Deep Focus: Why Your Brain Needs Understimulation

Summary

This video script delves into the challenges of maintaining focus in a hyper-stimulating world, where distractions like social media and notifications can significantly impair cognitive function. It explores the science behind willpower and motivation, suggesting that our brains' prefrontal cortex plays a key role. The speaker offers strategies to overcome procrastination, such as managing distractions, planning for later procrastination, and understanding the 'earth field' theory of avoidance. The script also touches on the impact of device usage and notifications on performance and provides tips for improving focus and productivity.

Takeaways

• 📉 The modern world is designed to overstimulate our brains, leading to attentional deficits and decreased motivation.
• 🎮 Excessive engagement in activities like gaming can have serious consequences, including job loss and even death from dehydration.
• 📱 Having notifications on and spending too much time on phones can significantly impair cognitive function, similar to the effects of cannabis use.
• 🧠 Our brains' dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex mediates both willpower and working memory, suggesting that attention and motivation are closely linked.
• 📝 Writing down intrusive thoughts or tasks can help clear working memory space and maintain focus on the current task.
• 💡 Believing in having more motivation can improve task performance, reduce mistakes, and even increase IQ.
• 🔕 Keeping notifications off and electronic devices away can enhance willpower, motivation, and focus.
• 🎨 For creative projects, using apps like Milanote can help visualize and structure ideas, making the planning process more efficient.
• 🛑 Procrastination can be a displacement activity to avoid negative feelings associated with necessary but unpleasant tasks.
• 🔄 Switching to bottom-up decision-making, where actions are based on current needs and environment, can help combat procrastination and maintain focus.

Q & A

Why do we struggle to maintain attention on tasks for extended periods?

Our brains are constantly stimulated by an environment designed to be overly engaging, leading to a constant search for distractions.

What are some extreme consequences of modern distractions mentioned in the script?

Some extreme consequences include people losing jobs due to excessive gaming, individuals dying of dehydration while playing computer games, and an IQ drop associated with constant notifications.

How does the author suggest understanding the brain's response to distractions can help improve focus?

By understanding that attention and motivation are linked in the brain, specifically the dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex, one can manage distractions more effectively by scheduling them for later or setting aside time to address them.

What role does the dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex play in attention and motivation?

The dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex mediates both willpower and working memory, suggesting that when attention shifts, motivation follows, which can be perceived as a drop in motivation for the original task.

How can writing down intrusive thoughts or desires help with focus and motivation?

Writing them down immediately and planning to address them later can free up working memory, allowing one to maintain focus and motivation on the current task.

What is the impact of keeping notifications on while working, as mentioned in the script?

Keeping notifications on can drastically lower performance, with studies showing an average IQ drop of 10 points, which is double the drop seen in studies of cannabis users.

How does the script suggest changing the way we think about necessary but unpleasant tasks?

By understanding the 'earth field' theory, which describes the subconscious flinch at the thought of doing an essential but unpleasant task, and planning immediately to avoid developing this negative association.

What is the 'earth field' theory and how does it relate to procrastination?

The 'earth field' theory describes the subconscious flinch or negative emotional stress that occurs at the thought of doing an essential but unpleasant task, leading to procrastination as a displacement activity.

How can bottom-up decision-making help in avoiding procrastination?

By using bottom-up decision-making, which considers current feelings and needs without relying on automatic rules, one can make more conscious and appropriate choices to counteract the urge to procrastinate.

What is the significance of the notion template mentioned at the end of the script?

The notion template serves as a summary and reference guide for the methods and studies discussed in the script, allowing viewers to review the information without needing to rewatch the video.

Outlines

00:00

🧠 Understanding the Brain's Role in Procrastination

The paragraph discusses the struggle to maintain focus on tasks due to overstimulation from modern distractions. It highlights how excessive engagement with stimulating activities can lead to severe attentional deficits and decreased motivation. The speaker explores the role of the dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex in attention and motivation, suggesting that when attention shifts, motivation follows. To combat distractions, the speaker recommends writing down intrusive thoughts and planning to address them later. The paragraph also emphasizes the importance of understanding that willpower is not as easily depleted as previously thought, and that even the belief in having more motivation can improve task performance and cognitive abilities.

