a few years ago I began to observe
something in my own behavior that made
me a bit uncomfortable and that was that
from the moment that I woke up to the
morning that to the end of the day my
life was a series of screens I started
the day with the thing that woke me up
first thing in the morning my phone and
so I sat there in bed watching various
cooking videos on Instagram and bouncing
around between a bunch of different
applications but then it was time to get
out of bed and cook breakfast and so the
thing that I focused then on in addition
to the omelette in the pan was the iPad
that was right next to the oven and then
it was time to do some work and so I
went to a different screen which was
attached to another screen itself all
the while this little devil on my wrist
was tapping and beeping and blooping and
distracting me as I was trying to get
important stuff done but there was one
particular offender out of all of these
different devices that I wasted more
time on than anything else that was this
dastardly thing my phone I could spend
hours on this thing every single day and
so I decided to essentially for all
intents and purposes get rid of the
thing for a month as an experiment I
thought I'm gonna live on this thing for
just 30 minutes every single day at a
maximum and so this is the amount of
time I have for maps this is the amount
of time to call my mother this is the
amount of time that I have for
everything that I could possibly want to
do to listen to music to listen to
podcasts and I observed what happened
during this time it took about a week to
adjust downward into a new lower level
of stimulation but once I did I noticed
that three curious things began to
happen first my attention span grew it
was like I could focus on things not
effortlessly but with much more ease
than I could before this
spearmint started in addition to this
though as I was going about the world
and especially when my mind wandered a
bit I had more ideas that my mind
arrived at and on top of this I had more
plans and thoughts about the future
getting rid of one simple device led to
these three effects why noticing this a
few years back led me on this long
journey to get to the bottom of what it
takes to focus in a world of distraction
I pored over hundreds of research papers
from front to back my office I don't
know if you've ever watched one of those
crime shows where somebody's solving a
murder and so they have this big bristol
board and their string attached to
papers attached to memos attached to
newspaper clippings this is like what
the state of my office was I flew out to
meet experts around the world who study
focus I conducted more experiments on
myself and tell the point I had 25,000
words of research notes about why this
is the case how does technology
influence our attention and our ability
to focus I want to start with the
attention spans that we have this is how
we pay attention to the world around us
and how much control we have over our
focus the research around this
particular area is fascinating it turns
out that when we to work in front of a
computer especially when our phone is
nearby we focus on one thing for just 40
seconds before we switch to doing
something else and when we have things
like slack open as we're doing some work
this lowers to 35 seconds but the reason
that this is the case is not what we
might think after looking at the
research we think the problem is that
our brains are distracted but after
looking at the research this is what
I've come to know as a symptom for the
deeper problem which runs much more
deeply it's the root cause of this
distraction it's not that we're
distracted it's that our brain
are over stimulated it's that we crave
distraction in the first place our
brains love these tiny little nuggets of
information and social media and email
and these things that we do over the
course of the day there's even a
mechanism in our mind called the novelty
bias by which our mind rewards us with a
hit of dopamine one of those wonderful
chemical is your chemicals the same one
that we get when we eat and order a
whole medium pizza from dominos that you
know the same one that we get when we
make love we get that same stimulation
when we check facebook we get this
dopamine coursing through our mind and
so we not only crave distraction but our
mind rewards us for seeking out and
finding distraction in the first place
so this is the state of our minds today
we're at this hyperstimulated state
where we bounce around between these
bunch of different objects of attention
that are very very stimulating for our
mind and so I thought okay if the phone
had this impact on my attention span
what if I lowered how stimulated I was
even more still and so I've you know
this feeling that we experience when we
go from being in a state of high
stimulation into a state of low
stimulation it has a name that name is
called boredom you know this is
restlessness that we feel when we have
this super busy week and then we're
lying on the couch on a Sunday afternoon
thinking what am i doing so I challenged
I put out a call to the readers of my
website and I asked them what is the
most boring thing that you can think of
doing I'm gonna make myself bored for an
hour a day for a month and so I did some
stuff that I still upset about from my
readers to this day day one I read the
iTunes terms and conditions for one hour
it's actually shorter and more readable
than you might think
day four I waited on hold with Air
Canada's baggage claims department it's
very easy this is the trick if you want
to make yourself bored don't call the
reservations department called the
baggage claim people cuz you're gonna
wait for hours if you ever get through
it all day 19 I counted all the zeros
that I could in the first 10,000 digits
of pi day 24 I watched a clock tick tick
for one hour and 27 other activities
this month geez I still think back but
curiously I noticed the exact same
effects as I did during the smart phone
experiment it took about a week for my
mind to adjust downward into a newer
lower level of stimulation and this Maps
curiously on top of research that shows
that it takes our mind about eight days
to fully calm down and rest like when
we're on the vacation as an example our
vacations need to be longer than they
are today
but I also noticed that my attention
span expanded I was able to focus even
more effortlessly because I wasn't
surrounded by fewer distractions but my
mind was so much less stimulated that it
did not seek the distraction in the
first place
but the fun part were these ideas and
plans that struck me that didn't before
and the reason that this is the case is
