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a few years ago I began to observe

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