WEBVTT - Train Your Brain to Focus 0:00:00.000 --> 0:00:05.200 Oh man, it's already noon. I gotta get going on 0:00:05.320 --> 0:00:10.640 my story. Hello, blank page, All right, I can do this. 0:00:11.440 --> 0:00:21.119 Here we go typing a sentence. This is hard. I 0:00:21.160 --> 0:00:24.239 wonder what's happening on Twitter. I'll just click over for 0:00:24.280 --> 0:00:30.880 a quick minute breaking news. Everything is horrible. No, your horror. 0:00:31.400 --> 0:00:41.640 This is a distraction. Distraction gate stop. Here's a photo 0:00:41.640 --> 0:00:45.440 of a panda. Oh god, it's three thirty. Why do 0:00:45.520 --> 0:00:47.840 I ever read Twitter? I feel like garbage. I really 0:00:47.840 --> 0:00:54.760 need to get to work. Okay, writing some words, this 0:00:54.840 --> 0:00:59.800 isn't so bad. Oh a chat message? I want a gossip. 0:01:00.280 --> 0:01:03.560 You know you want to gossip. I don't know. I 0:01:03.760 --> 0:01:06.640 heard the salacious thing about this person we talk about 0:01:06.640 --> 0:01:09.479 all the time. Let's dissect it together for the next 0:01:09.560 --> 0:01:12.880 twenty five minutes. It's gonna be juicy and fun. And 0:01:12.880 --> 0:01:14.480 we'll also talk about work a little bit, so you 0:01:14.520 --> 0:01:19.200 can justify spending your time chatting with me. Okay, that 0:01:19.280 --> 0:01:22.320 was fun. That comes is work? Right. While I'm here, 0:01:22.360 --> 0:01:25.280 I might as well click over to my team's group chat. 0:01:25.520 --> 0:01:27.840 We're working on a big project. I bet there are 0:01:27.920 --> 0:01:40.200 important updates for me in there, dancing. I feel like 0:01:40.319 --> 0:01:47.560 I'm forgetting something, something important. Oh god, my story and 0:01:47.600 --> 0:01:51.120 it's almost four I just need to focus. I'm so 0:01:51.200 --> 0:01:54.200 bad at concentrating on one task, even when I know 0:01:54.320 --> 0:01:56.880 it needs to get done as soon as possible. But 0:01:56.920 --> 0:02:00.440 I'm gonna get serious now. I'm gonna sit down and write. 0:02:01.480 --> 0:02:15.880 But I wonder what's happening on Facebook. Welcome to Works 0:02:15.880 --> 0:02:18.160 for Me, the show where we try to fix our 0:02:18.320 --> 0:02:21.760 workplace problems to find out what strategies will work for you. 0:02:22.160 --> 0:02:26.600 I'm Francesco Levi and I'm Rebecca Greenfield. This week, it's 0:02:26.720 --> 0:02:30.760 Beca's turn to take us on a productivity journey. Becca, 0:02:31.080 --> 0:02:33.480 what is the problem you're trying to solve this week? 0:02:34.000 --> 0:02:37.200 As you heard in that dramatic reenactment at the top 0:02:37.240 --> 0:02:40.640 of the show, I cannot focus on my work. I 0:02:40.680 --> 0:02:43.760 get distracted by Twitter or the Internet or my email 0:02:44.040 --> 0:02:47.600 or chat very easily. And it feels like I can 0:02:47.639 --> 0:02:50.799 never sit down and complete a task without an interruption. 0:02:51.720 --> 0:02:54.519 How is that possible? I know that you can. You're 0:02:54.560 --> 0:02:56.520 capable of getting things done. You get things done all 0:02:56.560 --> 0:02:59.799 the time. In fact, I think you're like a particularly 0:03:00.000 --> 0:03:04.120 productive person. Like I know people who can't focus, and 0:03:04.320 --> 0:03:07.960 you're nowhere on that list. Okay, yeah, that is, this 0:03:08.040 --> 0:03:10.560 is what people say to me. So when I told Danny, 0:03:10.600 --> 0:03:12.880 my boyfriend, that I wanted to work on my focus 0:03:12.960 --> 0:03:15.440 for our next experiment, he had the exact same reaction 0:03:15.520 --> 0:03:18.560 as you did. But as I explained to him, getting 0:03:18.600 --> 0:03:22.240 things done is different than being focused on the things 0:03:22.360 --> 0:03:28.080 you're doing. I don't really understand why you think you 0:03:28.160 --> 0:03:34.160 need to focus better, because you are way more efficient 0:03:34.240 --> 0:03:38.440 than anyone I know. You'll be like, all I did 0:03:38.520 --> 0:03:41.120 was chat all day and then I wrote these four stories. 