05:01

📱 Minimizing Distractions for Improved Focus

This paragraph delves into the negative impact of electronic devices on willpower, motivation, and focus. It points out that keeping notifications on can significantly lower performance and cognitive abilities, drawing parallels to the effects of cannabis use. The speaker also discusses the harmful effects of excessive phone usage, particularly on attention in adolescents. The advice given is to keep electronic devices away, turn off notifications, and limit their use to enhance focus and motivation. Additionally, the speaker introduces the concept of 'displacement activities' and how they can hinder productivity, suggesting that understanding and planning for tasks can mitigate the urge to procrastinate.

10:02

🛠 Overcoming Procrastination with Bottom-Up Decision Making

The final paragraph focuses on the decision-making processes in the brain and how they relate to procrastination. It contrasts top-down decision making, which is automatic and often leads to procrastination, with bottom-up decision making, which is more conscious and responsive to immediate needs. The speaker suggests using bottom-up processing to make decisions that support focus and productivity, such as taking breaks or engaging in energizing activities when feeling unfocused. The paragraph concludes with a call to action for viewers to be mindful of their thought patterns and to challenge their automatic behaviors to improve their focus and work habits.

Keywords

💡Attention

Attention in the context of the video refers to the ability to focus on a specific task or activity without being distracted. The video discusses how modern stimuli, such as social media and notifications, can disrupt attention, leading to decreased productivity and motivation. For example, the script mentions how 'our brains are constantly super stimulated' and how 'an IQ drop of 10 points just for having notification on' illustrates the impact of distractions on our cognitive abilities.

💡Willpower

Willpower, as discussed in the video, is the mental strength to resist short-term temptations and distractions in order to achieve long-term goals. The script challenges the notion of willpower being easily depleted, suggesting that it is more resilient than we think. It is related to the video's theme by explaining how a perceived drop in motivation or willpower can lead to procrastination, but also how recognizing this can help sustain focus and motivation.

💡Procrastination

Procrastination is the act of delaying or postponing tasks or actions. In the video, it is presented as a common response to unpleasant or necessary work, often triggered by a drop in motivation or willpower. The script provides insights into how our brains handle tasks that we perceive as unpleasant, leading to procrastination as a displacement activity to avoid negative feelings associated with the task.

💡Distraction

Distraction is anything that diverts our attention away from the task at hand. The video emphasizes the role of modern technology and the constant stream of digital content as significant sources of distraction. It is mentioned that 'everything is designed to be too delicious, too engaging, and too shocking,' which contributes to the difficulty in maintaining focus and attention.

💡Motivation

Motivation in the video is the drive or desire to perform a task or achieve a goal. It is closely tied to attention, as the video suggests that when our attention shifts, so does our motivation. The script discusses how motivation can be perceived as dropping when we switch tasks, but it also highlights that with the right strategies, we can sustain motivation and willpower.

💡Dorsal Lateral Prefrontal Cortex

The Dorsal Lateral Prefrontal Cortex (DLPFC) is a part of the brain mentioned in the video as being responsible for both willpower and working memory or attention. The video suggests that when our attention shifts due to distractions, our motivation follows, as both are mediated by the DLPFC. Understanding this brain function is crucial for the video's message on managing distractions and maintaining focus.

💡Ego Depletion Theory

The Ego Depletion Theory is a psychological concept that suggests willpower is a limited resource that can be depleted. The video discusses this theory and contrasts it with newer findings that suggest willpower may not be as easily depleted as previously thought. This concept is important for understanding the video's exploration of how we perceive our own willpower and motivation.

💡Displacement Activity

Displacement Activity refers to behavior that is performed instead of another action that is more difficult or stressful. In the video, this is used to describe how people often engage in less demanding activities, such as scrolling on social media, as a way to avoid more challenging tasks. The script mentions this in the context of procrastination and how it is a subconscious response to negative feelings associated with necessary tasks.

💡Bottom-Up Processing

Bottom-Up Processing is a decision-making approach that starts with immediate sensory input and works upwards to higher-level decision-making. The video suggests using this method to counteract the automatic, top-down decision-making that often leads to procrastination. By being mindful of our immediate needs and surroundings, we can make more conscious decisions about how to allocate our attention and avoid defaulting to distractions.

