[Music]
I’m not among my friends to be the guy
who was always getting along with
everybody and I hope so because this is
skill I’ve trained for years in
elementary school I needed to be funny
and clown around to cover up the fact
that I wasn’t doing well at school in
fact it was a fairly slow learner two
weeks after my graduates from high
school they found out I’m severely
dyslexic that explained a lot but didn’t
change the thing I was still terribly
slow at reading kept being distracted by
random noises we did this on purpose
this is part of the talk this is a test
we all failed
I couldn’t retain any information and I
was pretty frustrated by it because I
laughed personal developments and I
wanted to study neuroscience but I
already trouble head reading a newspaper
so I knew I could never do it at some
point my frustration turned into
fascination and I decided I want to gain
more for my brain so I started to follow
speed reading class restrain my memory
use mind mapping tricks they were all
really helpful but didn’t had a lasting
impact so then I started to dive deep
into the scientific papers and did
deepen the more i deepen my knowledge
about the brain the clearer it became
there’s one magical wart if you want to
optimize your brain focus think about it
if you want to be more prescient or
blocked distractions or reduce your
stress level and it comes all bound to
ability to block distraction and get
yourself in the flow all the other
things reading faster memorizing stuff
is resolved with that ability most
people including me are normally focused
on the tools you want to know a cool new
approach to do more things during the
day or want to download the latest
productivity app but it is all
irrelevant if we cannot manage your
focus it is just productivity porn
I did not invent a term by the way where
we don’t embrace that focused management
is the core of it all then we’re missing
the point and during my quest I came
across a statistic that boggle my mind
our attention span now is just 8 seconds
8 seconds that’s it with 8 seconds we
can never dive deep we’re always staying
at the surface of a more busy with more
shallow thoughts or simple tasks and as
a result of that we can stay busy all
day long and the end of today we come to
the realization I haven’t done that much
me too
so the more I spoke about it the more I
noticed that most people struggle with
focus one way or the other at the
University where I teach I found out
that many students take pills in order
to keep their attention on a subject
this could be because of my classes but
something is seriously wrong here most
professionals that tell me that I don’t
read information anymore to just
scanning information scrolling through
information for the simple reason they
do not have the attention span to
actually read the information so I
decided to specialize and how we can
improve for focus if you could take the
eight second concentration span and make
it a little bit longer we would have the
ability to dive deep and whatever we’re
working on but be more present in what
we’re doing and more connected to the
people we care about and ultimately it
will lead to a more fulfilling life so
let me share with you three different
stories how I think folks can help us in
our life the first story is actually an
accidental discovery when I come home
from the office or a business trip my
mind tend to be full of new things I
want to do and all the things that needs
to be done and they were deists and as a
result of that when I’m meeting my
girlfriend I could be that I’m not
mentally there present mentally there so
my mind’s wandering off and let’s get to
feeling of irritation or feeling of
guilt so my girlfriend and I developed a
habit whenever we’re catching up were
going for a walk and the simple activity
of walking requires just a little bit
brain activity
and therefore it’s less brain 50 left
over to think of other things and as a
result for both more engaged during the
conversation and having a better
connection and I find this fascinating
so I started to research this and what I
found out is that whenever we’re
speaking listening writing or reading we
only use 1/5 of a brain capacity so we
have a lot of brain capacity left over
to think of other things and our mind
wanders off and I started to notice it
during reading a lot too while I was
reading I started to think of I’ll have
to call David O house Kathryn doing oh
and at the end of the page had no clue
what I just read who can relate to that
one right very frustrating I came to the
conclusion that our mind thinks faster
than were using it and I started to
experiment with that whenever I was
reading and I felt that my concentration
was dropping I started to slightly
increase my reading speed and funny
enough that enables me to be more
engaged during the reading thing and
therefore had a better retention and
took me less time to absorb the
information you can use the same
principle when you’re listening to a
presentation or working in an Open
Office if you work in an Open Office and
you’re bottled by a co-worker who’s
talking on the phone or you’re working
on a complex task there’s actually a
sign that you’re really smart because
you’ve too much break the ft left over
to hear that conversation right this is
if you only overcome this however what
you can do is make the challenge the
task at hand more challenging avoid
multitasking but what you could do is
slightly increase your reading speed or
typing speed if you having a
conversation try walking and during
