Tuning Up Your Brain Focus

Tuning Up Your Brain Focus

A few years earlier, I started to notice a characteristic of my behavior; it made me feel a little uncomfortable. From the moment I woke up till the end of the day, my life has been a succession of screens. The day started with my phone, which woke me up in the morning. And I was sitting on the bed watching various cooking videos on Instagram and switch from one application to another. But I had to get out of bed, make coffee beside an omelet in the pan while focusing on the iPad, which was next to the stove.

So it was time to do some work. I would go to another screen, in turn, attached to another. Meanwhile, this little demon on my wrist, I vibrated, played, beeped, and distracted while trying to do extraordinary things. But one thing in particular, among all these devices, it wasted me more time than anyone—this miserable thing: my phone. I could spend hours with it all day.

So I decided to get rid of it for a month. As an experiment, I thought to myself, "I'm only going to use the phone for 30 minutes a day to the maximum. "This is the time when I have to find a route, call my mom. This is the time I have for everything I want to do; listen to music, listen to a podcast, and I saw what happened during this period. It took me about a week to adapt to a new rhythm, with less stimulation, but when I adjusted, I noticed that three curious things started to happen.

 Benefits of Free Space of Brain

First, my attention has increased—my ability to focus on things, not without effort, but much more quickly than before. Also, when I was doing something, especially when my mind wandered, I had more ideas and also, more plans and reflections on the future. Getting rid of a simple device has led to these three effects because realizing that a few years ago took me on a long journey to find out what it takes to focus in a world of distractions.

I've studied hundreds of surveys from start to finish, I don't know if you've seen these crime series on TV, someone resolves a case, and they have a big sign, with pieces of paper, press releases, newspaper clippings, my office too. I have traveled to speak to experts around the world; I have had more experiences myself until you have 25 thousand words in the notes why this is happening. How does technology influence our attention and our concentration? I want to focus attention intervals that we have.

As we pay attention to the world around us, and the control we have over our approach, the research in this particular area is fascinating. It turns out that when we work at a computer, especially when our phone is close to us, we pay attention to one thing for only 40 seconds, before moving on to another. When we have apps like Slack open while we're working, this time is reduced to 35 seconds. But the reason why this happens is not what we imagine when we see the research. We think the problem is that our brain is distracted, but by analyzing the research, I noticed that this is just a symptom of a deeper problem, what is the root cause of this distraction? It is not that our brain is distracted; it is that it is overstimulated.

Our brain wants these distractions. Our brain functionality likes these little doses of distractions, relevant important information, social networks, emails, and those things that we do during the day. There is even a mechanism in mind called a "novelty trend." So the brain rewards us by releasing dopamine, which is one of the beautiful pleasure hormones. The same hormone released when we eat a whole pizza, the same thing when you make love. We receive the same encouragement when we review Facebook. We get a dopamine shock in mind.

So we don't just want distractions, but our spirit rewards us for searching for and finding distractions. It's the state of our mind right now, a state of over-stimulation in which we alternate between the different objects of our attention, which are very stimulating for the brain. The feeling that we have when going from a high to low stimulation situation is called "boredom."

We felt this concern during a busy week, we lie on the sofa Sunday afternoon, thinking: "Well, what am I going to do now?" I decided that I would be bored an hour a day, all month. "And I did something that bothers me today.

On the first day, I read the "Terms and Conditions" of iTunes for an hour. It is shorter and more readable than we think. On the fourth day, I was on the phone with Air Canada's baggage service. It's easy, and this is the trick, if you want to get bored, do not call reservations, call baggage service, you will wait for hours if you can speak to someone.

And that coincides with the result of my research, eight days for the mind to calm down and completely relax, like when we take vacations, for example. The holidays must be longer than today. But I also noticed that my attention span has widened. I was able to concentrate and focus with less effort, not that distractions less surrounded me, but because my mind was less stimulated and not looking for distractions. But the fun part was the ideas and plans I had that I didn't have before. And the reason for that is my mind has been lucky to wander more often.

If you think when you have your best ideas, it's rare when you're focused on something. Maybe while showering this morning, or one morning before, and your mind had the opportunity to connect with various constellations of ideas that crossed your head to form a plan that would never have materialized. It's a way, especially when you deliberately let the mind wander, what I call "dispersed focus."

And research shows this is what allows the mind to have ideas, to plan the mind, for the places where it wandered. It's fascinating, and it turns out that when we just let our attention rest, it goes to three leading positions: we think of the past, the present, and in the future. But we think less of the past than we think, only 12% of the time, and we often remember the ideas in these free spirit episodes.

But the present, which is a much more productive, drifts and thinks about the current circumstances 28% of the time. And it's as simple as writing an email and not find a way to write something, and maybe it's tricky or political you go to another room, to another office. The solution comes to you because your mind has had a chance to attack and think about the problem from different angles.

But here's the thing: our mind wanders and thinks about the future, more than in the past and present together. Whenever our mind wanders, we think about the future 48% of the time. So we plan our whole day when we're in the shower, even if the day is just beginning. The mind tends to prospect, and it happens when our mind wanders.

Rest of the time, our mind is idle, empty, or you have no idea based on time. But whatever it is that allows your mind to wander, only something that doesn't consume your full attention. In my case, it is one thing, which is not typical of my age or gender, but I like to knit. Knitting is one of my favorite hobbies. It helps me to stay calm, to be more relaxed. And I have so many ideas while knitting that I have a notebook.

But whatever it is, I could take a long shower, a bath; a bath soaks not only the body but also the ideas. It can be simple. If you go back and forth to the office, a tiny change, but if you don't use the phone while walking, your mind will go to the meeting that is about to begin. For the call, you just made, for the ideas circulating, and it will make you more creative on this path. It can be as simple as standing in line and just stand in front.

 Professional Tips to Improve brain functionality

Here are professional tips: ask the masseuse to let you use the computer for the session because ideas will pop up, and we hatch plans, then capture them and act on them later. After deepening the investigation, I think we need to make two fundamental changes in the way we think about our attention. We believe we have to do more and more. There is all this talk about scampering. I'm against the rush, and I am the laziest person in the world. And I think that's what gives me so many ideas for speaking and writing.

We don't have to do more. We are doing enough, doing too much. We do so much that our minds no longer wonder; it's sad. That's when the best ideas and the best plans emerge. We need more space.

The second change is: We believe that distraction is the enemy of concentration; actually, it's not. It is a symptom of difficulty concentrating. The reason is that our mind is overstimulated. There are excellent functions on the phone and other devices, which allow us to eliminate a large part of the time we waste with our devices. Use these resources to understand how they spend their time and how they can spend less time and have more ideas. Organize a disconnection ritual every evening.

Rediscover boredom. You don't have to do this for an hour. But rediscover it for a few minutes. Lie on the couch, where does your mind go? And disperse your attention. You will find vibrant things in this area of ​​concentration. If there is one thing that I noticed right after diving into this world of attention, is that the quality of care determines the quality of our life.

Conclusion

If we are constantly distracted, these moments of distraction and overstimulation grow and accumulate to create a life that seems more distracted and outdated, as if we have no clear direction. But, when we have less stimulation, when we calm our minds, we have the benefits of increased productivity, mental focus, ideas, and creativity, but we also live a better life.