1202– n. the tipping point when your brain becomes so overwhelmed with tasks you need to do, you feel too guilty to put anything off until later, prioritizing every little thing at the top of the list, leaving you immobilized.
Not quite a word, but still a fun concept. Do you get so overwhelmed you prioritize everything on the list? Are you immobilized?
I don’t and I’m not. I don’t get 1202.
I go get overwhelmed, but I still can add things to my list, or lists. Things to learn, things to fix, etc. Often, however, I’m not immobilized here, even if I prioritize some things. What I might do if I’m overwhelmed is either buckle down and do one thing, or give up and do something completely different.
FWIW, this comes from the lunar descent of Apollo 11 where the 1202 alarm was the one the computer set off when there was too much data to process.
From the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows
Voice of the DBA 
I’ve been there. It was knob (freshman) year at The Citadel and it was during Hell Week. We were all exhausted, the summer heat was pounding down, and it was actually about a very simple thing, the turns in marching called by the commands “column left” and “column right.” I had learned incorrectly how to make those turns from high school band. And I was struggling to quickly retrain myself along with everything else going on.
Thankfully, I had a cadre corporal who saw what was happening, and he pulled me aside. We talked for a minute or two and then he worked me individually on the column movements, and then I rejoined the others in my platoon. Part of what got me unstuck was him telling me to focus only on what we were trying to learn and block everything else out.
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Focus is everything.
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