5 Small Changes to Supercharge Your Focus
Summary
TLDRThis video offers five evidence-based tips to enhance focus amidst the modern struggle of constant distractions. Tip one involves creating a 'ready to resume plan' to manage attention residue when switching tasks, as demonstrated by a study on task interruptions. Listening to 40 HZ music, as shown to improve concentration, is tip two. Decluttering workspaces, both physical and digital, is tip three, supported by a study linking clutter with procrastination. The '9020 rule', inspired by sleep cycles, suggests taking breaks every 90 minutes for peak performance. Lastly, single tasking and color-coding your calendar can help maintain focus. The video also promotes a free 7-Day Focus crash course for additional strategies.
Takeaways
- π Start with a 'Ready to Resume' Plan: Creating a plan of action before switching tasks can reduce attention residue and improve focus on the new task.
- πΆ Listen to 40 Hz Music: Research suggests that music at a 40 Hz frequency can enhance concentration and focus due to its alignment with brain wave patterns during focused tasks.
- π§ββοΈ Declutter Your Space: A clean and organized workspace can reduce distractions and the stress associated with clutter, leading to better focus and productivity.
- π Follow the 90-20 Rule: Align your work and rest periods with the natural 90-minute cycles of energy and focus, taking breaks to recharge and maintain peak performance.
- π¨ Color-Code Your Calendar: Organize your tasks by color-coding them in your calendar to promote single-tasking and reduce the cognitive load of switching between tasks.
- π« Avoid Multitasking: Multitasking can lead to attention residue, where the brain continues to process previous tasks, reducing the effectiveness of the current task.
- π§ Try Binaural Beats: Listening to binaural beats, such as 40 Hz tones in each ear, can help improve focus by stimulating brain waves associated with concentration.
- π Read 'Feeling Good Productivity': The speaker recommends their own book, which includes strategies for maintaining focus and productivity.
- π€ Skillshare for Learning: Skillshare is highlighted as a platform offering thousands of classes to improve various skills, including productivity and focus.
- π‘ Experiment with Breaks: Personalize your work-break pattern by experimenting with different durations to find what best suits your focus and energy levels.
- π Embrace the 'Admin Party': Turn mundane admin tasks into a fun, time-limited event to maintain focus on more important tasks and prevent distractions.
Q & A
What is the main topic of the video?
-The main topic of the video is about improving focus and providing actionable, evidence-based tips to enhance concentration and productivity.
What is the 'ready to resume plan' mentioned in the video?
-The 'ready to resume plan' is a strategy where individuals create a plan of action indicating where they left off in a task before switching to another task, which helps them to resume the initial task more effectively.
How does attention residue affect multitasking?
-Attention residue refers to the phenomenon where part of your brain continues to think about the previous task even after switching to a new one, which can impair focus and reduce productivity when multitasking.
What is the significance of the study by Sophie Leroy mentioned in the video?
-The study by Sophie Leroy is significant because it demonstrates that creating a 'ready to resume plan' can significantly improve performance on a secondary task after being interrupted, due to reduced attention residue.
What is the 'Hemingway trick' and how does it relate to focus?
-The 'Hemingway trick' is a technique where writers stop in the middle of a sentence rather than at the end of a sentence or paragraph. This makes it easier to return to the writing task, as the 'ready to resume plan' is already in place.
What is the relationship between music frequency and focus as per the study conducted by the University of Toronto researchers?
-The study found that listening to music at a 40 HZ frequency improved concentration compared to music at a 16 HZ frequency, possibly because the 40 HZ frequency aligns with the brain wave patterns when focused on mentally demanding tasks.
What are binaural beats and how do they relate to the study on music and focus?
-Binaural beats are an auditory illusion where two different tones played into each ear create a third tone based on the difference between the two frequencies. The study suggests that listening to 40 HZ binaural beats through headphones can improve focus.
What is the concept of 'clutter' in relation to focus and productivity?
-Clutter refers to an excessive amount of stuff or disorganization in one's environment, which can lead to feeling overwhelmed and distracted, thereby negatively affecting focus and productivity.
