Professor Joel Nigg, one of the leading experts on children’s attention problems, told Hari that we need to ask if we are living in an “attentional pathogenic environment,” one in which tasks that require deep focus—like reading a book—are becoming more and more like running up a down escalator. Professor Barbara Demeneix, a French scientist, told him, “There is no way we can have a normal brain today.”

But Our Brain Can’t Be Normal Anymore

“Concentrate all your thoughts upon the work at hand. The sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus.”

Individual changes will help, but they will only get us so far. At the moment, it is as though we are all being covered with itching powder, and the person pouring the itching powder on us is saying, “You know, you might want to learn to meditate. Then you wouldn’t scratch so much.” Meditation does have value, but we need to band together and collectively take on the forces pouring this powder on us, and stop them.

How We Can Respond As A Society

There’s a precedent, as the <a href="https://nextbigideaclub.com/conversation-the-father-of-virtual-reality-on-how-facebook-is-messing-with-your-mind/18641/">technologist Jaron Lanier </a>has pointed out. In the 1970s, we learned that the lead that was found in our paint and our gasoline was damaging our children’s brains. So, we banned the lead. We still paint our homes and drive our cars—but without lead. We now need to do the same with the factors that are ruining our attention today. This requires a shift in perspective. We need to stop asking for tiny tweaks.

There Was Once Another Poison That Is No More

The first, as one of Britain’s leading nutritionists, Dr. Dale Pinnock, explained to Hari, is that our diet causes huge energy spikes, and then energy crashes—which leave us with brain fog. Imagine, for instance, that you eat white bread or Frosties for breakfast; that releases glucose really fast, giving you a rush of energy. But then your blood sugar crashes, and you slump at your desk, feeling drained and unable to think clearly. It is, Pinnock said, “like putting rocket fuel into a Mini. It would just burn out and bust very quickly—because it can’t handle that.

Ways Processed Diet Affects Focus - Energy Spikes And Crashes

Hari learned that there is scientific evidence for 12 factors that can degrade our attention—and many of those factors have been rising dramatically in the past few years. In other words, your attention didn’t collapse; it was stolen by these big and powerful forces. You haven’t become weak. You’ve been hacked. Interestingly, tech—which is normally the first cause we think of—is playing a significant role, but it isn’t the biggest of the causes. To get out of this crisis—to get our brains back—we need to first understand these 12 causes, and then deal with them one by one.

Our Brain Has Been Hacked 

But it gets worse still. Professor Michael Posner at the University of Oregon found that if you are interrupted, it takes you an average of 23 minutes to get back to the same level of focus you had before you were disturbed. So if your screen time shows that you spend three hours a day on your phone, you are losing much more. Yet we are surrounded by apps like Facebook that are designed to interrupt you and get you to pick up your device and start scrolling.

And Then It Hits Rewind

But this phenomenon isn’t limited to bear attacks; any stressful situation will trigger greater vigilance. This is why stress—at work or at home—so often causes a huge increase in attention problems. As Dr. Jon Jureidini, a leading child psychiatrist in Adelaide, Australia, told Hari, narrowing your focus is “a really good strategy in a safe environment, because it means you can learn things and flourish and develop.”

The Greater The Vigilance, The Lesser The Focus

A new field of science has emerged in the past few years called “nutritional psychiatry”—the study of how what we eat affects how our brain works. By interviewing some of the leading figures in this field, Hari learned that the unprecedented shift in the Western world toward eating mostly processed foods has seriously affected our ability to focus, in three ways.

The Biology Behind Struggling To Focus: (Hyper)Processed Diet

“I did not succeed in life by intelligence. I succeeded because I have a long attention span.”

Imagine that, one day, you are attacked by a bear, and you survive. In the weeks and months that follow, your attention will shift, involuntarily, from focusing on the things in front of you—say, your emails—to scanning for dangers all around you. You will find it harder to focus on more everyday concerns because you are primed to spot unexpected threats. Now imagine that, just as you start to feel safe, you are attacked by a bear again. You will then flip into a state called “hypervigilance,” where you are constantly scanning for risks, and find it impossible to focus.