0:03:42.560 --> 0:03:47.040 I'm like, what, I've never written four stars in one day. 0:03:47.080 --> 0:03:49.119 And also, I don't think we can play this from 0:03:49.160 --> 0:03:54.920 my employer because I'm not g chatting all day. You're not. 0:03:56.400 --> 0:04:03.160 You are working while chatting me. Okay, well, I would 0:04:03.160 --> 0:04:05.200 like to not have that habit. I would like to 0:04:06.720 --> 0:04:09.760 work really focused and then when I'm done, reward myself 0:04:09.800 --> 0:04:13.520 with a G chat and then be the best version 0:04:13.520 --> 0:04:17.400 of myself. Okay, So you're not liking the experience you're 0:04:17.400 --> 0:04:19.760 having while you're getting stuff done. I do not like 0:04:19.800 --> 0:04:22.800 the experience, and this is a common problem that I 0:04:22.839 --> 0:04:25.719 guess you have. Also, um, I'm far from the only 0:04:25.720 --> 0:04:29.120 person who can't focus. British Telecom found that people check 0:04:29.160 --> 0:04:33.360 their phones every twelve minutes, so yeah, this is something 0:04:33.400 --> 0:04:35.640 a lot of people can relate to. Yeah, I definitely. 0:04:35.760 --> 0:04:38.520 I mean, my phone just flashed. There's like a new 0:04:38.560 --> 0:04:41.200 feature where it shows you how much screen time, and 0:04:41.800 --> 0:04:45.600 my just was like an unwelcome push notification about my 0:04:46.200 --> 0:04:49.960 screen time. And I was shocked and horrified at just 0:04:50.000 --> 0:04:51.479 like the amount of time staring at my phone, because 0:04:51.520 --> 0:04:53.120 I know I'm not most of the time, I'm not 0:04:53.160 --> 0:04:55.599 working when I'm staring at my phone. So I've done 0:04:55.680 --> 0:05:00.039 on a phone. Yeah, okay, so your focus is a 0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:04.000 problem apparently, and you wanted to fix it. How so 0:05:04.040 --> 0:05:07.159 I didn't really know how. I looked some stuff up online, 0:05:07.200 --> 0:05:09.800 and there are all of these brain training websites, but 0:05:09.839 --> 0:05:12.479 they didn't really get at what I wanted. Like, I 0:05:12.480 --> 0:05:14.640 didn't want to get better brain games. I wanted to 0:05:14.680 --> 0:05:18.040 get better at focusing on my work. So I went 0:05:18.040 --> 0:05:23.960 out and found a super concentrator, the simone Biles of Concentrating. 0:05:24.120 --> 0:05:26.200 If you will, it's not unusual for me to do. 0:05:26.320 --> 0:05:28.240 I can do a five six hour, seven hour day 0:05:28.839 --> 0:05:31.640 where I'm just working on one thing. That's Cal Newport. 0:05:31.760 --> 0:05:35.680 He's a computer scientist at Georgetown university. He also happens 0:05:35.720 --> 0:05:38.560 to be very good at concentrating. He even wrote a 0:05:38.560 --> 0:05:41.600 book about it. It's called Deep Work Rules for Focused 0:05:41.680 --> 0:05:45.840 Success in a Distracted World. Cal got interested in concentrating 0:05:45.839 --> 0:05:48.719 when he started looking into how people do their jobs. 0:05:49.160 --> 0:05:52.360 He quickly realized that the answer to that was not 0:05:52.520 --> 0:05:55.599 very well. He found that the workplace is a very 0:05:55.640 --> 0:05:59.080 distracting place, and people like us have convinced ourselves that 0:05:59.200 --> 0:06:03.240 engaging in the distractions like answering emails and slack messages 0:06:03.839 --> 0:06:07.360 is part of our jobs. But he says, it's just not. 0:06:08.279 --> 0:06:12.680 I don't think we're properly valuing uh, concentration, because it's 0:06:12.680 --> 0:06:15.400 easy to say, you know what, I'm busy, I'm communicating, 0:06:15.440 --> 0:06:18.120 a lot of messages are moving, I'm on messenger, I'm 0:06:18.120 --> 0:06:20.279 on my phone, I'm active a lot. So I must 0:06:20.320 --> 0:06:23.320 be productive. I must be doing something something right. I 0:06:23.400 --> 0:06:25.240 must be producing value. But I think when you look 0:06:25.240 --> 0:06:28.839 a little bit closer, you realize actually it's the