How does the '10-minute declutter' strategy help with focus?
-The '10-minute declutter' strategy involves setting a timer for 10 minutes to clean and organize the physical and digital workspace before starting a focus session, which can help create a more conducive environment for concentration.
What is the '9020 rule' and how does it apply to maintaining focus throughout the day?
-The '9020 rule' is based on the ultradian rhythm, suggesting that for every 90 minutes of focused work, one should take a 15 to 30-minute break to avoid mental fatigue and maintain productivity.
What is the 'fun admin party' and how does it relate to the concept of single-tasking?
-The 'fun admin party' is a time-blocked session dedicated to tackling administrative tasks with a positive mindset, often involving upbeat music and a goal to complete as much as possible in a set time. It's a way to single-task and focus on one type of task at a time, rather than multitasking.
Outlines
π± Distractions and the Importance of Focus
The paragraph begins with a personal anecdote about the struggle to start work due to distractions, such as replying to WhatsApp messages and getting sidetracked by YouTube. It highlights the modern challenge of maintaining focus in a world full of competing demands for our attention. The speaker introduces a three-part video series on improving focus and references a study by Sophie Leroy on the effects of interruptions, which suggests creating a 'ready to resume plan' to mitigate attention residue and improve performance when switching tasks. The 'Hemingway trick' is mentioned as a practical application of this strategy, where writers stop mid-sentence to make it easier to resume writing later.
π΅ The Impact of Music Frequency on Focus
This section discusses a study conducted by researchers at the University of Toronto on the impact of music frequency on concentration. The study compared the effects of music at 16 HZ and 40 HZ frequencies on participants' focus. The results indicated that listening to 40 HZ music improved concentration due to its alignment with the brain wave patterns associated with focus and problem-solving. The concept of binaural beats is introduced as a method to achieve this frequency, which involves listening to two slightly different tones in each ear that the brain perceives as a third tone. The speaker also mentions a free 7-Day Focus crash course as a resource for additional strategies to improve focus.
π§Ή The Influence of Clutter on Procrastination and Focus
The paragraph explores the relationship between physical clutter and procrastination through a study by Professor Joseph Ferrari. The study found a strong correlation between a cluttered environment and a tendency to procrastinate. It suggests that clutter creates open loops of unfinished tasks that distract the brain, whereas a cleaner workspace allows for better focus. The speaker recommends a '10-minute declutter' strategy before starting a focus session to create a more conducive environment for productivity. The concept of digital clutter is also addressed, emphasizing the importance of organizing digital spaces to improve focus.
β± The 90-20 Rule for Optimal Focus
This section introduces the '90-20 rule,' based on the ultradian rhythms discovered by sleep researcher Nathaniel Kleitman. The rule suggests that for every 90 minutes of focused work, one should take a 15 to 30-minute break to maintain high levels of alertness and focus. The speaker explains that the brain uses a significant amount of energy during focused work, which depletes quickly, and that taking breaks can help manage this energy expenditure. The speaker also shares personal preferences for break timings and encourages viewers to experiment with the 90-20 rule to find what works best for them.
π Single Tasking and Color-Coding for Improved Focus
The final paragraph emphasizes the importance of single-tasking to reduce attention residue and improve focus. The speaker shares a personal strategy of color-coding tasks on a calendar to ensure blocks of time are dedicated to similar activities, which helps maintain focus. The concept of 'traction' is introduced as the opposite of distraction, highlighting the importance of having a clear intention for each time block. The speaker also mentions batching tasks and creating 'admin parties' as a way to manage administrative tasks without disrupting focus on more important work. The paragraph concludes with a reminder of the three-part video series and an invitation to watch the upcoming videos on focus.
Mindmap
Keywords
π‘Focus
π‘WhatsApp
π‘Attention residue
π‘Multitasking
π‘Ready to resume plan
π‘Hemingway trick
π‘Skillshare
π‘Binaural beats
π‘Clutter
π‘Ultradian rhythms
π‘Single tasking
π‘Calendar
Highlights
The struggle with focus in a world full of distractions and the importance of improving this skill.
Introduction to a three-part series on focus, following up on common mistakes with actionable tips.
