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Why You Can’t Focus (and How to Fix It Fast)

2024-03-26 · Long video (solo, talking head or whiteboard) · Ali · recording, 14:35 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Productivity and time · mode: List of tips or lessons · tags: Evidence-based framing, Sponsor segment present, Feel-Good Productivity thesis, Lesson from a book

In the second video of his three-part series on focus, Ali gives five evidence-based tips: a ready-to-resume plan before switching tasks, 40 Hz binaural beats, a 10-minute declutter, the 90-20 rule for breaks, and a colour-coded calendar for single-tasking.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — A distracted morning; why focus matters more than ever; the second video of a three-part series

  • ★★ Ali says the world now constantly competes for our time and attention, so the ability to focus has become harder and more important than ever. — 00:00:30

00:00:51 — Tip 1: the ready to resume plan (Sophie Leroy's study, attention residue, the Hemingway trick)

  • ★★ Ali reports Sophie Leroy's 2018 paper in Organization Science: people interrupted during a word puzzle who first made a ready-to-resume plan did significantly better on the next task, reviewing résumés. — 00:00:51
  • ★★ Ali explains attention residue: after switching from one task to another, part of your attention stays on the previous task, which is part of why multitasking is a terrible idea. — 00:01:50
  • ★★ Ali describes the Hemingway trick, which writers use a lot and which comes from Ernest Hemingway: stop writing in the middle of a sentence, never at the end of a sentence or paragraph. — 00:02:19
  • ★★ Writing Feel-Good Productivity, Ali used the Hemingway trick all the time: before a break, a Slack message or a team meeting he stopped mid-sentence or mid-paragraph to get back into focus. — 00:02:49 · Feel-Good Productivity (book), Slack
  • ★★★ When you leave a task you mean to come back to, Ali advises making a ready-to-resume plan, or stopping your work mid-sentence so the plan is already made for you. — 00:03:18

00:03:30 — Sponsor read for Skillshare and Thomas Frank's productivity course

  • ★★ Ali reports a 2020 study by two University of Toronto researchers: participants concentrated better on the day they worked to 40 Hz music than on the day with 16 Hz music, in whichever order. — 00:04:45

00:04:46 — Tip 2: the 40 Hz tactic (binaural beats)

  • ★★ Ali says that, apparently, the brain doing effortful work such as problem solving or remembering shows brainwaves between 25 and 100 Hz, and 40 Hz is allegedly the wave of focused, difficult work. (hedged) — 00:05:48
  • ★★ Ali says 40 Hz binaural beats only work through headphones: they play two tones of slightly different frequencies into each ear, and the brain hears a third tone from the difference. — 00:05:48
  • ★★★ To improve focus, Ali suggests experimenting with 40 Hz binaural beats on headphones, found on YouTube, Spotify and elsewhere, to see whether they help you focus better. — 00:06:17 · YouTube, Spotify

00:06:30 — Plug for his free seven-day focus crash course

00:07:15 — Tip 3: the 10 minute declutter (Joseph Ferrari's study on clutter and procrastination)

  • ★★ Ali reports Professor Joseph Ferrari's paper Procrastinators and Clutter: in a survey of around 350 people, more clutter went with feeling more chaotic and stressed, and clutter was strongly related to procrastination. — 00:07:15
  • ★★ Ali speculates that clutter in your peripheral vision creates open loops such as putting something away or paying a bill, while a cleaner, minimalist space lets the brain focus on one thing. (speculative) — 00:08:30
  • ★★ Against digital clutter, Ali recommends closing all other tabs in Chrome with a right-click and tidying a cluttered computer desktop with clean up or arrange by stacks. — 00:09:00
  • ★★★ Ali's 10-minute declutter: before a focus session, set a timer for about 10 minutes and declutter your workspace physically and digitally; done every day or every few days, it keeps the space cleaner and better to focus in. — 00:09:29

00:09:52 — Tip 4: the 90-20 rule (ultradian rhythms)

  • ★★ Ali says sleep researcher Nathaniel Kleitman found over 50 years ago that sleep moves through five stages in roughly 90-minute periods, and that by day we move from high to low alertness about every 90 minutes. — 00:09:52
  • ★★ Ali says that after the ultradian peak, waste products of mental and physical activity build up, and in around 90 minutes we become tired and distracted: the ultradian trough. — 00:10:22
  • ★★ Ali says the brain uses more energy than any other organ, about 20% of our total energy intake, so its energy is used up quickly during focused work. — 00:10:51
  • ★★★ Ali's 90-20 rule: for about every 90 minutes of work take a 15 to 30 minute break; he himself takes at least 10 minutes after 45 minutes when losing focus, and 20 after 90 minutes in flow. — 00:10:51
  • ★★ Having run the experiment several times, Ali finds the Pomodoro method of 25 minutes' work and five minutes' rest does not particularly work for him; he much prefers 45 and 10 or 90 and 20. — 00:11:20 · Pomodoro technique
  • ★ Ali says work and break timings are experiments: run them in your own life to find your ideal timings. — 00:11:20