The Psychology Behind Struggling To Focus: (Hyper)Vigilance

Thirdly, our current diet contains dyes and chemicals that act on our brains like drugs, amping us up. A study in Southampton in Britain took a group of kids and divided them in two. One was given a plain drink, and the other was given a cocktail of dyes and other chemicals that are found in the candies kids eat every day. The kids given the cocktail were significantly more likely to become wild. We already knew the Western diet was making us obese, but it is also ruining our focus.

Ways Processed Diet Affects Focus - Abundance Of Additives

There are two levels at which we need to respond to this crisis. The first is as isolated individuals, by making changes in our own lives and our children’s lives, to protect ourselves from the forces invading our attention. Hari learned many different techniques, which he goes through in the book. To name just one that really helped him: he bought a K-Safe, a small plastic safe that will lock away your smartphone for however long you tell it to. So he imprisons his phone and gets x hours of undisturbed time every day.

How We Can Respond As Individuals

When neuroscientists studied this simultaneous multiple following they found that when people believe they are doing several things at once, they are actually—as Miller explained—“juggling. They’re switching back and forth. They don’t notice the switching because their brain sort of papers it over, to give a seamless experience of consciousness. But what they’re actually doing is switching and reconfiguring their brain moment-to-moment, task-to-task—[and] that comes with a cost.”

So It Acts Like A Switcher

Hari names, unsurprisingly, the social media.He claims that as long as social media companies profit from interrupting and distracting us, they will find ever-more sophisticated techniques to do it. We need to force them to adopt a different business model.

Who’s Pouring The Itching Powder? 

Professor Earl Miller, one of the leading neuroscientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), told Hari bluntly: “Your brain can only produce one or two thoughts” in your conscious mind at once. That’s it. “We’re very, very single-minded.” Yet the average young person now believes they can follow six or seven forms of media at the same time.

Our Brain Is Not, By Nature, A Juggler

When your brain is switching back and forth “your performance drops, you’re slower—all as a result of the switching.” It feels like a small effect, but it degrades your attention and thinking by a startling amount. One study at Carnegie Mellon University’s Human Computer Interaction Lab took 136 students and got them to take a test. Some of them had to have their phones switched off, and others had their phones on and received intermittent text messages. The students who received messages performed, on average, 20% worse. Other studies in similar scenarios have found even worse outcomes of 30%

First, It Does The Tape Stop Effect

We are now living in a serious crisis of attention—one that is analogous to the obesity crisis, or the climate crisis. The average college student now spends just 65 seconds on each task. The average office worker spends just three minutes. Even the average Fortune 500 CEO only gets 28 minutes of uninterrupted focus a day.

We Are Living In A Focusless World

Most of us are responding to this crisis by blaming ourselves. “You’re weak, you’re lazy, your willpower isn’t strong enough.” Hari has spent three years traveling all over the world, interviewing over 200 leading experts on this subject. What he learned from them is that this is, in fact, a systemic crisis—one that is happening to all of us—and it requires systemic solutions.

We Are Blaming Ourselves For Our Inability To Focus

Secondly, our current diet deprives us of key nutrients that are necessary for our brains to fully develop and grow. A Dutch study assigned children to a diet where they had to cut out most of the synthetic, processed foods we normally eat. 70% of them experienced an increase in attention—and the average improvement was of 50%.

Ways Processed Diet Affects Focus - Lack Of Nutrients

“But if you are in a dangerous environment, selective attention [where you focus on just one thing] is a really dumb strategy. What you need instead is to evenly spread vigilance around your environment, looking for cues for danger.” In short, deep focus is something you can only really do when you have achieved safety. So, nobody should blame themselves for struggling to focus during a pandemic.

So, What Deep Focus Really Requires Is Safety

Johann Hari is a writer and journalist. He has written for the New York Times, Le Monde, The Guardian, and other newspapers. His TED Talks have been viewed over 70 million times, and his work has been praised by a broad range of people, from Oprah Winfrey to Noam Chomsky to Joe Rogan.Below, Johann shares key insights from his new book, Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention—and How to Think Deeply Again.

Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention

Social media and many other facets of modern life are destroying our ability to concentrate. We need to reclaim our minds while we still can. 