💡Top-Down Processing

Top-Down Processing is a decision-making approach that starts with higher-level goals or expectations and filters down to specific actions. The video contrasts this with bottom-up processing, suggesting that top-down processing often leads to automatic, habitual behaviors like reaching for a phone when bored or unfocused. Understanding this concept helps viewers recognize how their brains make decisions and how to potentially change those patterns to be more productive.

Highlights

Our brains are constantly stimulated by modern distractions, leading to attentional deficits and procrastination.

The dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex mediates both willpower and working memory, suggesting our motivation is linked to our focus.

Willpower is less depletable than previously thought, and can be sustained by managing distractions.

Writing down intrusive thoughts can free up working memory and maintain focus on the task at hand.

Believing in having more motivation can improve task performance and even increase IQ.

Keeping notifications on while working can significantly lower performance and IQ.

Spending excessive time on phones can lead to severe attentional impairments.

Controlling our attention is crucial as it directly influences our motivation.

Procrastination can be mitigated by planning to procrastinate later, making the phone less accessible.

Understanding the 'earth field' theory can help combat procrastination by recognizing negative associations with tasks.

Making a plan for a task can reduce the negative emotional stress associated with it.

Displacement activities are common procrastination behaviors that we use to avoid negative feelings.

Bottom-up decision-making can be used to combat top-down procrastination by addressing current needs and environment.

Using tools like dice with activities can help make decisions that oppose procrastination and maintain focus.

A Notion template is provided for summarizing and referring to the video's content without re-watching.

The video concludes with a reminder to be conscious of our thoughts and actions to improve focus and productivity.

