?

If I can use those different abilities to help clients solve problems, build better systems, communicate clearly, and grow their businesses…

and then use the same brain to write something completely ridiculous about my daily life…

I’ll take it.

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And somehow, it works

The funny thing is that I don’t really know how I compartmentalize everything.

I just do.

There is my work Google account.

There is my personal Google account.

There are different browser windows for different projects.

Different notebooks.

Different documents.

Different spaces for different parts of my life.

And yes, I even have different ChatGPT conversations for different things.

Apparently, my AI assistants have departments too.

😂

But somehow, all these pieces belong to the same person.

Me.

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Maybe the problem isn’t having too many tabs

Maybe the problem is thinking we should only have one.

Some people thrive by doing one thing exceptionally well.

Others are wired to connect different things.

Ideas from one area suddenly solve problems in another.

A conversation becomes a blog post.

A client problem becomes a marketing lesson.

A funny moment becomes an essay.

A random observation becomes an idea three weeks later.

Everything feeds something else.

That’s how my brain works.

It may not always look organized from the outside.

But I know my tabs.

Well…

Most of them.

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So yes, I have 47 tabs open

And yes, they’re all loading.

Some are frozen.

Some are playing music and I have no idea which one.

One is probably important.

Three are completely unnecessary.

And at least five contain ideas that I absolutely refuse to lose.

But I’ve stopped apologizing for having a brain that wants to explore different things.

Maybe I don’t need fewer tabs.

Maybe I just need to remember which ones matter.

And occasionally…

close the ones that have been sitting there for three weeks.

Google will survive.

So will I.

Probably.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have approximately twelve tabs to open for this blog post.