- 16 hours ago
- #focus
- #productivity
- #tedxtalk
- #selfimprovement
Learn how to improve your focus and productivity with this powerful talk by Chris Bailey at TEDxManchester.
In this video, Chris explains practical techniques to train your brain, avoid distractions, and stay focused in today's fast-paced world.
Watch till the end to understand how to take control of your attention and boost your efficiency.
Speaker: Chris Bailey
Event: TEDxManchester
#focus #productivity #tedxtalk #selfimprovement
In this video, Chris explains practical techniques to train your brain, avoid distractions, and stay focused in today's fast-paced world.
Watch till the end to understand how to take control of your attention and boost your efficiency.
Speaker: Chris Bailey
Event: TEDxManchester
#focus #productivity #tedxtalk #selfimprovement
Category
đź“š
LearningTranscript
00:06A few years ago, I began to observe something in my own behavior that made me a bit uncomfortable.
00:16And that was that from the moment that I woke up to the end of the day, my life was
00:23a series
00:23of screens.
00:25I started the day with the thing that woke me up first thing in the morning, my phone.
00:30And so I sat there in bed watching various cooking videos on Instagram and bouncing around
00:35between a bunch of different applications.
00:37But then it was time to get out of bed and cook breakfast.
00:41And so the thing that I focused then on, in addition to the omelet in the pan, was the
00:47iPad that was right next to the oven.
00:49And then it was time to do some work.
00:51And so I went to a different screen, which was attached to another screen itself.
00:55All the while, this little devil on my wrist was tapping and beeping and blooping and distracting
01:02me as I was trying to get important stuff done.
01:07But there was one particular offender out of all of these different devices that I wasted
01:15more time on than anything else.
01:17That was this dastardly thing, my phone.
01:21I could spend hours on this thing every single day.
01:24And so I decided to essentially, for all intents and purposes, get rid of the thing for a month.
01:30As an experiment, I thought, I'm going to live on this thing for just 30 minutes every single
01:35day at a maximum.
01:37And so this is the amount of time I have for maps.
01:39This is the amount of time to call my mother.
01:41This is the amount of time that I have for everything that I could possibly want to do,
01:45to listen to music, to listen to podcasts.
01:47And I observed what happened during this time.
01:52It took about a week to adjust downward into a new, lower level of stimulation.
01:59But once I did, I noticed that three curious things began to happen.
02:07But first, my attention span grew.
02:10It was like I could focus on things, not effortlessly, but with much more ease than I could before this
02:18experiment started.
02:19In addition to this, though, as I was going about the world, and especially when my mind
02:25wandered a bit, I had more ideas that my mind arrived at.
02:29And on top of this, I had more plans and thoughts about the future.
02:35Getting rid of one simple device led to these three effects.
02:41Why?
02:44Noticing this a few years back led me on this long journey to get to the bottom of what
02:51it takes to focus in a world of distraction.
02:55I poured over hundreds of research papers from front to back of my office.
03:00I don't know if you've ever watched one of those crime shows where somebody's solving
03:03a murder, and so they have this big Bristol board and their string attached to papers,
03:08attached to memos, attached to newspaper clips.
03:10This is like what the state of my office was.
03:12I flew out to meet experts around the world who study focus.
03:15I conducted more experiments on myself.
03:17Until the point, I had 25,000 words of research notes about why this is the case.
03:25How does technology influence our attention and our ability to focus?
03:32I want to start with the attention spans that we have.
03:36This is how we pay attention to the world around us and how much control we have over our focus.
03:43The research around this particular area is fascinating.
03:47It turns out that when we, too, work in front of a computer, especially when our phone is nearby,
03:53we focus on one thing for just 40 seconds before we switch to doing something else.
04:00And when we have things like Slack open as we're doing some work, this lowers to 35 seconds.
04:08But the reason that this is the case is not what we might think after looking at the research.
04:14We think the problem is that our brains are distracted.
04:18But after looking at the research, this is what I've come to know as a symptom for the deeper problem,
04:25which runs much more deeply.
04:27It's the root cause of this distraction.
04:29It's not that we're distracted.
04:31It's that our brains are overstimulated.
04:34It's that we crave distraction in the first place.
04:38Our brains love these tiny little nuggets of information and social media and email
04:45and these things that we do over the course of the day.
04:48There's even a mechanism in our mind called the novelty bias,
04:52by which our mind rewards us with a hit of dopamine,
04:55one of those wonderful pleasure chemicals,
04:58the same one that we get when we eat and order a whole medium pizza from Domino's,
05:04you know, the same one that we get when we make love.
05:06We get that same stimulation when we check Facebook.
05:10We get this dopamine coursing through our mind.