Transcripts

do you also struggle to pay attention to

work for more than a few minutes at a

time well it's not your fault our grains

are constantly super stimulated

everything is designed to be too

delicious too engaging and too shocking

to wait if you think you have a bad

spouses jobs and hes have been lost due

to World of Warcraft at least three

people have died of dehydration while

playing computer games other non-fatal

side effects of the modern world include

an IQ drop of 10 points just for having

notification on and also severe

attentional deficits when spending only

over 20 minutes a day on your phone I

don't have all the answers but I do

struggle with focusing on what I need to

though instead of downloading and

reinstalling Instagram every few days

I've been trying to figure out exactly

what happens in our brains when we reach

out for these distractions and therefore

how to avoid them how can I be more

peaceful energetic and willing to work

with any of these three steps sound

familiar we have some necessary

unpleasant work to do this leads to a

drop in our motivation or willpower and

that leads to procrastination I'll

explain what I've discovered happens in

our brains during each of these steps

and therefore how to change it have

sustained willpower and do more pleasant

feeling work let's get straight into it

let's first talk about our drops in

motivation when we leave a task and

switch onto something else we think our

attention has switched from this task

and also our motivation for this work

has dropped if our attention was on this

task or if we simply had more willpower

to do it we would surely be able to stay

working this is not true there is a lot

to suggest that our willpower is a lot

less depletable than we previously

thought it does not run out very fast

even when we think we are out of it we

actually have a lot more it's just

hidden see both Arrow willpower and

working memory or attention

are both strongly mediated by the same

part of our brain the dorsal lateral

prefrontal cortex what this Theory

suggests is if our attention shifts onto

something else it will therefore bring

our motivation along with it being

perceived by us as a motivation drop for

the task that we were previously doing

so it's not just that we are distracted

but our motivation is distracted too so

we can't work in order to do a task we

need to be able to focus on it so we can

sustain our motivation for that task so

we need to clear out our brain from

distractions this means if an intrusive

thought or desire comes our way and

takes up space in our working memory we

need to write it down immediately and

plan to do it later or even promise to

ourselves that you know what I'm going

to think about how horrible of a person

I am today at 400 p.m. because I don't

have time to do that right now this can

help free up working memory space and

keep our attention focus and motivation

on the task at hand now I hope I haven't

lost you because I'm also quite cautious

of this Theory based on Anatomy alone

but but very interestingly there are

lots of important studies that show that

even thinking that we have endless

motivation or more motivation than we

previously thought can help us perform

better at tasks make less mistakes and

even somehow increase our IQ by up to 15

points theism of thinking that we have

more motivation or that difficult tasks

make us more motivated helps us perform

better in general this is very important

if like me you to subscribe very

strongly to the ego depletion Theory

which I'll link somewhere else and at

the very least planning to procrastinate

later is very important because it makes

your phone less accessible to you to

reach out whenever you want to and

getting used to removing this option for

yourself has huge benefits in the long

term a study found that keeping

notifications on while we work even if

we are told explicitly not to look at

them think about them or check them

lowers our performance in these tasks

drastically the average IQ of the people

in the study dropped by 10 points when

keeping notifications on and this is

double the drop seen in studies of

cannabis users another study of 7,12

adolescent found found that even

spending 20 minutes a day on their phone

lets you severe attentional impairment

some interesting things in the study

also found that the more likely you are

to have your phone by you while you

sleep or while it's charging also showed

some intentional impairment probably

because of the patterns of behavior of

people like me who are very likely to do

this so in general it seems the best

thing that we can do for our willpower

motivation and focus when it comes to

electronic devices is keeping them as

far from us as possible keeping

notifications off as long as possible

also spending as little time as we can

and not reaching for it again and again

throughout our day be aware that we

control our Attention our attention

controls our motivation so we'll be

motivated for what we focus on before I

move on to my next point I wanted to

take a moment and speak to those Among

Us who like me work and struggle with

creative projects making these videos to

save their bit of planning and time and

amongst the five or so apps that I use

for scripting is millot who are very

kindly sponsoring this video I am

extremely particular when it comes to

the apps that I use use for work because

honestly I think that they do affect my

thinking and output when I'm in the

planning stages of my scripts in

particular I will take everything that

I've worked on so far over to Mid note

where I can see it all in one space and

therefore I can move things around and

check whether the connections exist or

how strong or weak they are and how to

link things together as someone who

currently does the majority of her work

on a computer it is the best thing that

I found so far to check my thinking and

unblock me when I don't know where I'm

going with a thought or a structure I

personally prefer to make my own pages

from scratch I have a video where I

mention my horizontal thinking and

that's how I organize things here too

but if you prefer some pre-made

structure there is a bunch of themes on

there already that you can use in order

to get you jump started and unsto you

can definitely add photos onto your

pages to a feature which I extensively

used while procrastinating from studying

and spending time thinking how I might

change my desk setup you can get Mill

note for completely free with no time

limit with my link in the description if

you also work on your computer a lot I

can me it is the best thing that I have

done to bridge that gap between writing

down and typing because having all of

the space to move things around means

that you can visualize find a logical

structure and think a lot easier and

better I would absolutely give it a go

especially because you can for

completely free I'm now going to move on

to exploring and potentially changing

the way that we think about doing

unpleasant but necessary work now if you

feel very very guilty for potentially

procrastinating or not wanting to do

your studies or your essays or your work

this can get a lot worse and it's super

common a very peculiar and extreme case

of procrastination happens with patients

with chronic disease an observed effect

of some patients with a deadly disease

who have a very important medication

which is potentially life- saving that

they need to take every single day is

that they will sometimes just stop

taking it and the potential reasoning

explained for this is that for these