Tip 1: Creating a 'ready to resume' plan to manage attention residue and improve task-switching.
Sophie Leroy's 2018 study on the effects of interruptions and planning on focus.
The concept of 'attention residue' and its impact on multitasking and focus.
The 'Hemingway trick' for resuming tasks effectively after a break.
Thomas Frank's productivity course and its impact on focus through organization.
Skillshare as a platform for learning and its relation to the video's content.
Research on the impact of different music frequencies (16 Hz vs. 40 Hz) on focus and concentration.
The effectiveness of 40 Hz binaural beats for enhancing focus.
A free 7-Day Focus crash course for improving focus through evidence-based strategies.
The impact of physical workspace clutter on focus and procrastination tendencies.
The '10-minute declutter' strategy for improving workspace and focus.
The '9020 rule' based on ultradian rhythms for managing energy and focus throughout the day.
The benefits of single-tasking and batching similar tasks for better focus.
Color-coding the calendar as a method to implement single-tasking and improve focus.
The 'fun admin party' technique for managing administrative tasks without derailing focus.
Conclusion of the second video in the focus series and a preview of the upcoming tools for focus.
Transcripts
it's 9:00 a.m. and I've just sat down to
work I've got lots to do and I want to
get going but first I remember I need to
quickly reply to a WhatsApp message I
open my phone and see that there are a
whole bunch of other whatsapps that I
need to reply to my heart sinks and
instead of replying I find myself
opening YouTube to avoid thinking about
being a bad friend suddenly I've spent
27 minutes watching as and gold talking
about how World of Warcraft is dead in
2024 my brain fills with guilt and
frustration and I decide I need another
break before I start working and maybe a
third coffee for the day followed by a
poop
now this is the modern struggle the
world today is constantly competing for
our time and attention and the ability
to focus has become even more difficult
and for that reason it's even more
important than ever so in the first
video of this three-part series about
Focus we talked about five mistakes
people make when it comes to focusing
but in this video we're going to be
going through five actionable
evidence-based tips that you can use to
improve your focus all righty tip number
one is to make a ready to resume plan
now to understand what the hell this is
and why we should do it we should look
at this 2018 paper by Sophie Leroy this
paper was published in the Journal of
organization science and it looked at
the effects of interruptions on our
ability to focus the researchers got
some people together in a lab and they
got them to work on a word puzzle which
is Task a and then after a while they
interrupted them and asked them to
review some resumes and select the best
candidate for a job which was task B now
where this gets interesting is that the
researchers split the group into two one
group was interrupted while they were
doing task a and was immediately told to
switch to task B but the second group
was interrupted doing task a and before
moving to task B B they were told to
create a ready to resume plan I.E to
make a plan of where they were during
task a the word puzzle and what they
were planning to do when they got back
to it now when the researchers measured
the group's performance on task B the
resume task they found something pretty
interesting they found that the second
group the ones who had made the ready to
resume plan performed significantly
better on the second task okay so this
might be a little bit confusing to
follow but basically what's happening is
that the group that made this plan of
action this ready to resume plan did
better on the second task probably
because they had less attention res now
attention residue is this idea in the
research and psychology that's been
around for a while where basically if
you're focusing on one thing and then
you switch to another there is part of
your brain part of your attention that's
still thinking about the previous thing
that you were doing this is part of the
reason why multitasking and trying to do
lots of things in one go is a terrible
idea because every time you switch task
part of your brain is still on the
previous task and so you're really like
nerfing yourself by not allowing your
entire brain to be focused on the thing
you actually care about but the key
point of this study is that if you are
going to switch tasks to something else
you want to create a bit of a plan of
action so that you can resume the first
task initially and this is actually a
thing that Writers Do quite a lot and
it's called the Hemingway trick and this
obviously came from the writer earns
Hemingway but the idea is that when
you're writing you want to stop in the
middle of the sentence never stop your
writing at the end of the sentence or at
the end of a paragraph you want to sort
of stop in the middle because when you
stop in the middle the idea is that it
becomes much easier to return to the
thing that you were doing because you
have stopped in the middle of the
sentence and I used to use this trick
