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I kind of feel like

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my attention spam is dying

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<i>knocks on the door</i>

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it's just like

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whenever I try and do anything,

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I start craving some sort of distraction

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I can't just focus on one thing at a time

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even if that thing is sleeping.

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But I have things I wanna do, things I focus on

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I just don't

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because refreshing Instagram is

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always going to be easier

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... and it's a problem!

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And I'm tired of it.

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I am tired of feeling like my life is 
so far out of my own control.

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So today,

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we are figuring out how to stop scrolling,

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and how to start paying attention.

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Thank you to our Patreons for 
supporting the channel,

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and headspace for sponsoring

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a portion of this video.

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With focused music, motivational exercises,

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guided meditations, and more,

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headspace has over a thousand 
pieces of content

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to help you be kind to your mind.

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If you want to see how headspace
might be helpful to you,

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you can try it out completely for free
for 60 days.

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All you have to do is sign up

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with our link in the description

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or scan the QR code on screen.

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[slam]

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So, what's in the box?

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[box opening]

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This is an electroencephalogram, 
or an EEG.

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It measures electrical activity in the brain

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which are associated with certain
performance metrics

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like attention, excitement and stress.

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Does that look good?
How's that - How do I look?

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Now these things usually look
a little bit more

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threatening and wire-y,
however

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I reached out to this brand
called Emotiv

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that creates more simplified
consumer options.

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They gave me a little discount

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so I could actually afford this
for the video.

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And I look like a cyborg.

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I think it looks cute.

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Okay, so these are my brainwaves

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and if I focus on it

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really hard

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it should be able to translate these

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into more understandable metrics...

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like attention!
Look at that!

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You see the building of tension
and spike in excitement;

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that's my brain!

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I kind of feel like a videogame character
and these are my stats.

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It's cool.

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Now I should note that EEG data
can be pretty noisy

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and things like movement 
can really impact the results.

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However, I think that having any level of 
recording is an improvement

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because I basically never pay attention
to my attention.

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It only every really comes up when
I'm feeling guilty about my screentime,

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or I realise that 
I've done nothing all day.

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And only having these really infrequent
and negative interactions with my problem

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makes it really hard to be 
objective about the whole thing,

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to understand how bad it actually is

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and see if it's getting better or worse.

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But now, with the help of this brainscanner,

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I finally got to measure a 
baseline for my attention span

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without getting bogged down by guilt,

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or forgetting to focus on my focus.

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[typing]

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I wore the EEG while I worked, ate,
exercised and relaxed.

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I did take it off a few times
because it gets pretty uncomfortable

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after really long stretches.

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Woah!

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But, overall, 
it was pretty easy to ignore

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while I just lived my life 
for the rest of the week.

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Alongside the EEG, I installed
a program to automatically track

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how often I switched tasks on my computer,

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and I recorded 
how many times I picked up my phone.

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Did you know that you can't actually
export you screentime data!

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Then I wrote a quick script
to compile all this data and visualise it.

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Here is my life for the past three days.

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Ooh.

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The x-axis is the number of hours in a day.

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These blue bars represent the 
number of times I picked up my phone.

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This grey line tracks how productive
I was at my computer,

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and these coloured lines are the median
performance metrics from my EEG.

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Now, some highlights include this moment

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where I picked up my phone to start 
debugging the app that I was using to scan my brain,

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and then I ended up [uh] opening Instagram
and spending the next two hours on it.

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[laughs]

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However, during my meeting the next day

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I was like super interested and attentive,

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right? Great? No.

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It's because I kept picking up my phone!

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I was supposed to be on call!

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I kept opening up Instagram!

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But it's not all bad news:

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there are these instances 
where I put down my phone,

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I get into the zone,
and my brain just lights up.

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The only issue is that in my 8-hour work
day, it only happens for, like, an hour.

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It's over here at like 2 o'clock, 
or 5 o'clock, or 10 o'clock!

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Now something similar does happen
to my brain when I am working out,

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but... how often am I doing that?

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All this is to say, is that for 
the 16-ish hours that I am awake,

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I am only engaged 
and focused for like 12% of it.

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The rest of the time 
- the 88% of the time -

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I'm all over the place: 
I'm checked out or I'm distracted.

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This could be most of the rest of my life 
unless we do something about it.

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So let's do that.

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So, I started looking for any books
about attention, focus and distractions

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and I found a lot of them.

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There was just one problem
- they're all identical!

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They invent different buzz words and

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and they switch out the personal anecdotes

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that they blend with legitimate science,

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but fundamentally, 
if you've read one, you've read them all.

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Fortunately, you don't need to read any of them
because here are the three things

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that you actually need to know
if you want to fix your focus.

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1: Attention and focus are different things.

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Attention is a broad concept that 
boils down to our general awareness,

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while focus is one process 
that controls that awareness,

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concentrating it on something specific.

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2: Focus is a limited and exhaustible resource.

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So, you can only really 
focus on one thing at a time

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and your ability to do that will 
tire out the further you get from rest.

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3: Focus also filters out distractions.

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The more there are,
the more of your focus is being wasted.

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Now some research exists suggesting that
certain forms of cognitive training

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can increase your capacity 
and ability to focus.