05:12And so we not only crave distraction,
05:14but our mind rewards us for seeking out and finding distraction in the first place.
05:23So this is the state of our minds today.
05:27We're at this hyper-stimulated state where we bounce around
05:31between these bunch of different objects of attention
05:34that are very, very stimulating for our mind.
05:37And so I thought, okay, if the phone had this impact on my attention span,
05:42what if I lowered how stimulated I was even more still?
05:47And so, you know, this feeling that we experience
05:52when we go from being in a state of high stimulation
05:55into a state of low stimulation, it has a name.
05:58That name is called boredom.
06:01You know, this restlessness that we feel when we have this super busy week
06:05and then we're lying on the couch on a Sunday afternoon thinking,
06:08all right, what am I doing now?
06:11So I challenged, I put out a call to the readers of my website
06:14and I asked them, what is the most boring thing that you can think of doing?
06:19I'm going to make myself bored for an hour a day for a month.
06:22And so I did some stuff that I still am upset about from my readers to this day.
06:28Day one, I read the iTunes terms and conditions for one hour.
06:32It's actually shorter and more readable than you might think.
06:36Day four, I waited on hold with Air Canada's baggage claims department.
06:40It's very easy.
06:41This is the trick.
06:42If you want to make yourself bored, don't call the reservations department.
06:45Call the baggage claim people because you're going to wait for hours
06:48if you ever get through it all.
06:50Day 19, I counted all the zeros that I could in the first 10,000 digits of pi.
06:58Day 24, I watched the clock.
07:02Tick, tick for one hour.
07:05Day 24, and 27 other activities this month.
07:10Jeez.
07:11I still think back.
07:13But curiously, I noticed the exact same effects as I did during the smartphone experiment.
07:20It took about a week for my mind to adjust downward into a newer, lower level of stimulation.
07:27And this maps curiously on top of research that shows that it takes our mind about eight days
07:32to fully calm down and rest.
07:34Like when we're on vacation, as an example.
07:37Our vacations need to be longer than they are today.
07:40But I also noticed that my attention span expanded.
07:44I was able to focus even more effortlessly because I wasn't surrounded by fewer distractions,
07:51but my mind was so much less stimulated that it did not seek the distraction in the first place.
07:58But the fun part were these ideas and plans that struck me that didn't before.
08:05And the reason that this is the case is because my mind had a chance to wander more often.
08:11There's a great quote that I love that you might be familiar with from J.R.R. Tolkien,
08:16where he says that not all those who wander are lost.
08:20And the exact same thing is true, it turns out, with regard to our focus, with regard to our attention.
08:28If you think back to when your best, most brilliant ideas strike you,
08:34you're rarely focused on something.
08:37Maybe this morning you were taking a shower.
08:41Or maybe some morning in the past,
08:43and then your mind had a chance to connect several of the constellations of ideas
08:48that were swirling around in your mind
08:50to create an idea that would never have materialized otherwise
08:53if you were focused on something else.
08:56On your phone, for example.
09:00This is a mode, especially when we do this deliberately,
09:02when we deliberately let our mind wander,
09:04I call this mode scatter focus.
09:06And the research shows that it lets our mind come up with ideas.
09:09It lets our mind plan because of where our mind wanders to.
09:15This is fascinating.
09:16It turns out that when we just let our attention rest,
09:20it goes to three main places.
09:23We think about the past,
09:25we think about the present,
09:27and we think about the future.
09:29But we think about the past less than we might think,
09:33only about 12% of the time.
09:35And often that time,
09:36we're recalling ideas in these thought-wandering episodes.
09:41But the present,
09:43which is a much more productive place to wander,
09:46we wander to think about the present 28% of the time.
09:50And so this is, you know,
09:51it's something as simple as you're typing up an email,
09:54and you can't find a way to phrase something
09:56because it's very delicate,
09:57maybe it's political.
09:58You go and walk to another room,
10:00you go to another room of the house,
10:01of the office,
10:02and the solution hits you
10:03because your mind had a chance to approach it
10:06and prod at that problem from different directions.
10:10But here's the thing.
10:11Our minds wander to think about the future
10:14more than the past and the present combined.
10:18Whenever our mind is wandering,
10:19we think about the future 48% of the time.
10:23This is why when we're taking a shower,
10:25we plan out our entire day,
10:27even though it hasn't started yet.
10:30This is called our mind's prospective bias,
10:32and it occurs when our mind wanders.
10:36If you're good with math,
10:38or maths, I should say,
10:40not in Canada anymore,
10:42these numbers don't add up to 100.
10:43It's because the rest of the time,
10:44our mind is dull.
10:45It's blank,
10:46or it doesn't have an idea inside of it
10:50that is rooted in time.
