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