Acclaimed journalist Johann Hari shares 5 key insights from his new book, Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention—and How to Think Deeply Again.

personaldevelopment

Personal Development

motivationandinspiration

Motivation & Inspiration

mentalhealth

Mental Health

problemsolving

Problem Solving

timemanagement

Time Management

Stolen Focus: Why We Can’t Pay Attention—and How We Can Think Deeply Again

We often jump to conclusions and make assumptions that are wildly wrong. When you have trouble understanding something, you assume you know what it means. When things become clear, you can see that it means something else entirely.<ul><li>Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want.</li><li>Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama.</li></ul>

DON‘T MAKE ASSUMPTIONS

<ol><li>Start noticing the beliefs you have, which are based on fear and make you unhappy. </li><li>Learn to forgive the people who hurt you, most of all yourself.</li><li>Remember that each day could be your last to stay in the present.</li></ol>

You can use three ways to break old agreements

<ul><li>Speak with integrity.</li><li>Say only what you mean.</li><li>Avoid using the Word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others.</li><li>Use the power of your Word in the direction of truth and love.</li></ul>

BE IMPECCABLE WITH YOUR WORD

<ul><li>Your best is going to change from moment to moment, it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick.</li><li>Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.</li></ul>

ALWAYS DO YOUR BEST

<ul><li>Nothing others do is because of you.</li><li>What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream.</li><li>When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won't be the victim of needless suffering.</li></ul>

DON‘T TAKE ANYTHING PERSONALLY

Take care of the four pillars of wellness this year: Nutrition, Activity, Mindfulness and Sleep.

health

Health

productivity

Productivity

New Year New You

Identifies four self-limiting beliefs that impede one's experience of freedom, true happiness, and love.

philosophy

Philosophy

loveandrelationships

Love & Relationships

books

Books

In The Four Agreements, bestselling author don Miguel Ruiz reveals the source of self-limiting beliefs that rob us of joy and create needless suffering. Based on ancient Toltec wisdom, The Four Agreements offer a powerful code of conduct that can rapidly transform our lives to a new experience of freedom, true happiness, and love. •  A New York Times bestseller for over a decade •  Translated into 50 languages worldwide   “This book by don Miguel Ruiz, simple yet so powerful, has made a tremendous difference in how I think and act in every encounter.” — Oprah Winfrey “Don Miguel Ruiz’s book is a roadmap to enlightenment and freedom.” — Deepak Chopra, Author, The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success “An inspiring book with many great lessons.” — Wayne Dyer, Author, Real Magic “In the tradition of Castaneda, Ruiz distills essential Toltec wisdom, expressing with clarity and impeccability what it means for men and women to live as peaceful warriors in the modern world.” — Dan Millman, Author, Way of the Peaceful Warrior

Don Miguel Ruiz is an accomplished writer whose work has resonated with readers around the world. Don Miguel Ruiz has published several books that explore a range of topics, from fiction to nonfiction, and has received critical acclaim for the ability to weave compelling narratives. Don Miguel Ruiz's writing style is known for its depth and authenticity, and has earned quite a loyal following of readers.

Don Miguel Ruiz

Janet Mills is an accomplished writer whose work has resonated with readers around the world. Janet Mills has published several books that explore a range of topics, from fiction to nonfiction, and has received critical acclaim for the ability to weave compelling narratives. Janet Mills's writing style is known for its depth and authenticity, and has earned quite a loyal following of readers.

Janet Mills

The Four Agreements

Clap as I said because you my dear conquered your fear and winning that mere thing which you were worried of now doesn't matter. Fighting with the confused you is a must .Do that and see yourself doing wonders .

Why Always Others?

<ol><li> Always say you are the best to yourself.</li><li>Make the plan .</li><li>Arrange the things for the plan .</li><li>Execute the plan.</li><li>Clap that you did it by yourself.</li></ol>

Top Five Experienced Ideas 💡

No one always stays with us like a shadow . If you ever think of that delete that from your mind , it's just a myth. Maybe that person is worried about you and cares for you but he might be driven by something which is more important than you . So , instead of crying for not anyone being beside you why not hold the flames all by yourself and win the marathon🥳

How To Motivate Yourself In Any Situation?

Monica Mishra on Jan 07

Kanban is a Japanese word meaning a billboard or signboard. The <a href="https://www.spica.com/blog/kanban-board">main idea of the Kanban board</a> is to have a visual board that helps you to track progress on your goals.Draw several columns on the whiteboard, visualizing the stage of each specific task. The columns on the blackboard are usually:<ul><li>To Do</li><li>In Progress</li><li>Done</li></ul>Then you need sticky notes. Every sticky note represents a task that needs to be completed. Simply, write the name of the task that needs to be completed. That`s it.

3. Kanban Board

Doing deep work, you should never forget to take breaks. Tomatoes can remind you to take your breaks.The idea of Pomodoro is very simple. <ul><li>You should break down your daily work and complete it in intervals separated by short breaks. </li><li>You work for 25 minutes straight, which is called one Pomodoro, and then take a 3 – 5 minutes break. </li><li>After 4 Pomodori, you take a longer break of 15 – 30 minutes to recharge.</li></ul>Look at the next Idea for applying this.

5. The Pomodoro Technique


Spend 7 minutes in the morning to plan your day and 7 minutes before you go to sleep to review your day and prepare the plan for tomorrow.

6. 7 Minute Life


The idea is pretty simple. Every SMART written goal should be written down following the next criteria:<ul><li>Specific – clearly defined desired outcome, what you want to achieve</li><li>Measurable – there must be away to measure progress</li><li>Achievable – the goal can be met with available resources</li><li>Relevant – it must fit a bigger picture and you must know why you want to achieve something</li><li>Time-bound – a clear deadline for when the goal will be achieved</li></ul>Only around 10% of people have written goals.

1- Smart goals

Once you have your goals written in a SMART way, you should break them down into concrete and actionable tasks. Then the tasks need to be prioritized.This matrix recommends arranging tasks in one of the four quadrants:<ol><li>Urgent + Important (Do first)</li><li>Not Urgent + Important (Schedule)</li><li>Urgent + Not Important(Delegate)</li><li>Not Important + Not Urgent (Eliminate)</li></ol>You should tackle urgent and important tasks. You have to spend most of your working time in this quadrant (urgent + important).

2. The Eisenhower Matrix / The Eisenhower box

software that supports the Kanban method:<ul><li><a href="https://trello.com/">Trello</a></li><li><a href="https://kanbanflow.com/">KanbanFlow‍</a></li><li><a href="https://kanbanize.com/">Kanbanize</a></li><li><a href="https://kanbantool.com/">Kanban Tool</a></li></ul>Do your search and see a YouTube tutorial for how to use these softwares.

software for Kanban board

Here is a summary of the six Pomodoro steps:<ol><li>Decide on a task to be done</li><li>Set the Pomodoro timer</li><li>Work on the task</li><li>End work when the timer rings after 25 minutes (one Pomodoro)</li><li>If you have fewer than four Pomodori, take a short break (3–5 minutes)</li><li>After 4 Pomodori, take a longer break (15–30 minutes), then go back to step 1</li></ol>Here are a few useful Pomodoro timers:<ul><li><a href="https://pomodoro-tracker.com/">Pomodoro Tracker</a></li><li><a href="https://tomighty.github.io/">Tomighty</a></li><li><a href="https://tomato-timer.com/">Tomato Timer</a></li><li><a href="https://www.pomotodo.com/">Pomotodo</a></li><li><a href="https://pomodoneapp.com/">PomoDoneApp</a></li></ul>Try it and see how effective this can be.

How to apply Pomodoro

20% of the tasks that you do are responsible for 80% of the outcomes, so focus on that 20% of the highest value tasks.Work smartly hard.

9- Pareto Analysis, 20/80

Some of the best time management techniques are simple and straightforward, others a little bit complex, but all of them can actually be easily implemented into daily practice.We decided to provide you with:<ul><li>a detailed description of the 10 most useful time management techniques, but if you don’t find any of them the right fit for you,</li><li>we added a comprehensive list of all other time management techniques we found out there with a short description and a link to more information, if available.</li></ul>

Time Management Techniques

Anything less than 3 minutes, do it now, without any delaying, thinking, or planning.

8- Do it now

Deep work is a term developed by Cal Newport, stating that all intellectual activities should be performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that pushes your cognitive capabilities to their limit.On the other side deep work is “half-work” or “shallow work”. That kind of low‑value work usually goes along with multitasking, working on many projects, and having distractions in the environment (email, chat, and others).Software that can help you do deep work:<ul><li><a href="http://focuslist.co/">FocusList</a></li><li><a href="http://www.onebigthing.co/">One Big Thing</a></li></ul>

4. Do Deep Work / Avoid Half-Work or Shallow Work


The main idea of the flowtime technique is that you set a specific time period (usually between 10-90 minutes) and use it as an experimental time frame to see how long you can work in focus and when you need a break.Simply, try to figure out your focus time and work on it.

The Flowtime Technique - A more flexible Pomodoro Technique

You divide the tasks into the following categories:<ul><li>A: The most important task</li><li>B: Less important tasks</li><li>C: Tasks with no consequences</li><li>D: Delegate</li><li>E: Eliminate</li></ul>

7- ABCDE

Tony Robbin’s planning method that considers big vision, emotional motivation and taking massive action for each of your goals. Answer the following questions:<ul><li>What do I really want? What’s the outcome I’m after? What’s the specific measurable result?</li><li>What’s my purpose? What are my reasons? Why is this not just a “should,” but a “must” for me?</li><li>What do I need to do? What’s my massive action plan?</li></ul>That`s it, have a productive day.

10- Rapid planning method‍

Based on our research, testing and opinions of productivity experts, here are the best time management techniques you need to know:<ol><li><a href="https://www.spica.com/blog/time-management-techniques/#smart-goals">SMART Goals</a></li><li><a href="https://www.spica.com/blog/time-management-techniques/#eisenhower-matrix">The Eisenhower Matrix / The Eisenhower box</a></li><li><a href="https://www.spica.com/blog/time-management-techniques/#kanban-board">Kanban Board</a></li><li><a href="https://www.spica.com/blog/time-management-techniques/#deep-work">Do Deep Work / Avoid Half-Work or Shallow Work</a></li><li><a href="https://www.spica.com/blog/time-management-techniques/#pomodoro">The Pomodoro Technique</a></li><li><a href="https://www.spica.com/blog/time-management-techniques/#time-tracking">7 Minute Life</a></li><li><a href="https://www.spica.com/blog/time-management-techniques/#gtd">A</a>BCDE</li><li><a href="https://www.spica.com/blog/time-management-techniques/#okr">D</a>o it now</li><li><a href="https://www.spica.com/blog/time-management-techniques/#scrum"> Pareto Analysis, 20/80</a></li><li><a href="https://www.spica.com/blog/time-management-techniques/#BoJo">Rapid planning method‍</a></li></ol>Now let's dive deep into each one of them.

The wall of fame for the best time management techniques

We prepared the ultimate list of more than 50 time management techniques, tested and selected the 10 best ones for you.

The Ultimate List of Time Management Techniques

<ul><li>Plus: Find mentors, real (maybe someone from your work) or virtual (from books). Learn from someone with more experience than you.</li><li>Minus: Explain what you are learning while you are learning it. Teach someone with less experience than you.</li><li>Equal: Find people who love what you love and spend as much time talking about this shared area as you can.</li></ul>

Plus, Minus, Equal

When you start learning something, you're usually pretty bad at it. This applies to everything worth learning.But that's good news. You can’t learn as much from succeeding because it’s harder to pinpoint where mistakes are.

Failure

This rule was developed by Anders Ericsson and popularised by Malcolm Gladwell and states that we need 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to succeed at anything. This may create feelings of frustration, especially if you feel you don't have enough time.

Hack the 10,000 hour rule

Every skill worth learning has dozens of micro-skills.List the micro-skills. Figure out what you are good at, what you are bad at, and how you can learn to be better at each.

Micro-Skills

Without energy, you can’t learn.If you don’t sleep enough, you’ll be too tired and you won’t learn. If you’re in a bad relationship, your brain will be distracted and you won’t learn.

Energy

Try to improve 1% a day at whatever it is you are trying to learn.This seems like a small number. But 1% a day, compounded, is 3800% per year.

The 1 percent rule

You can’t get better at chess just by reading about it. You have to play. Then you have to play in high stress situations (like a tournament).

Do it

I hate learning. I wanted to learn how to trade stocks and I ended up losing my home. I wanted to learn how to play chess better and in one of my first tournaments I threw all the pieces on the floor and cried. I wanted to learn to play poker and I lost about ...

Stolen Focus: Why We Can’t Pay Attention—and How We Can Think Deeply Again

The Four Agreements

Monica Mishra on Jan 07

It's time to Read like a Pro.

The Ultimate List of Time Management Techniques

It's time to
Read like a Pro.