10:51But whatever it is for you
10:53that lets your mind wander,
10:55something that's simple,
10:56something that doesn't consume your full attention,
11:00mine happens to be something
11:01that is not necessarily stereotypic
11:04of my age and gender demographic,
11:07but I love to knit.
11:09Knitting is one of my favorite hobbies.
11:11I knit in planes,
11:12I knit on trains,
11:13I knit in hotel rooms,
11:14I was knitting in the hotel room
11:16before this event today,
11:18because it helps calm you down,
11:20it helps settle your nerves,
11:21and I come up with so many ideas when I knit,
11:24I have a notepad next to me.
11:26But whatever it is for you,
11:28it might be taking that extra long shower,
11:30it might be taking a bath,
11:32upgrading your shower to a bath,
11:33so you can soak not just with your body,
11:35but with your ideas as well.
11:38It could be simple if you're at work,
11:40walking from one room to another in the office.
11:44Very simple change,
11:46but if you don't use your phone during that walk,
11:49your mind will go to the meeting that you're about to attend,
11:52it'll go to the call that you were just on,
11:54it'll wander to the ideas that are circulating,
11:57and it'll make you more creative in this way.
12:01It could be something as simple as waiting in line,
12:04and just, I don't know, waiting in line.
12:07It could be getting a massage.
12:09You know, whatever it is that lets your mind,
12:12well, I love this picture so much.
12:15Whatever you love doing,
12:18here's a pro tip,
12:19ask your masseuse to let you have a notepad in the session,
12:22because ideas always come to you,
12:24and you're always incubating things,
12:25and so capture them so you can act upon them later.
12:29But I think,
12:30after doing this deep dive into the research,
12:33we need to make two fundamental shifts
12:36with regard to how we think about our attention.
12:40We think that we need to fit more in.
12:43You know, there's all this talk about hustling.
12:45I'm an anti-hustler.
12:47I'm one of the laziest people you'll ever meet,
12:49and I think that's what gives me so many ideas
12:51to talk and write about.
12:53We don't need to fit more in.
12:55We're doing enough.
12:56We're doing too much.
12:57We're doing so much
12:59that our mind never wanders anymore.
13:02It's sad.
13:03This is when our best ideas and plans come to us.
13:05We need more space.
13:08If you look at what allows traffic
13:11to move down a highway,
13:14what allows it to move forward
13:15isn't how fast cars are moving,
13:18as you might expect.
13:19It's how much space exists between the cars
13:22that allows traffic to move forward.
13:25Our work and our life are the same way.
13:28The second shift.
13:30We like to think of distraction
13:32as the enemy of focus.
13:35It is not.
13:36It is a symptom of why we find it difficult to focus,
13:40which is the fact that our mind is overstimulated.
13:45I have a challenge for you.
13:47It's a two-week challenge,
13:48but it's a challenge to make your mind
13:50a bit less stimulated
13:52and simply notice
13:54what happens to your attention.
13:56How many ideas do you get?
13:57How does your focus change?
13:59How many plans do you make?
14:02So for two weeks,
14:03make your mind less stimulated.
14:04There are so many great features on phones,
14:06on devices,
14:07that will let us eliminate
14:09a lot of the time we waste on our devices.
14:11Use those features,
14:12not only to become aware
14:14of how you spend your time,
14:15but how you can spend less
14:17so you have more ideas.
14:18Have a disconnection ritual every evening.
14:21One of my favorite daily rituals,
14:22I disconnect from the internet completely
14:24from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m.
14:27My fiance and I,
14:29we have a weekly disconnection ritual,
14:32a technology Sabbath every Sunday,
14:34so we can disconnect from the digital world
14:37and reconnect with the physical world,
14:40the real, actual world.
14:43Rediscover boredom.
14:44You don't have to do it for an hour.
14:45Please don't call Air Canada.
14:47It's just a world of hell.
14:48But rediscover boredom
14:50just for a few minutes.
14:51Lay on the couch
14:52and where does your mind go?
14:53And scatter your attention.
14:56You'll find some remarkably fruitful things
15:00in that attentional zone.
15:06If there's one thing
15:08that I have found to be true
15:10after doing this deep dive
15:11into this world on how we focus,
15:14it's that the state of our attention
15:16is what determines the state of our lives.
15:20If we're distracted in each moment,
15:22those moments of distraction
15:23and overstimulation build up
15:25and accumulate to create a life
15:27that feels more distracted and overwhelming
15:29like we don't have a clear direction.
15:32But when we become less stimulated,
15:35when we make our mind more calm,
15:37we get the benefits of added productivity
15:39and focus and ideas and creativity,
15:41but we also live a better life because of it.
15:45Thank you so much.
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