very extensively when writing my own
book feelg good productivity with which
if you haven't checked out you should
link down below and if you have I would
love a review cuz reviews are nice but I
used to use this trick all the time when
I was working on the book and I really
had to focus for hours and hours and
hours on end but I also wanted to take
breaks and I also might need to kind of
check a slack message or hop onto a team
meeting I would always make a point to
stop in the middle of the sentence or in
the middle of the paragraph rather than
at the end to be able to get back into
the focus mode so tangible actionable
takeaway when you are doing something
and you want to do something else and
get back to the thing create yourself a
ready to resume plan or find a way to
whatever your work is for you to stop in
the middle of the sentence so that the
ready to resume plan is basically
already created for you now focus is a
skill that I've been trying to master
for many years now but one thing that
actually helped me and I watched it a
few years ago was Thomas Frank's course
on productivity and this was kind of fun
because I watched Thomas Frank's course
and then we started talking and then he
became a friend and then we met in real
life as well and there's actually a
video on my second Channel which is like
an interview with Thomas Frank which is
super cool anyway in that course he goes
through task management getting better
at email and all the things that mean
you're more organized which frees up
your time to focus on the most important
things now Thomas's course is hosted on
skillshare who are very kindly
sponsoring this video in case you
haven't heard by now skillshare is the
largest online learning community for
creatives with thousands of classes led
by industry Pros across film
illustration design freelance and so
much more and I've personally been
teaching on skillshare since 2019 and so
I've got around 10 classes on there
myself all of which are completely free
to watch during the free trial so you
can check them out to your heart's
content but In fairness sometimes with
so much stuff it can be overwhelming to
know where to start and so skillshare
have designed learning paths as well to
help you go from beginner to Pro in as
short a time as possible if you're
interested you can check out my own
learning path which includes four
classes all about productivity which
I've made which will help you do more of
what matters to you so if you're
interested in checking out any of those
classes or anything else that skillshare
has to offer then check out the link in
the video description and the first 500
people to use my link will get a
one-month free trial to skillshare so
thank you so much skill Chef sponsoring
this
video okay so does listening to certain
types of music affect your ability to
focus well this is what two researchers
at the University of Toronto wanted to
find out and so in 2020 they decided to
test whether the music at two different
frequencies could help improve our
attention now this is an example of
Music at a 16 HZ
frequency and this is an example of
Music at 40 HZ
frequency and the point of their study
was to test is there a difference
between how much you focus based on what
frequency of Music you're listening to
and so they took a group of people as
researchers tend to do and they
separated them into two groups group a
and group Group B group a listened to 40
HZ music while working for a day and
then 16 HZ music on the second day Group
B did the same thing but in Reverse so
they had 16 Herz on day one and then 40
HZ on day two and with both groups
weirdly they found that their
concentration was better on the 40 HZ
day compared to the 16 HZ day now
apparently the reason for this is that
when our brain is doing stuff that needs
more mental effort like problem solving
or remembering things it generally has a
brain wave pattern between 25 and 100
Herz but the 40 HZ frequ frequency is
particularly good for extra focus and
concentration because these are
allegedly the waves that our brain
produces when we're focused and doing
these more difficult tasks but for this
to work you actually have to be wearing
headphones because to create that 40 HZ
frequency these beads actually play two
different tones each with slightly
different frequencies into each ear and
your brain hears a third tone based on
the differences between these two
frequencies and this is something called
binaural beats which is a phrase you
might be familiar with if you're
interested in this experiment to help
improve your focus see what it's like to
put on headphones and listen to 40 HZ
binaural beats which you find on YouTube
and on Spotify and a bunch of other
places and see if these things actually
help you focus better by the way if you
are enjoying this video then you might
like to check out my completely free
7-Day Focus crash course it's completely
free and it's a series of seven emails
that I'll send you each day that each
have some evidence-based principles
strategies and tools that you can use to
improve your focus as well and the
reason we've put that together is
because whenever I pull the audience and
ask like what are you guys struggling
with focus and like consistency seems to