undistracted, 0:06:28.880 --> 0:06:32.080 concentrated work that is more valuable to the bottom line 0:06:32.160 --> 0:06:36.520 in many different positions, in many different fields. Kel on 0:06:36.520 --> 0:06:39.640 the other hand, doesn't operate like this at all. In 0:06:39.720 --> 0:06:42.200 his work life. He gets all of his work done 0:06:42.279 --> 0:06:44.600 during the hours of nine to five. He doesn't use 0:06:44.640 --> 0:06:48.719 social media, he ignores his inbox. He's disciplined, so he 0:06:48.839 --> 0:06:51.480 realized that he had a lot to teach sad distracted 0:06:51.520 --> 0:06:55.000 sacks like me. The good news is that, according to 0:06:55.080 --> 0:06:58.320 cal most people don't even know how much they can 0:06:58.400 --> 0:07:02.919 really focus because as they're not even trying well. I 0:07:02.960 --> 0:07:06.640 think physical fitness is a good analogy for thinking about this. 0:07:07.160 --> 0:07:10.360 A lot of people incorrectly think about the ability to 0:07:10.440 --> 0:07:12.960 focus as something like a habit, like flossing their teeth, 0:07:13.000 --> 0:07:14.560 something they know how to do. It's just a matter 0:07:14.560 --> 0:07:16.920 of doing it more often. That's not actually the case. 0:07:17.400 --> 0:07:19.960 If you're not actually training your mind to be good 0:07:20.000 --> 0:07:23.080 at sustained concentration, you're actually not going to get nearly 0:07:23.120 --> 0:07:25.760 as much value out of your concentration sessions. So this 0:07:25.840 --> 0:07:29.280 is not about small tweaks around the edges. Really embracing 0:07:29.400 --> 0:07:31.800 focus as a core skill in your job and something 0:07:31.840 --> 0:07:35.360 that you practice and protect can have massive changes to 0:07:35.440 --> 0:07:37.040 the amount of things you're able to produce in the 0:07:37.080 --> 0:07:40.080 quality level of those things. Cow says that you have 0:07:40.160 --> 0:07:44.680 to work out the concentration muscles in your brain, and 0:07:44.720 --> 0:07:48.840 by working them out you'll get better at using them. 0:07:48.880 --> 0:07:51.720 So everyone's trying to multitask because they feel obligated to. 0:07:51.880 --> 0:07:56.240 But multitasking is the destruction of your work, and you 0:07:56.280 --> 0:08:01.600 really need to concentrate. And apparently concentrating is something that 0:08:01.960 --> 0:08:05.280 you have to use it or lose it, right, Yeah, 0:08:05.320 --> 0:08:18.560 I find this very encouraging. Well, so what are you 0:08:18.600 --> 0:08:22.800 going to do to improve your concentration? I Am going 0:08:22.840 --> 0:08:25.320 to work out my brain in an attempt to learn 0:08:25.320 --> 0:08:29.080 how to concentrate better. Cal told me about this interval 0:08:29.120 --> 0:08:31.720 training exercise where you sit down with a timer and 0:08:31.800 --> 0:08:35.720 do twenty minutes of work focusing on a single difficult task. 0:08:36.360 --> 0:08:38.400 If I can get through twenty minutes a few times 0:08:38.480 --> 0:08:41.520 without distraction, I can increase the time by ten minutes. 0:08:41.760 --> 0:08:44.000 And if I get through that, increase it another ten minutes, 0:08:44.160 --> 0:08:47.240 and so on. Cal also talked about how it helps 0:08:47.280 --> 0:08:50.199 to have a ritual before you start doing focused work, 0:08:50.760 --> 0:08:53.440 like he always takes a walk to get coffee before 0:08:53.600 --> 0:08:56.120 getting down to work. So I'm going to walk around 0:08:56.120 --> 0:08:58.200 the news room and put on music without words to 0:08:58.360 --> 0:09:00.640 get in the zone. I'll do all of this for 0:09:00.679 --> 0:09:04.280 a week. Like this, you have like a little workout 0:09:04.320 --> 0:09:07.080 plan from your personal trainer, except it's for your brain, 0:09:07.240 --> 0:09:09.800 not your body muscles. But how will you know if 0:09:09.840 --> 0:09:15.400 you have succeeded. So I am not very confident in 0:09:15.480 --> 0:09:20.200 my focus ability really at all. Like twenty minutes of 0:09:20.240 --> 0:09:25.080 