presentations draw dueling really helps
to increase your concentration focus
management’s helps you to be more
engaged in what you’re doing and
therefore leads to a better result the
second story I’d like to share with you
is about a friend of mine he works for a
large consulting firm and it receives a
lot of stimuli during the day phone
calls whatsapp messengers co-workers
asking questions and he told me that he
really liked being interrupted but
it made him feel important and it also
gave him some sort of a rush feeling
much like taking drugs he even told me
that when he didn’t receive any external
stimuli he would look for them
especially when he was working on a more
complex task you get the urge do
something in between and before I knew
it he was scrolling through a random
website we often blame our phone or
email or Co works for a lack of
concentration but did you know that in
48% of the time were interred were
distracted is because of ourselves we
feel the need to do something in between
we need our shot although he liked the
interruption beginning he became to
realize that even a small interruptions
were causing a lot of energy it blocked
his ability to dive deep and incense he
lost control eventually it came to a
point where he had a burnout so why is
it that small interruptions cussing us a
lot of energy well we found out that
every time we switch between a task our
brain needs to recover from that in
neuroscience we call this attention
residue we work on a task using a full
brain capacity but now imagine a
co-worker can ask you a quick question
but innocent right takes you only a
couple seconds to answer however at that
moment your brain is split in two part
of your brain tries to answer the
question of your coworker well the other
part of your brain still needs to
process the previous task where you
continue on with original thoughts same
thing happens a part of the brain needs
to let go of the conversation while the
other part needs to continue on with the
task as a result our brain slows down to
about half of its capacity causing us
more time and energy to complete the
thing that we are doing and the weird
thing it doesn’t matter how long the
interruption takes even a quick glance
at our phone will result in 64 seconds
attention residue we need to recover
from even that juicy this phenomena we
lives over 2.1 hours a day eating into
time we would otherwise spend with
family with friends or playing sports
I just became father which is great my
daughter just turned nine months today
counting the months yes still there
and I really love my job I really like I
really enjoy helping people but I don’t
want to be the father who is always
working I don’t want to spend
unnecessary I was in the office because
I couldn’t manage my focus I would
rather spend the time playing with my
daughter focus management has an impact
on your life not just work the last
story I’d like to share with you is
about their coaching client of mine it’s
a very successful entrepreneur and see
he’s the kind of person who tends to get
the most out of her day and there’s a
unique challenge to that as a typical
achiever
she likes to just likes to check her
phone in the moments he has a chance to
do that
and when she’s on the road she listens
to podcasts because he wants to learn
new things all the time and when Alfred
era this needs to wait for something she
reads through her email her day is
filled up with something like all
focused attention it’s the kind of
attention that we’re using currently to
be engaged in a presentation it requires
some energy and effort the complete
opposite of this is open attention it’s
the kind of attention or the other way
of describing that this daydreaming this
is the part where your brain rests
process depresses previous information
and recharges whenever we check our
phone it feels pretty relaxing to do
that right feels fun to do however it is
still focus attention our brain is still
processing new information there’s no
difference if you continue on with the
presentation or checking your phone your
brain can not recharge the challenge
here is that this effort is disguised
discuss every time we check our phone
substances in the brain are released
that gives us a happy feeling and as a
result that we think that checking our
phone is really relaxing which in
reality is absolutely not the case now
children of the age of 16 with a burnout
why they get 600 watts at messages a day
that’s work the critérium of I like
doing this isn’t the right one to
determine if it’s considered to be a
break for your brain my coaching client
realized that this was the main reason
she was so
tired all the time she never recharges
her brain and she now realized that
doing nothing sometimes is the most
understanding how focus works really
helps to reduce stress and gain more
energy I told you in the beginning I was
a very slow student and because of that
I developed the negative self-image and
became really insecure in certain areas
by managing my focus it finally became
easier it took me less time to do my
work I’m more focused during a
presentation I’m more engaged in what
I’m doing and my days are more
fulfilling and the cool thing and now
read faster than most people I know I
started to like writing and I wrote four
books on topic focus something that I
would never thought possible before I
still make some art spelling mistakes
and I’ve still trouble putting together
an IKEA table so it doesn’t solve
everything but I believe that more focus
leads to a better life thank you [Applause]