be the the highest thing on that list
basically all the time and so we thought
you know what let's just turn this into
a bit of an email course cuz there is so
much to share and so many strategies
that are really helpful when it comes to
focus which are sort of outside the
scope of this three-part video series
even though we are doing a three-part
video series about it so if you're
interested it's completely free you can
sign up you can unsubscribe whenever you
want head over to focus crashcourse
tocom or hit the link in the video
description okay this is a fun one let's
play a little game I'm going to show you
two different workspaces and I want you
to have a guess as to which workspace is
going to improve your ability to focus
this is round one which of these
workspaces do you think is going to make
it easier to focus this is round two
same question and finally this is round
three now here's the question which of
these sorts of workspaces is your own
desk more similar to do you have like I
sometimes do random crap absolutely
everywhere thrown about all over the
place or do you have a little bit more
of a vibby cleaner nice minimalist setup
now intuitively we should hopefully feel
that a cleaner tidier workspace is
actually going to help us Focus but is
this actually true well conveniently
that is what Professor Joseph Ferrari
decided to study in a paper called
procrastinators and clutter now this is
a really fun study cuz what they did is
that they surveyed around 350 people to
measure their tendency to procrastinate
but they also asked them to fill out a
survey called the Clutter quality of
life scale which is apparently a thing
and this scale basically asks them a
bunch of questions about how cluttered
and disorganized their life is and tries
to measure the negative impact of that
clutter and disorganization now a I
think that's just interesting generally
because it does actually show that the
more clutter you have in your life the
more chaotic and stress you generally
tend to feel but the study also found
that there was a strong relationship
between clutter I.E having too much
stuff and feeling overwhelmed by it and
our tendency to procrastinate now the
study doesn't go into reasons why but
like if we were to just speculate a it's
intuitively obvious that that's probably
going to be the case and B you know if
we imagine our peripheral vision if
there's like loads of stuff it's going
to create lots of these open Loops of
like oh I should put that away I should
pay that bill I should do that thing uh
whereas if the space is a little bit
more clean a little bit more minimalist
and we're just focused on one thing it
allows a brain to focus on the thing and
the whole point of this three-part video
series is to help us Focus now this
concept of clutter doesn't just apply to
our physical space but but it also
probably applies to a digital space as
well like if you're one of those people
who has about 10,000 tabs open on Chrome
at the same time right clicking on a
particular Tab and clicking close all
other tabs is an incredibly valuable
strategy for just massively improving
your focus because now your brain's not
worried about all of that other stuff
that you might have missed similarly if
your desktop is very cluttered and you
have hundreds of files on there you can
just right click click clean up or
arrange or arrange by Stacks whatever
the system is and now you have a nice
cutter free desktop which is just super
super nice and so the third strategy for
improving our focus is the 10 minute
declutter if you are struggling with
Focus before you start a focus session
just set a timer for 10 minutes and just
take 10 minutes or 7 minutes or however
long you want to just declutter your
workspace physically and digitally it
does not take very long but if you get
into the habit of doing this thing every
day or every few days you will end up
with a space that's way cleaner way
nicer and way more fun and enjoyable to
actually work in which is going to help
improve your ability to focus all right
next we have tip number four which is
the 9020 rule so over 50 years ago sleep
researcher Nathaniel kman discovered
that we move through five stages of
sleep from light to deep and then out
again in roughly 90minut periods at
night what's less well known than that
is that kman also found that our bodies
operate in these similar 90-minute
rhythms throughout the day as well not
just when we're sleeping so when we're
awake we tend to move from high to low
alertness every 90 minutes or
thereabouts at the start of the day
we're generally full of energy and we
have lots of focus our brain and bodies
then start to burn through our stores of
energy and in about 90 minutes or so we
enter our ult tra and Peak and we feel
invincible and super in the flow but
while we're feeling Invincible all of
these waste products from our mental and
physical activity all of these are
building up in our system and in around
90 minutes is we start to feel tired and
distracted and start losing focus and
this is what's called the ultradian
trough now this science of ultradian
Cycles is super interesting and Powerful
for anyone who wants to do deep work in
a very focused way now because the brain
uses up more energy than any other organ