doing one thing uninterrupted sounds completely impossible to me. Like 0:09:25.120 --> 0:09:29.120 when I'm writing a story, I cannot not click over 0:09:29.760 --> 0:09:32.800 to something or some other tab, Like I'm writing one 0:09:32.840 --> 0:09:35.839 sentence and I need to distract myself. So I think 0:09:35.840 --> 0:09:38.440 I'm going to suck at this. But that said, I 0:09:38.520 --> 0:09:41.559 want to be able to do thirty minutes of uninterrupted 0:09:41.559 --> 0:09:58.560 focused time by the end of my experiment. I'm starting 0:09:58.600 --> 0:10:02.440 off the experiment by doing the ritual, which is walking 0:10:02.480 --> 0:10:06.600 around the newsroom once before I get started. So that's 0:10:06.640 --> 0:10:10.000 what I'm doing. Look, I'm like a crazy person talking 0:10:10.120 --> 0:10:12.840 to this microphone. This was me on my first day, 0:10:12.920 --> 0:10:17.880 completing my first ritual lap around the office. Okay, back 0:10:17.920 --> 0:10:24.160 at my desk, going to find my playlist. I found. 0:10:24.160 --> 0:10:29.080 I found this playlist called Concentrate at work on Spotify. 0:10:30.160 --> 0:10:33.720 Going to set a timer or queue up a timer 0:10:34.200 --> 0:10:37.840 twenty minutes and I have a story that I'm working on. 0:10:38.000 --> 0:10:46.520 I'm gonna work on that and ready set good the 0:10:46.559 --> 0:10:52.480 playlist had a lot of technobis. I sat down to 0:10:52.520 --> 0:10:55.040 work on my story and it wasn't as hard as 0:10:55.080 --> 0:10:57.920 I thought it would be. I was trying really hard 0:10:58.200 --> 0:11:01.360 to not look at distracting things, and it was working. 0:11:02.200 --> 0:11:06.679 But soon enough I realized that I wasn't exactly concentrating 0:11:06.760 --> 0:11:12.800 on my work either. I have five minutes left. I 0:11:12.880 --> 0:11:16.439 think I'm basically sitting here staring at the page and 0:11:16.559 --> 0:11:21.120 not concentrating thinking about other things. I'm gonna call this 0:11:22.400 --> 0:11:26.960 I fail. Well, this gets into like a a tricky area, right, 0:11:27.000 --> 0:11:30.400 because you thought you'd have to just eliminate your distractions, 0:11:30.400 --> 0:11:33.280 but then you find ways to distract yourself with your 0:11:33.320 --> 0:11:35.800 own mind, even if you're not actually like looking at 0:11:35.800 --> 0:11:38.960 Twitter or doing whatever else would take you away from 0:11:39.000 --> 0:11:41.800 being in your word document. Yeah, my brain was distracting 0:11:41.800 --> 0:11:44.240 itself fine enough on its own. Did not need the 0:11:44.280 --> 0:11:47.439 two meets. But I did decide to try it again 0:11:47.480 --> 0:11:52.800 that day. Okay, take two. Gotta in my ritual again. 0:11:53.720 --> 0:11:55.719 So I did my ritual again and walked around the 0:11:55.800 --> 0:11:58.199 news room. Then I sat down to do my work, 0:11:58.480 --> 0:12:02.679 and again my brain was fighting the concentration. I was 0:12:02.720 --> 0:12:05.280 reading a story and my eyes were jumping all over 0:12:05.400 --> 0:12:08.640 the page, just looking for something else to do. But 0:12:08.720 --> 0:12:11.559 if that weren't bad enough, then something out of my 0:12:11.640 --> 0:12:18.959 control happened. Becca if Ellen was a woman, yeah, is 0:12:19.040 --> 0:12:25.040 that the subjects lite? What if he was O? Great technicallymatically, 0:12:27.559 --> 0:12:33.559 but it's a subject time, so I think stuff. Okay. So, 0:12:33.600 --> 0:12:37.079 as you saw, I got interrupted by my boss asking 0:12:37.120 --> 0:12:40.120 me a question. That's I can't X out her window. 