because my mind had a chance to wander
more often there's a great quote that I
love that you might be familiar with
from j.r.r tolkien where he says that
not all those who wander are lost and
the exact same thing is true it turns
out with regard to our focus with regard
to our attention if you think back to
when your best most brilliant ideas
strike you you're rarely focused on
something maybe this morning you were
taking a shower or maybe some morning in
the past and then your mind had a chance
to connect several of the constellations
of ideas that were swirling around in
your mind to create an idea that would
never have materialized otherwise if you
were focused on something else on your
phone for example
this is a mode especially when we do
this deliberately when we deliberately
let our mind wander I call this mode
scatter focus and the research shows
that it lets our mind come up with ideas
it lets our mind plan because of where
our mind wanders to this is fascinating
it turns out that when we just let our
attention rest it goes to three main
places we think about the past we think
about the present and we think about the
future but we think about the past less
than we might think only about 12% of
the time and often the time were
recalling ideas in these thought
wandering episodes but the present which
is a much more productive place to
wander we want her to think about the
present twenty-eight percent of the time
and so this is you know it's something
as simple as you're typing up an email
and you can't find a way to phrase
something because it's very delicate
maybe it's political you go and walk to
another room you go to another room of
the house of the office the solution
hits you because your mind had a chance
to approach it and prod at that problem
from different directions but here's the
thing our minds wander to think about
the future more than the past and the
present combined whenever our mind is
wandering we think about the future 48%
of the time this is why when we're
taking a shower we plan out our entire
day even though it hasn't started yet
this is called our minds prospective
bias and it occurs when our mind wanders
if you're good with math or maths I
should say not in Canada anymore these
numbers don't add up to 100 it's because
the rest of the time our mind is dull
it's blank or it doesn't have an idea
inside of it that is rooted in time but
whatever it is for you that lets your
mind wander something that's simple
something that doesn't consume your full
attention mine happens to be something
that is not necessarily stereotypic of
my age and gender demographic but I love
to knit knitting is one of my favorite
hobbies I knit in planes I knit
trains I knit in hotel rooms I was
knitting in the hotel room before this
event today cuz it helps calm you down
it helped settle your nerves and I come
up with so many ideas when I knit I have
a notepad next to me but whatever it is
for you it might be taking that extra
long shower might be taking a bath
upgrading your shower to a bath so you
can soak not just with your body but
with your ideas as well could be simple
if you're at work walking from one room
to another in the office very simple
change but if you don't use your phone
during that walk your mind will go to
the meeting that you're about to attend
it'll go to the call that you were just
on it'll wander to the ideas that are
circulating and it'll make you more
creative in this way it could be
something as simple as waiting in line
and just waiting in line it could be
getting a massage and whatever it is
that lets your mind I love this picture
so much whatever you love doing ask
here's a protip ask your masseuse to let
you have a notepad in the session
because ideas always come to you and
you're always incubating things and so
capture them so you can act upon them
later but I think after doing this deep
dive into the research we need to make
two fundamental shifts with regard to
how we think about our attention we
think that we need to fit more in you
know there's all this talk about
hustling I'm an anti hustler I'm one of
the laziest people you'll ever meet and
I think that's what gives me so many
ideas to talk and write about we don't
need to fit more in we're doing enough
we're doing too much we're doing so much
that our mind never wanders anymore it's
sad this is when our best ideas and
plans come to us we need more space if
you look at what allows traffic to move
down a highway what allows it to move
forward isn't how fast cars are moving
as you might expect it's how much space
exists between the cars that allows
traffic to move forward
our work and our life are the same way
the second shift we like to think of
distraction as the enemy of focus it is
not it is a symptom of why we find it
difficult to focus which is the fact
that our mind is over stimulated I have
a challenge for you it's a two-week
challenge but it's a challenge to make
your mind a bit less stimulated and
simply notice what happens to your
attention
how many ideas do you get how does your
focus change how many plans do you make
so for two weeks make your mind less
stimulated there are so many great
features on phones on devices that let
us lemonade eliminate a lot of the time
we waste on our devices use those
features not only to become aware of how
you spend your time but how you can
spend less so you have more ideas have a
disconnection ritual every evening one
of my favorite daily rituals I
disconnect from the internet completely
from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. my fiance and I we
have a weekly disconnection ritual a
technology Sabha every Sunday so we can
disconnect from the digital world and
reconnect with the physical world the
real actual world rediscover bort you
don't have to do it for an hour please
don't call our Canada it's just a world
of help but rediscover boredom just for
a few minutes lay on the couch and where
does your mind go and scatter your
attention you'll find some remarkably
fruitful things in that attentional zone
if there's one thing that I have found
to be true
after doing this deep dive into this
world on how we focus it's that the
state of our attention is what
determines the state of our lives if
we're distracted in each moment those
moments of distraction and over
stimulation build up and accumulate to
create a life that feels more distracted
and overwhelming like we don't have a
clear direction but when we become less
stimulated when we make our mind more
calm we get the benefits of added
productivity and focus
ideas and creativity but we also live a
better life because of it thank you so
much
[Applause]