in the body it takes about 20% of our
total energy intake the energy that we
have in our brain is used quickly when
we're focused and when we're working at
an optimal level and that gets us to the
tip which is the 9020 rule which is that
for every 90 minutes is of work that
you're doing you may want to take a 15
to 30 minute break for me personally the
way I think about this is that if I've
been working for 45 minutes and start to
feel myself losing focus I know I
probably need at least a 10-minute break
and if I've been deeply in the flow and
I found myself working for 90 whole
minutes I will give myself a 20-minute
break these are experiments that you can
apply to your own life and you can see
does this work for me or does this not
work for me there are people who swear
by the p method which is 25 minutes of
work 5 minutes of rest I personally
found having run the experiment multiple
times that is not a thing that
particularly works for me I much prefer
451 or 9020 you're putting your foot on
the gas when you're when you're focusing
and then you're taking it off when
you're taking a break and you're kind of
running with this Rhythm throughout the
day and it's up to you to run the
experiment on your life to figure out
what are the ideal timings for yourself
okay now we come to tip number five so
you know how we talked about this idea
of attention residue the idea that if
you do one thing and then you move to
another thing you're going to have some
attentional residue that's sort of Left
Behind kind on the first task so that
you're less likely to be able to focus
on the second task basically the
solution to this is single tasking it's
in a work session or in a focus session
you are hopefully ideally just doing one
thing and one way you can implement this
into your daily life is to color code
your calendar now hopefully you're
following your calendar and living life
by a calendar because actually creating
an intention we talked about this in the
last video creating an intention for
what you want to do in a particular time
block is one of the most reliable ways
to actually be able to focus because the
opposite of distraction is traction and
if you don't know what you're doing you
have nothing to get distracted from all
of this stuff is in near E's amazing
book indestructible which is about the
science of focus and how to focus better
so for example when I had lots to do I
was running the business and also
working on my book I knew that I
couldn't just do like half an hour of
book stuff and then switch to emails and
slack and then the meeting and then
another half an hour of book stuff and
like when my calendar was scattered in
that way I it was really really hard to
focus whereas what I found was that when
I batched similar tasks so for example
in the morning 9 till 1200 would be my
writing block I would color code that in
Blue on the calendar for example then
12:00 to 1 would be lunchtime then 1 to
1:30 would be like a little admin block
for like checking messages and emails
and all that kind of crap and then maybe
you've got a meeting 1:30 to 2:30 and
that's fine and then I do some work on
YouTube videos which was another type of
color block because it's a different
sort of skill to writing and so I would
color code that in green for example and
so when I'm looking at my calendar for
the week I want to make sure that it
looks like there are lots of big chunks
that are all the same color rather than
kind of looking like a rainbow
Kaleidoscope of like different colors
everywhere that ensures that you're at
least doing that thing where you're
single tasking and focusing on one type
of task at a given time and again just
as a bonus tip the experiment that I
found that works best for me for this is
that I try and make it so that most of
my time is deep work time focused on a
single task but obviously we all have
random admin and random crap that comes
up that we have to do in my to-do list I
make a list of all of the random admin
that I need to do and I gather that list
and when it gets to a critical mass I
will give myself a Time block of 30
minutes or 45 minutes that I call my fun
admin party which kind of just tricks my
brain into thinking it's fun which is
like the whole philosophy of f good
productivity to an extent but it tricks
my brain into thinking it's fun and it
means in that 5minute block my only goal
is to just bash through as much admin as
I possibly can and I generally do it in
a coffee shop I generally have upbeat
music in the background on my headphones
and it's sort of I'm trying to turn it
into a bit of a party because I know
that like if I tried doing those little
tiny boring admin things throughout the
day it would just derail my focus in all
of the other more important areas of
life so this was video number two in our
three-part video series about how to
focus if you missed it that is video
number one which is about five mistakes
that might be ruining your focus and
over there is video number three which
is going to be a handful of tools that I
personally find super helpful to improve
my focus as well so thank you so much
for watching have a great day and I'll
see you in the next video bye-bye
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