0:12:40.240 --> 0:12:45.880 She just talked to me. Okay, that's over. Timer is up. Okay, 0:12:45.920 --> 0:12:49.280 I'm done with this experiment right now. Too much to do. Well, 0:12:49.360 --> 0:12:52.480 there's a wrench that got thrown into your plan. Yeah, 0:12:52.679 --> 0:12:55.320 you we work in an open office, like not every 0:12:55.400 --> 0:12:59.920 interruption is a self imposed interruption like the internet. It's 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:02.640 I'm also, this was your boss talking to you, right, 0:13:02.800 --> 0:13:05.079 so it was hardly somebody you could ignore or just 0:13:05.160 --> 0:13:08.160 be like, excuse me, I'm concentrating right now doing an 0:13:08.200 --> 0:13:11.520 experiment for a podcast to improve myself. Yeah. No, I 0:13:11.600 --> 0:13:14.719 couldn't do that. And cal had warned me about the 0:13:14.760 --> 0:13:17.120 stuff about my brain fighting it, but he didn't really 0:13:17.200 --> 0:13:19.920 warn me about the realities of working in a modern 0:13:20.400 --> 0:13:23.160 open office and how that could interfere with my experience. 0:13:24.080 --> 0:13:26.080 So I tried one more time on that first day, 0:13:26.320 --> 0:13:30.920 and I failed yet again. Fifty seconds left and I 0:13:31.080 --> 0:13:42.480 clicked away man. So that not a very successful first 0:13:42.559 --> 0:13:46.320 day of focusing. Huh. No, my first day was a bust. 0:13:46.720 --> 0:13:51.199 It sucked. I failed like hard every single time, and 0:13:52.160 --> 0:13:56.079 I was really feeling bad, really bad about myself. But 0:13:56.240 --> 0:13:59.280 I had to keep going with the experiment. So on 0:13:59.480 --> 0:14:03.959 day two I soldiered on and after the break, we'll 0:14:03.960 --> 0:14:17.079 see how I did. After my day of failures, on 0:14:17.280 --> 0:14:20.240 day two, I decided that the playlist was the reason 0:14:20.360 --> 0:14:23.360 for my failed first day. I really hated the music. 0:14:23.560 --> 0:14:26.440 I am just really not into techno. It felt like 0:14:26.600 --> 0:14:30.640 being inside and urban outfitters or a Burning Man themed 0:14:30.720 --> 0:14:34.320 co working space. It was not for me. I don't 0:14:34.360 --> 0:14:38.320 alienate our techno loving listeners. Sorry, it's just awesome for me. 0:14:38.960 --> 0:14:42.720 But I found something I liked better called chill lo 0:14:42.960 --> 0:14:46.160 fi steady beats. I don't have to play for you, 0:14:46.240 --> 0:14:47.600 but I can if you want, I can imagine what 0:14:47.680 --> 0:14:55.720 it sounds like. I'll ever every one second. That's how 0:14:55.800 --> 0:15:01.160 a creepy Okay, well that's that sounds like haunted music 0:15:01.280 --> 0:15:04.840 box in the haunted house. But whatever works for you, 0:15:09.560 --> 0:15:16.640 sleepy wow, right, well, to me, it's neither sleepy nor creepy. 0:15:17.240 --> 0:15:20.600 I like it. And with this new playlist in hand, 0:15:20.920 --> 0:15:24.920 I did my walk around the newsroom ritual again. Can 0:15:25.000 --> 0:15:27.760 I just point out that, like, it's kind of funny 0:15:27.840 --> 0:15:30.400 that every single time you decide you're going to get 0:15:30.400 --> 0:15:32.880 ready to focus in a given day, you now have 0:15:33.040 --> 0:15:36.200 to get up and walk around. It's so much walk. 0:15:37.160 --> 0:15:40.120 I guess you're getting your steps in, that's right. So 0:15:40.200 --> 0:15:43.280 I walked around the newsroom again, and then I settled 0:15:43.400 --> 0:15:52.000 into another focus session. Need to close tab? Wasn't my email? 0:15:53.520 --> 0:15:59.560 Was that? Twitter? Minimized chat, setting my timer, and here 0:15:59.600 --> 0:16:02.840 we go. That day, I was working on preparing for 0:16:03.000 --> 0:16:05.760 a big interview I had coming up. I was researching 0:16:05.800 --> 0:16:08.080 the people I was interviewing and then writing a list 0:16:08.160 --> 0:16:11.240 of questions to ask them. It was feeling pretty good, 0:16:11.680 --> 0:16:15.600 and then before I knew it, time was up. I 0:16:15.720 --> 0:16:21.480 did it. I successfully focus for twenty minutes straight, no interruptions. Wait, 0:16:21.760 --> 0:16:25.880 already on your second day? Yeah that's awesome, considering you 0:16:26.200 --> 0:16:30.560 felt like you could never achieve focusing for more than 0:16:30.600 --> 0:16:33.000 one sentence of writing at a time. Yeah, it was. 0:16:33.560 --> 0:16:36.440 If I dare say, I'm miraculous, I felt I felt great, 0:16:36.960 --> 0:16:40.240 and so I thought maybe the playlist was the problem. 