patients even thinking of the medication

has such a Negative feeling because of

course it must feel Dreadful to be

reminded every day of the physical

condition that they are in if they take

two of the medication accidentally then

maybe they need to go to hospital maybe

they have a fear of the needles there's

so many negative associations around it

that eventually a lot of these patients

actually stop taking the medication

altogether even though they know it is

necessary for their survival the process

of even thinking of doing the task

becomes so unpleasant that they stop

doing it even though they really know

that they should and they really want to

the theory that I'm referring to here is

that of the earth field which describes

this sub conscious Flinch that we get at

even thinking of doing a very essential

but unpleasant task the way that this

phenomenon is described is that in the

beginning there's no Flinch and no fear

or no procrastination there's only very

real negative consequences for an event

for example if you don't do good work

you're going to get fired if you don't

study well you're going to fail your

course you're going to be embarrassed if

you don't pay a very expensive rent

you're going to be kicked out of your

house Etc of you will start to feel this

negative emotional stress when they are

starting to plan or doing events in this

direction Direction and eventually they

might even get to the point where even

before planning just thinking of

anything associated with this important

task or problem means that they have

this huge negative emotion and they want

to avoid it immediately this is what's

potentially happening with the patients

usually associated with this mess is a

displacement activity something that

seems to be comforting or numbing that

we do instead of doing the test that

we're supposed to be doing so for

example having a very important exam and

instead of revising and studying even

the week before been watching ATV show

to numb yourself out and avoid that huge

negative feeling now there's a solution

to this and 80% of it is already done by

listening to what I just said because

understanding this process means that we

will realize that this B field or this

negative strong feeling that requires a

displac of activity will happen

essentially before we have started

planning for a task so the solutions for

it are one when we are given a task or

give oursel a task and before we even go

down the cycle of making it terrible for

ourselves and having this Flinch realize

in that this is going to be really bad

I'm probably going to develop an earth

field around this so I need to be

cautious every time I start to think

about it I need to immediately force

myself to make a plan because once I

make a plan these cringe or Flinch will

go away and I'll be able to complete the

task also realizing what sort of things

are being more insecure in because the

bigger the negativity or the negative

consequences think about the patients

for whom risk is actually death the

bigger the negative consequences the

bigger the quicker and the stronger this

Earth field will be developed and the

more we want to procras for the task so

realizing where I'm only more insecure

and more likely to feel that I have

negative consequences is going to be

much more helpful for us to be able to

jump into that planning immediately in

this way we quiet our lizard emotional

brain bring things back into our

prefrontal cortic so we can plan

organize and structure and we've also

addressed how to approach necessary but

unpleasant tasks which leads us with our

very last point the last barrier in our

brains focus on work are the

displacement Activities The mind-numbing

Addictive interesting anxiety quietening

things that we tend to procrastinate on

when we should be focusing on work

things that we do when we simply can't

focus so what I'm going to use here are

the two ways that our brain can make

decisions one is a Bottoms Up decision-

making one is a top down decision-

making now procrastination I think

almost all the time is a top down

decision-making activity which basically

means it's an automatic rule that we

always do top down decision- making

means something is encoded it's

automatic we from we have a role for it

so we just implement it it comes top

down like an order when I'm bored when

I'm distracted when this is no longer

interesting when I'm tired when I'm

hungry when I can't understand what I'm

doing when I'm scared of the

consequences of my studying I'll just go

to Instagram and score the wheels so

this is a top down decision when we

procrastinate we're just going for the

default I'm bored let me grab something

I wake up in the morning go to my phone

I finish my work at night get into bed I

have my 2 hours of scrolling and doing

whatever I want these are the rules that

we're just implementing what I'm

suggesting is that when the opportunity

arises for us to switch a task or when

we feel bored or unfocused we don't use

this top- down processing but we instead

use bottom up processing now the

difference between bottom up processing

is that it's a case-by case basis it

uses no rules but from the bottom it

collects everything from our

surroundings movement and environment

how do I feel what am I thinking what do

I need and from that it comes up with a

single solution for that case so let's

say that I'm unable focus on my work and

a top down processing would be let me

just grab my phone procastinate on my RS

for a few hours feel too bad and then

it's oh my God it's too late for me I'll

just have to go to bed now at 10:00 I'm

just going to sleep early so I can wake

up tomorrow and do my work and then I

end up procrastinating until 2:00 a.m.

terrible so a bu of odd processing in

this case would be I'm feeling thirsty

or I'm feeling distracted or I'm feeling

anxious or I'm feeling tired or I'm

uncomfortable in my chair or I've just

been looking at the screen for too much

I need a break and then realizing what's

the actual thing that I need in that

moment and doing that instead and making

you energizing I mentioned in my last

video which I'll link somewhere below

that I use these dice that I use dice

like this which have kind of a word

etched on each corner and I will roll

the dice and it has complimentary

activities to things like stretching and

music and working and calling a friend

so high energy things with hopefully

lots of sounds to oppose my quiet

deadening work which often does become

boring and I don't want to focus on it

anymore so I compliment with those

instead of reaching for my throne and

just procrastinating on things that I

wouldn't want to do gaing information

our head and body to make the right

decision at the moment is an amazing way

to change previous patterns of behavior

that we want to get rid of there was a

huge info dump of methods and studies in

this video if you want a summary of

these that you can refer to or do more

reading on there's a free notion

template linked below it'll probably

have some points or questions and

guiding things if you don't want to make

your own notes on this or if you want to

refer to this information later without

having to hear my annoying voice

throughout all over again so if you want

to get that there'll be a link below

just download it for free and duplicate

the template onto your notion but

otherwise if you made it so far thank

you so much for spending this time with

me I hope you have a wonderful rest of

your day be conscious about others and

don't believe everything you think than

bye