I’m not among my friends to be the guy
who was always getting along with
everybody and I hope so because this is
skill I’ve trained for years in
elementary school I needed to be funny
and clown around to cover up the fact
that I wasn’t doing well at school in
fact it was a fairly slow learner two
weeks after my graduates from high
school they found out I’m severely
dyslexic that explained a lot but didn’t
change the thing I was still terribly
slow at reading kept being distracted by
random noises we did this on purpose
this is part of the talk this is a test
we all failed
I couldn’t retain any information and I
was pretty frustrated by it because I
laughed personal developments and I
wanted to study neuroscience but I
already trouble head reading a newspaper
so I knew I could never do it at some
point my frustration turned into
fascination and I decided I want to gain
more for my brain so I started to follow
speed reading class restrain my memory
use mind mapping tricks they were all
really helpful but didn’t had a lasting
impact so then I started to dive deep
into the scientific papers and did
deepen the more i deepen my knowledge
about the brain the clearer it became
there’s one magical wart if you want to
optimize your brain focus think about it
if you want to be more prescient or
blocked distractions or reduce your
stress level and it comes all bound to
ability to block distraction and get
yourself in the flow all the other
things reading faster memorizing stuff
is resolved with that ability most
people including me are normally focused
on the tools you want to know a cool new
approach to do more things during the
day or want to download the latest
productivity app but it is all
irrelevant if we cannot manage your
focus it is just productivity porn
I did not invent a term by the way where
we don’t embrace that focused management
is the core of it all then we’re missing
the point and during my quest I came
across a statistic that boggle my mind
our attention span now is just 8 seconds
8 seconds that’s it with 8 seconds we
can never dive deep we’re always staying
at the surface of a more busy with more
shallow thoughts or simple tasks and as
a result of that we can stay busy all
day long and the end of today we come to
the realization I haven’t done that much
me too
so the more I spoke about it the more I
noticed that most people struggle with
focus one way or the other at the
University where I teach I found out
that many students take pills in order
to keep their attention on a subject
this could be because of my classes but
something is seriously wrong here most
professionals that tell me that I don’t
read information anymore to just
scanning information scrolling through
information for the simple reason they
do not have the attention span to
actually read the information so I
decided to specialize and how we can
improve for focus if you could take the
eight second concentration span and make
it a little bit longer we would have the
ability to dive deep and whatever we’re
working on but be more present in what
we’re doing and more connected to the
people we care about and ultimately it
will lead to a more fulfilling life so
let me share with you three different
stories how I think folks can help us in
our life the first story is actually an
accidental discovery when I come home
from the office or a business trip my
mind tend to be full of new things I
want to do and all the things that needs
to be done and they were deists and as a
result of that when I’m meeting my
girlfriend I could be that I’m not
mentally there present mentally there so
my mind’s wandering off and let’s get to
feeling of irritation or feeling of
guilt so my girlfriend and I developed a
habit whenever we’re catching up were
going for a walk and the simple activity
of walking requires just a little bit
brain activity
and therefore it’s less brain 50 left
over to think of other things and as a
result for both more engaged during the
conversation and having a better
connection and I find this fascinating
so I started to research this and what I
found out is that whenever we’re
speaking listening writing or reading we
only use 1/5 of a brain capacity so we
have a lot of brain capacity left over
to think of other things and our mind
wanders off and I started to notice it
during reading a lot too while I was
reading I started to think of I’ll have
to call David O house Kathryn doing oh
and at the end of the page had no clue
what I just read who can relate to that
one right very frustrating I came to the
conclusion that our mind thinks faster
than were using it and I started to
experiment with that whenever I was
reading and I felt that my concentration
was dropping I started to slightly
increase my reading speed and funny
enough that enables me to be more
engaged during the reading thing and
therefore had a better retention and
took me less time to absorb the
information you can use the same
principle when you’re listening to a
presentation or working in an Open
Office if you work in an Open Office and
you’re bottled by a co-worker who’s
talking on the phone or you’re working
on a complex task there’s actually a
sign that you’re really smart because
you’ve too much break the ft left over
to hear that conversation right this is
if you only overcome this however what
you can do is make the challenge the
task at hand more challenging avoid
multitasking but what you could do is
slightly increase your reading speed or
typing speed if you having a
conversation try walking and during
presentations draw dueling really helps