0:16:40.920 --> 0:16:45.520 But then came my next try and I failed. So wait, 0:16:45.600 --> 0:16:48.640 the playlist wasn't the problem. No, I mean I think 0:16:48.680 --> 0:16:50.720 it helped. I think you have to make your environment 0:16:51.280 --> 0:16:54.440 as optimal as you possibly can, Like I can't escape 0:16:54.480 --> 0:16:56.000 from our open office, but at least I don't have 0:16:56.120 --> 0:16:59.880 to torture my ears with techno music. But after control 0:17:00.160 --> 0:17:03.400 for that, I realized that the culprit the reason I 0:17:03.520 --> 0:17:06.480 was still struggling was the type of work I was doing. 0:17:07.280 --> 0:17:10.760 So cal talked about two kinds of work. There's deep 0:17:10.800 --> 0:17:14.240 work and there's shallow work. Shallow work has to happen 0:17:14.359 --> 0:17:16.320 in order for just an organization to function, but deep 0:17:16.359 --> 0:17:18.439 work has to happen if you actually want to advance 0:17:18.480 --> 0:17:21.200 your organization or advance your career. Shallow work is necessary. 0:17:21.640 --> 0:17:24.800 Deep work pays to bills. Shallow work is the stuff 0:17:24.880 --> 0:17:27.000 we have to do to function in the workplace, like 0:17:27.320 --> 0:17:31.680 checking emails, attending meanings, making lists. And deep work is 0:17:31.960 --> 0:17:34.240 the meat of your job, which in my world is 0:17:34.400 --> 0:17:37.520 reporting and writing. And the deeper the work, the harder 0:17:37.600 --> 0:17:40.440 it is to focus on. Yeah, deep and shallow is 0:17:40.480 --> 0:17:42.760 a really apt analogy for that because I look at 0:17:42.880 --> 0:17:46.520 like the shallow work, the stuff that you can take 0:17:46.600 --> 0:17:48.680 off your list, and it's just basically easy, but it 0:17:48.800 --> 0:17:51.040 makes you happy when you actually get around to getting 0:17:51.080 --> 0:17:52.800 it done, like that feels so good, But it's not. 0:17:53.200 --> 0:17:54.760 It's not hard. So if you just set aside the 0:17:54.800 --> 0:17:56.159 time for it and commit to doing it, you can 0:17:56.200 --> 0:17:59.679 do it. But the deep work, it is like staring 0:17:59.720 --> 0:18:03.080 into an abyss, Like you're just like, I have to 0:18:03.160 --> 0:18:05.200 make something out of nothing. I have to write a story, 0:18:05.320 --> 0:18:07.119 or I have to write a script for a podcast. 0:18:07.600 --> 0:18:09.720 I just got shells. It's it's so hard to just 0:18:09.840 --> 0:18:12.479 stare into the abyss and it's just the ugly depths. 0:18:13.760 --> 0:18:16.600 But I also think that there's the spectrum of work 0:18:16.640 --> 0:18:20.520 in between, stuff that contributes to deep work, but isn't 0:18:20.560 --> 0:18:23.960 actually that deep. It's like deep adjacent. So for me, 0:18:24.200 --> 0:18:27.280 that's researching and writing up questions for an interview, right, 0:18:27.280 --> 0:18:29.200 you actually have to think about that, right, it's not 0:18:29.359 --> 0:18:31.520 like writing an email. But it's not like writing a 0:18:31.600 --> 0:18:33.840 story either, And that's why I think I got through 0:18:33.920 --> 0:18:38.760 that focus session because it was this medium work adjacent 0:18:38.920 --> 0:18:41.120 that's right, So it's not as hard as writing a story. 0:18:42.000 --> 0:18:45.400 So I zoomed right through it. But so the deep work. 0:18:45.560 --> 0:18:48.000 Does CAL have any suggestions for how to get through 0:18:48.040 --> 0:18:51.520 the deep work? Yes, but it's not a satisfying answer. 0:18:51.640 --> 0:18:54.040 It's not just change your playlist, he said. I had 0:18:54.040 --> 0:18:57.719 to keep practicing. So I just kept trying and failing 0:18:58.080 --> 0:19:02.120 and trying and failing again. But then eventually, on day four, 0:19:05.440 --> 0:19:10.040 sorry if you did it, I got through twenty minutes 0:19:10.080 --> 0:19:12.880 and it wasn't a fluke. I'd broken through some wall 0:19:13.000 --> 0:19:15.920 and kept succeeding, and by day five I was comfortably 0:19:15.960 --> 0:19:19.040 getting through twenty minutes. So I decided to go for 0:19:19.160 --> 0:19:25.639 the holy grail thirty minutes. I've been training for this 0:19:25.840 --> 0:19:28.960 moment all week. I get up from my desk to 0:19:29.040 --> 0:19:32.160 walk around the room to get in the optimal mindset. 