GoKawiilI came across a video by Simple Lucas describing a routine to improve focus and productivity. The routine was basically:
Don’t use any screens/entertainment when trying to focus on work. When you start to feel mentally drained, sit and stare at a wall for x minutes to recover focus.
I’ve been trying it, and it’s a very effective (but hard) routine.
The problem
The core problem is that most people by default are in an information overload. A paper published in 2012 showed that in 2008 the average person was receiving 34 GB of information daily, with a daily information exposure growth rate of about 5.4% per year . Extrapolating that trend, we would be at about 87 GB worth of data today. This calculation includes audio, visual, and text data and incorporates quality into the measurement, i.e. 10 minutes of HD video has more information than 10 minutes of 480p video. It’s unclear to me exactly how the quality impacts things, but regardless it is obvious that we are all being drowned in a sea of information.
I certainly go through periods of “brain fog” and lack of focus/motivation. These periods usually go something like:
Get a bad night of sleep (up late for an event, kids keep waking me up). Wake up very tired so consume large amounts of caffeine. Have trouble focusing after 2/3 cups so use media while working to dull the pain (music/podcasts) or take more “breaks” (reading hackernews). Stay up late because I’m wired on caffeine and dopamine from scrolling. Go back to 2.
I find these cycles very hard to break out of when I’m in them. The media consumption constitutes a small dopamine hit. Large numbers of small hits puts you in a hole, where you need even more/stronger hits to feel good.
Disconnecting
The obvious solution is to disconnect from scrolling, but that doesn’t overcome the biggest issue. When I’m in this “brain fog” cycle (and sometimes outside of it), I will find that around 1/2 pm I hit a wall. My head will start hurting, my motivation will be trash, and my productivity significantly degrades. My first instinct is to go for more coffee. That usually lets me keep working, but at a slow/painful pace. While looking for focusing strategies I came across the life-changing solution…
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