Traversing the Burden of Mental Load with Jennifer Apps, PhD

This week on the Faculty Factory podcast, we welcome back Jennifer Apps, PhD, as she shares her insights on the topic of "mental load" and offers practical strategies for effectively navigating it.

Dr. Apps explains that mental load refers to the cognitive effort involved in managing and organizing tasks, both in personal and professional life. The discussion is prompted by Dr. Apps' realization of her own mental load.

Recognizing the gender-based aspect of mental load, she delves deeper into understanding its impact on households and workplaces. The episode explores the concept of mental load, its effects, and ways to address it in different contexts.

Dr. Apps is a pediatric neuropsychologist at Children’s Wisconsin, a pediatric acute care children’s hospital in Milwaukee. She also serves as a professor and vice chair of faculty development in the Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine Department. In addition, she is the associate provost of Faculty Affairs at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW).

She previously joined us for an episode titled 'How Faculty Can Succeed While Avoiding Overcommitment,' and you can listen to it here: https://facultyfactory.org/jennifer-apps/

When it comes to mental load, Dr. Apps describes the cognitive effort that goes into this as constant, never ending, and exhausting.

“I'm a big believer in gratitude and I believe that gratitude is a cognitive methodology that unlocks new ways of being able to look at situations,” she told us.