0:19:32.800 --> 0:19:36.080 After a brisk clock I'm feeling good. I sit down, 0:19:36.400 --> 0:19:40.080 put in my earbuds and switch on chillow by study beats. 0:19:40.720 --> 0:19:44.320 My brain feels primed. I set my timer and then 0:19:44.960 --> 0:19:48.320 I get to work on a story. I'm in the zone, 0:19:48.560 --> 0:19:51.800 writing complete sentences about taking a break. I think about 0:19:51.840 --> 0:19:55.480 checking Twitter, but I tell myself, no, stay strong, and 0:19:55.560 --> 0:20:01.600 before I know it, okay, I didn't the thirty minutes. 0:20:01.640 --> 0:20:05.480 It was torture and they did it. There you're okay, 0:20:05.920 --> 0:20:13.119 and I can procrastinate throw Wow, wow, thirty minutes the 0:20:13.240 --> 0:20:18.000 holy grill, you hit your gold, I know. And it 0:20:18.280 --> 0:20:25.119 really felt amazing. And I feel so freaking good, like 0:20:26.440 --> 0:20:30.359 it's just doing thirty minutes of writing where you just 0:20:31.040 --> 0:20:34.760 get through it, you focus. I feel like a queen. 0:20:35.320 --> 0:20:40.040 I know. I know this sounds like I'm over exaggerating, 0:20:40.160 --> 0:20:45.000 but it really felt good. I mean, usually it's so 0:20:45.400 --> 0:20:47.720 hard for me to get stuff done, like three pm 0:20:49.520 --> 0:20:54.200 on any day, and wow, this is crazy. I feel 0:20:54.240 --> 0:20:58.399 so good, Like my brain felt different, I swear, and 0:20:58.520 --> 0:21:02.720 from then on I was untouchable. I did thirty minute 0:21:02.720 --> 0:21:04.920 blocks of focus work for the rest of the week, 0:21:05.200 --> 0:21:08.560 no problem. I was getting so good at thirty minutes 0:21:08.640 --> 0:21:12.639 that on my last day, day seven, I decided to 0:21:12.760 --> 0:21:21.680 try for forty minutes. WHOA, we didn't. Honestly, it was hard, um, 0:21:23.320 --> 0:21:30.399 but I kind of what done. Finished one task, started another. Honestly, 0:21:30.440 --> 0:21:37.119 feel like I could do more time. Oh from zero 0:21:37.280 --> 0:21:48.240 a zero congratulations, Becca, thank you you really triumphed. Yeah, 0:21:49.119 --> 0:21:52.320 it felt amazing, as not to restate the point, but 0:21:52.520 --> 0:21:56.159 it felt amazing. It feels amazing. I had been worried 0:21:56.200 --> 0:21:57.760 that it would be harder for me to get through 0:21:57.800 --> 0:21:59.600 the time when I had hard work like writing to do, 0:21:59.800 --> 0:22:03.879 But it wasn't. I not only wrote my story, but 0:22:04.080 --> 0:22:07.480 I liked it. It got addictive. I wanted more and more. 0:22:08.000 --> 0:22:13.000 Cal are focus afficionado predicted that that would happen if 0:22:13.040 --> 0:22:15.200 you do this pretty aggressively for a week. By the 0:22:15.280 --> 0:22:17.000 end of the week, you'll feel you know, this is 0:22:17.080 --> 0:22:19.240 not only a little bit easier, but my work feels 0:22:19.240 --> 0:22:20.920 a little bit different. I feel like I'm achieving a 0:22:20.960 --> 0:22:23.520 new level of concentration on producing sharper words or more 0:22:23.560 --> 0:22:26.480 words per minute or whatever the metric is, but that 0:22:26.600 --> 0:22:30.320 I'm better at concentrating than I was. The other feeling 0:22:30.359 --> 0:22:32.960 you should be looking for is also the sort of 0:22:33.000 --> 0:22:36.560 an emergent attraction to concentration is something that you start 0:22:36.600 --> 0:22:41.200 to crave more. So many parallels with exercise, right like you, 0:22:42.080 --> 0:22:44.080 It takes discipline, you have to work out your muscles, 0:22:44.160 --> 0:22:45.800 and then when you do it, you feel really good, 0:22:45.920 --> 0:22:48.439 and then you get kind of predicted to it. I'm curious, 0:22:48.480 --> 0:22:50.159 do you think your work were sharper like did the 0:22:50.240 --> 0:22:53.560 writing you did during those concentrated times actually turn out better. 