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But the type of training and the 
effectiveness has varying results.

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The brain is complicated and 
there is a lot of nuance in the details -

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especially when you are trying 
to find things that work for you

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and your specific circumstances.

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So to fix my focus, I'm actually only going
to do a handful of very simple things

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that support what we know about focus.

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Here's the plan.

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First I need to manage my distractions, 
starting with the obvious: my phone.

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I deleted the apps that I never use, 
set up time limits for the apps I use

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way too much 
(everything except for my wallet)

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and muted basically all of my notifications.

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I also installed this app
that replaces icons with text.

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So now I need to put in a little
more effort before I open anything.

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I also changed my display to grey scale.

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I have never wanted to use my phone less.

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God, this sucks.

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I wasn't kidding.

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Almost immediately, my phone pick-ups
and screen time dropped dramatically.

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However, the silence made me 
notice the sheer number of

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internal distractions I have, too.

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These passing thoughts that 
just take me off task,

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like wandering if I need 
to buy more toilet paper,

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wishing I learned 
a musical instrument as a kid

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or thinking about what 
I'm going to have for dinner.

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They were rarely urgent,

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but often important enough that 
I didn't want to ignore or forget them.

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So, I dedicated a page in my notebook 
to quickly write them down for later.

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When later came,

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I sorted through those thoughts based on 
action, importance and time-sensitivity,

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and kept it in mind when I was building
my schedule which got way more specific.

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Now, I'm usually the type of person who

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only puts, like, events in my calendar 
- a normal person - however,

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a lot of the books that I've been reading 
have recommended time-blocking

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or time-boxing. I don't know.

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It's just setting aside 
time to do individual tasks.

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Apparently, it helps you avoid 
the temptation to multitask.

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[alarm beeps]

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So, every morning, I took all of my work,

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chores, exercises and hobbies

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and plugged them into my calendar.

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Now, I found that the secret is that

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it's not as simple as just 
putting an hour aside for each thing.

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Since focus is an exhaustible resource,

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I need to take into account 
my energy levels throughout the day

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and how much effort 
each task is going to take.

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Like, reading research papers and writing
takes a lot of focus for me.

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It's just really boring.

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[vacuum cleaner with audiobook playing]

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but listening to audiobooks or animating,

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I'm locked in.

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I actually find it really hard to disengage 
from the tasks that I really enjoy.

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So I find myself thinking about them 
or even continuing to do them

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past their allotted time.

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Which means that I should 
probably think about those switching costs

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when I'm building my 
schedule out for the day.

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Eventually, I realised this process 
could be a little more automated,

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so I got Taha to put the process together
in a notion template.

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Now I can input tasks, tag them
and it will show me an order

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that I can drag into my calendar.

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I found it useful,

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and if you want to give it a try, 
I'll include it in our next newsletter.

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But once I controlled my 
external and internal distractions,

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and built out a schedule 
that minimised multitasking

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and optimised for my energy levels,

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all that was left was actually focusing.

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It was amazing.

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I was using my phone less
and getting more done.

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My brain was lighting up.

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I was way more engaged 
in everything I did.

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I found different soundtracks
to make it easier to get in the zone,

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and life was great...

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until it wasn't.

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[uuhhhhh]

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It is... 12.

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I haven't left bed yet.

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I've just been using my phone, full color.

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Every 15 minutes I hit
"remind me in 15 minutes."

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[uhh]

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And then 15 minutes later I do it again.

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Just feels like we're 
back where we started.

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I ended up using my phone
for 7 hours that day -

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more than I had all week prior.

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I had things I could do.

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Things I should do.

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But I just couldn't 
bring myself to get up.

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I am kind of proud that I managed to 
pull up my code on my phone

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and see if there were any clues in my data

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that could explain what went wrong.

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I know, it's pathetic,

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but it was a small victory that 
led to an interesting discovery:

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the nights that I used 
my phone past midnight

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led to days where I felt more distracted 
and picked up my phone more often.

224
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I learned in an old video
how important sleep could really be,

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so I decided to just give up on the day,

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get some sleep, and try again tomorrow.

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[sigh]

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[aaaAAAHHH]

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I feel like I'm drowning.

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It's like I'm not doing 
anything hard, right?

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I'm just doing my stuff.

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I'm just trying to focus on it more.

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Except, I'm trying so hard to focus

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that everything is making me on edge.

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Like, my cat will try and get my attention

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and I'll be annoyed 
at him for wanting pats.

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It's like there's sand falling

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and I'm trying to catch all of the sand.

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And you can't do it!

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Am I making any sense?

241
99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
I really need to make 
every grain of sand count

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by like doing everything on target

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and even if I'm enjoying something,

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I can't because I need to move 
and catch different grains of sand.

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Hold on, hold on, hold on.

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What are you going to day?

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"Have you ever thought about

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just meditating and doing nothing?

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99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999
Taking a step back away from 
the thing that you're working on

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and not working?

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Like taking a break?"

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Maybe it was because I was desperate.

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Actually, it is totally because I was desperate

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but I decided to try meditation.

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The only issue is...

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I have no idea how.

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Luckily, I have headspace.

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I should probably turn the colour on

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just so you guys can see 
what the app actually looks like.