00:11:49 — Tip 5: the colour coding hack, single-tasking and the fun admin party

  • ★★ Ali says the solution to attention residue is single-tasking: in a work or focus session, ideally do just one thing. — 00:11:49 · deep work (concept)

  • ★★ Setting an intention for each calendar time block is one of the most reliable ways to focus, Ali says, because the opposite of distraction is traction, an idea from Nir Eyal's book Indistractable, which he calls amazing. — 00:12:15 · time-blocking

    “the opposite of distraction is traction”

  • ★★ While running the business and writing his book, Ali found a calendar scattered into half hours of book work between emails, Slack and meetings made it really hard to focus. — 00:12:15 · Feel-Good Productivity (book), Slack

  • ★★★ Ali colour-codes his calendar by type of task, such as writing 9 to 12 in blue and YouTube work in green, so the week shows big chunks of one colour rather than a rainbow kaleidoscope, which keeps him single-tasking. — 00:12:44 · time-blocking, YouTube
  • ★★ Ali lists small admin tasks in his to-do list and, once they reach a critical mass, clears them in a 30 or 45 minute fun admin party, often in a coffee shop with upbeat music, which tricks his brain into finding it fun. — 00:13:19 · feel-good productivity (concept)

00:14:12 — The three-part series; sign-off

  • ★★ Ali says this is the second video of his three-part series on how to focus, after five mistakes that ruin focus; the third will cover a handful of tools he finds helpful for focus. — 00:14:12

Threads in this video

  • progress update · Ali says he can do a three-part video series on the art and science of how to focus if viewers ask for it (2024) — Ali says this is the second video of his three-part series on how to focus, after five mistakes that ruin focus; the third will cover a handful of tools he finds helpful for focus. (00:14:12)
  • refine · How do you improve your focus? — When you leave a task you mean to come back to, Ali advises making a ready-to-resume plan, or stopping your work mid-sentence so the plan is already made for you. (00:03:18)
  • restate · How do you improve your focus? — Ali says the solution to attention residue is single-tasking: in a work or focus session, ideally do just one thing. (00:11:49)
  • refine · Should you listen to music while studying? — To improve focus, Ali suggests experimenting with 40 Hz binaural beats on headphones, found on YouTube, Spotify and elsewhere, to see whether they help you focus better. (00:06:17)
  • refine · How should you set up your desk? — Ali's 10-minute declutter: before a focus session, set a timer for about 10 minutes and declutter your workspace physically and digitally; done every day or every few days, it keeps the space cleaner and better to focus in. (00:09:29)
  • refine · Should you use the Pomodoro technique? — Ali's 90-20 rule: for about every 90 minutes of work take a 15 to 30 minute break; he himself takes at least 10 minutes after 45 minutes when losing focus, and 20 after 90 minutes in flow. (00:10:51)
  • restate · Should you use the Pomodoro technique? — Having run the experiment several times, Ali finds the Pomodoro method of 25 minutes' work and five minutes' rest does not particularly work for him; he much prefers 45 and 10 or 90 and 20. (00:11:20)
  • restate · Should you time-block your calendar? — Setting an intention for each calendar time block is one of the most reliable ways to focus, Ali says, because the opposite of distraction is traction, an idea from Nir Eyal's book Indistractable, which he calls amazing. (00:12:15)
  • refine · Should you batch similar tasks together? — Ali colour-codes his calendar by type of task, such as writing 9 to 12 in blue and YouTube work in green, so the week shows big chunks of one colour rather than a rainbow kaleidoscope, which keeps him single-tasking. (00:12:44)
  • restate · Should you batch similar tasks together? — Ali lists small admin tasks in his to-do list and, once they reach a critical mass, clears them in a 30 or 45 minute fun admin party, often in a coffee shop with upbeat music, which tricks his brain into finding it fun. (00:13:19)
  • refine · How do you make boring work more enjoyable? — Ali lists small admin tasks in his to-do list and, once they reach a critical mass, clears them in a 30 or 45 minute fun admin party, often in a coffee shop with upbeat music, which tricks his brain into finding it fun. (00:13:19)

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: 90-20 rule · deep work (concept) · ready to resume plan

Also: People: Asmongold · Ernest Hemingway · Joseph Ferrari · Nathaniel Kleitman · Nir Eyal · Sophie Leroy

Works: Feel-Good Productivity (book) · Indistractable · Organization Science

Organizations: University of Toronto · YouTube

Concepts: 10 minute declutter · admin party · attention residue · batching · binaural beats · feel-good productivity (concept) · Hemingway trick · Pomodoro technique · time-blocking · ultradian rhythm

Products: Google Chrome · Slack · Spotify · World of Warcraft

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