0:22:54.160 --> 0:22:55.879 So it's very hard to measure this, but it was 0:22:56.000 --> 0:22:58.600 during a time of intense productivity for me. It was 0:22:58.680 --> 0:23:01.560 like a crazy couple of weeks I had there. Also, 0:23:01.680 --> 0:23:04.800 the story I wrote one of those times was a 0:23:04.880 --> 0:23:08.560 story that this does not happen often. But my editor 0:23:08.840 --> 0:23:11.680 was like, oh, this is really good, and so I 0:23:11.760 --> 0:23:16.000 don't know, you know, you can't really measure it, but yes, 0:23:17.320 --> 0:23:31.359 I guess. Well, it definitely sounds like you succeeded at 0:23:31.400 --> 0:23:36.400 your experiment, right, you sailed past that thirty minute goal. Yeah, 0:23:36.480 --> 0:23:40.040 I did. I did it. After my week long experiment. 0:23:40.119 --> 0:23:45.160 I was an enthusiastic focus supporter. I am so into 0:23:45.240 --> 0:23:47.560 this and I hope I can keep doing it. It 0:23:47.640 --> 0:23:50.440 feels so good to just sit down and do work. 0:23:50.560 --> 0:23:53.760 And I also was really scared that when I got 0:23:53.800 --> 0:23:57.480 to writing stories, because writing it's so hard and torturous, 0:23:57.600 --> 0:23:59.520 and you want to just like write a sentence, look 0:23:59.560 --> 0:24:02.159 at Twitter, write a sentence, check your email. That that 0:24:02.200 --> 0:24:04.440 would be so hard. But when I was doing the 0:24:04.480 --> 0:24:08.639 concentrating thing, it just wasn't it. Just I think you 0:24:08.720 --> 0:24:11.240 psych yourself out, but you can sit down and write 0:24:11.240 --> 0:24:13.439 a story and yeah, it's not perfect, but you can 0:24:13.480 --> 0:24:17.199 do it, So that was awesome. The downsides I think 0:24:17.240 --> 0:24:20.000 are when you come back, you feel like you can 0:24:20.200 --> 0:24:26.040 just go crazy not focusing. Yeah, I wonder if if 0:24:26.080 --> 0:24:29.240 you don't keep this up, it goes back to being 0:24:29.320 --> 0:24:33.320 just as hard. If the exercise analogy holds, then it would, right. Yeah, 0:24:33.359 --> 0:24:35.359 I read somewhere about exercise like if you don't do 0:24:35.400 --> 0:24:37.720 it for two days, you're back to your base. So 0:24:37.840 --> 0:24:41.359 maybe it's the same for brain, Like I can't I 0:24:41.440 --> 0:24:43.199 got to go back to twenty minutes and not being 0:24:43.240 --> 0:24:45.800 able to do it. But you're addicted to it at 0:24:45.840 --> 0:24:47.440 this point, so it shouldn't be a problem. Let's just 0:24:47.640 --> 0:24:51.480 keep doing these sessions focusing forever um. But yeah, I 0:24:51.560 --> 0:24:53.520 think there are a couple of caveats, Like I said 0:24:55.080 --> 0:24:57.600 you do, there's like still a lot of procrastination evolved, 0:24:57.640 --> 0:25:00.280 like those does not have anything to be procrastinate, and 0:25:00.320 --> 0:25:02.240 like it took me a long time sometimes to get 0:25:02.320 --> 0:25:04.320 to the focus session. And I think you in a 0:25:04.400 --> 0:25:09.600 way procrastinate more before and after because you are anticipating 0:25:09.640 --> 0:25:11.400 all of your focus. You're like, I gotta get into 0:25:11.400 --> 0:25:15.120 my internet time now like a crazy person. And then 0:25:15.280 --> 0:25:17.479 I also think like not everyone can do this if 0:25:17.520 --> 0:25:19.520 you have a type of job where you can't shut 0:25:19.560 --> 0:25:21.200 the world out for chunks of time at the day. 0:25:21.600 --> 0:25:23.480 But I think a lot of people think their job 0:25:23.600 --> 0:25:25.880 is like that, but it's not. They think that they 0:25:26.880 --> 0:25:29.760 can't shut the world up if they can, like I 0:25:29.840 --> 0:25:31.720 think a lot of people can take twenty minutes and 0:25:31.840 --> 0:25:35.600 not answer emails. Yeah, and presumably if your job really 0:25:35.840 --> 0:25:37.920