to increase your concentration focus
management’s helps you to be more
engaged in what you’re doing and
therefore leads to a better result the
second story I’d like to share with you
is about a friend of mine he works for a
large consulting firm and it receives a
lot of stimuli during the day phone
calls whatsapp messengers co-workers
asking questions and he told me that he
really liked being interrupted but
it made him feel important and it also
gave him some sort of a rush feeling
much like taking drugs he even told me
that when he didn’t receive any external
stimuli he would look for them
especially when he was working on a more
complex task you get the urge do
something in between and before I knew
it he was scrolling through a random
website we often blame our phone or
email or Co works for a lack of
concentration but did you know that in
48% of the time were interred were
distracted is because of ourselves we
feel the need to do something in between
we need our shot although he liked the
interruption beginning he became to
realize that even a small interruptions
were causing a lot of energy it blocked
his ability to dive deep and incense he
lost control eventually it came to a
point where he had a burnout so why is
it that small interruptions cussing us a
lot of energy well we found out that
every time we switch between a task our
brain needs to recover from that in
neuroscience we call this attention
residue we work on a task using a full
brain capacity but now imagine a
co-worker can ask you a quick question
but innocent right takes you only a
couple seconds to answer however at that
moment your brain is split in two part
of your brain tries to answer the
question of your coworker well the other
part of your brain still needs to
process the previous task where you
continue on with original thoughts same
thing happens a part of the brain needs
to let go of the conversation while the
other part needs to continue on with the
task as a result our brain slows down to
about half of its capacity causing us
more time and energy to complete the
thing that we are doing and the weird
thing it doesn’t matter how long the
interruption takes even a quick glance
at our phone will result in 64 seconds
attention residue we need to recover
from even that juicy this phenomena we
lives over 2.1 hours a day eating into
time we would otherwise spend with
family with friends or playing sports
I just became father which is great my
daughter just turned nine months today
counting the months yes still there
and I really love my job I really like I
really enjoy helping people but I don’t
want to be the father who is always
working I don’t want to spend
unnecessary I was in the office because
I couldn’t manage my focus I would
rather spend the time playing with my
daughter focus management has an impact
on your life not just work the last
story I’d like to share with you is
about their coaching client of mine it’s
a very successful entrepreneur and see
he’s the kind of person who tends to get
the most out of her day and there’s a
unique challenge to that as a typical
achiever
she likes to just likes to check her
phone in the moments he has a chance to
do that
and when she’s on the road she listens
to podcasts because he wants to learn
new things all the time and when Alfred
era this needs to wait for something she
reads through her email her day is
filled up with something like all
focused attention it’s the kind of
attention that we’re using currently to
be engaged in a presentation it requires
some energy and effort the complete
opposite of this is open attention it’s
the kind of attention or the other way
of describing that this daydreaming this
is the part where your brain rests
process depresses previous information
and recharges whenever we check our
phone it feels pretty relaxing to do
that right feels fun to do however it is
still focus attention our brain is still
processing new information there’s no
difference if you continue on with the
presentation or checking your phone your
brain can not recharge the challenge
here is that this effort is disguised
discuss every time we check our phone
substances in the brain are released
that gives us a happy feeling and as a
result that we think that checking our
phone is really relaxing which in
reality is absolutely not the case now
children of the age of 16 with a burnout
why they get 600 watts at messages a day
that’s work the critérium of I like
doing this isn’t the right one to
determine if it’s considered to be a
break for your brain my coaching client
realized that this was the main reason
she was so
tired all the time she never recharges
her brain and she now realized that
doing nothing sometimes is the most
understanding how focus works really
helps to reduce stress and gain more
energy I told you in the beginning I was
a very slow student and because of that
I developed the negative self-image and
became really insecure in certain areas
by managing my focus it finally became
easier it took me less time to do my
work I’m more focused during a
presentation I’m more engaged in what
I’m doing and my days are more
fulfilling and the cool thing and now
read faster than most people I know I
started to like writing and I wrote four
books on topic focus something that I
would never thought possible before I
still make some art spelling mistakes
and I’ve still trouble putting together
an IKEA table so it doesn’t solve
everything but I believe that more focus
leads to a better life thank you [Applause]
Please follow and like us: