Sumber: (https://youtu.be/Hu4Yvq-g7_Y?si=j-Z7O-GfyaDsHsyq)
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 the 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 going to 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 experiment
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 poured 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 clippers
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 until 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
two 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 brains 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 those wonderful
chem pleasure chemicals the same one
that we get when we uh eat and order a
whole
medium pizza from domino's 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 hyper-stimulated 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 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 restlessness that we feel
when we have this super busy week and
then we're lying on the couch on a
sunday afternoon thinking all right what
am i doing now
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 going to make myself bored for an
hour a day for a month and so i did some
stuff that i still
i'm 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 call the baggage
claim people because 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 the
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 smartphone
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
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 we're
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
28 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
right this is called our mind's
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 100s 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 on trains i knit
in hotel rooms i was knitting in the
hotel room before this event today
because it helps calm you down it helps
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 it 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
it 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
i don't know waiting in line it could be
getting a massage you know whatever it
is that lets your mind
well i love this picture so much
whatever you love doing ask here's a pro
tip 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'll let us
eliminate
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 pm to 8 a.m
my fiance and i we have a weekly
disconnection ritual a technology
sabbath every sunday so we can
disconnect from the digital world and
reconnect with
the physical world the real actual world
rediscover board you don't have to do it
for an hour please don't call air 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 and ideas and
creativity but we also live a better
life because of it
thank you so much
youArti:---------------------------------------------Beberapa tahun lalu aku mulai mengamati sesuatu dalam perilakuku sendiri yang membuatku agak tidak nyaman, yaitu sejak aku bangun tidur di pagi hari sampai malam hari, hidupku hanyalah rangkaian layar. Aku memulai hari dengan hal pertama yang membangunkanku di pagi hari: ponselku. Aku duduk di tempat tidur menonton berbagai video memasak di Instagram dan berpindah-pindah di antara banyak aplikasi.
Lalu saatnya bangun dari tempat tidur dan memasak sarapan, hal yang juga kuperhatikan selain omelet di wajan adalah iPad yang ada di sebelah kompor. Kemudian tiba waktunya bekerja, jadi aku berpindah ke layar lain yang terhubung dengan layar lain. Sementara itu, “setan kecil” di pergelangan tanganku (jam pintar) terus mengetuk, berbunyi bip, bloop, dan mengganggu saat aku mencoba menyelesaikan hal penting.
Namun ada satu perangkat tertentu di antara semuanya yang paling banyak menyita waktuku—ponselku. Aku bisa menghabiskan berjam-jam setiap hari hanya dengan benda ini. Jadi aku memutuskan untuk benar-benar menyingkirkannya selama sebulan sebagai percobaan. Aku membatasi penggunaannya maksimal 30 menit sehari—untuk peta, menelepon ibuku, mendengarkan musik, podcast, atau hal lain yang mungkin ingin kulakukan.
Awalnya butuh sekitar seminggu untuk menyesuaikan diri ke tingkat stimulasi yang lebih rendah. Tapi setelah itu aku mulai memperhatikan tiga hal aneh:
Rentang perhatianku meningkat—aku bisa lebih mudah fokus.
Aku punya lebih banyak ide ketika pikiranku mengembara.
Aku membuat lebih banyak rencana dan pemikiran tentang masa depan.
Membuang satu perangkat sederhana saja bisa membawa efek ini.
Hal ini membuatku penasaran. Aku meneliti ratusan makalah, bertemu para ahli fokus di seluruh dunia, dan melakukan banyak eksperimen pada diriku sendiri sampai akhirnya aku mengumpulkan 25.000 kata catatan penelitian. Aku ingin tahu: bagaimana teknologi memengaruhi perhatian dan kemampuan kita untuk fokus?
Penelitian menunjukkan: ketika kita bekerja di depan komputer, apalagi dengan ponsel di dekat kita, kita rata-rata hanya fokus 40 detik sebelum beralih ke hal lain. Jika aplikasi seperti Slack terbuka, angka ini turun menjadi 35 detik.
Masalahnya bukan sekadar otak kita mudah terganggu. Akar masalahnya adalah otak kita terlalu terstimulasi. Kita mendambakan gangguan karena otak kita menyukai “nugget” informasi kecil—entah dari media sosial atau email. Setiap kali kita mendapatkan hal baru, otak memberi dopamin, zat kimia yang juga muncul saat kita makan enak atau jatuh cinta. Jadi, kita bukan hanya mudah terganggu—kita memang mencari gangguan itu sendiri.
Aku berpikir: kalau membatasi ponsel sudah memberi efek positif, bagaimana jika aku sengaja menurunkan tingkat stimulasi lebih jauh? Jawabannya adalah kebosanan. Jadi aku menantang diriku untuk membuat diri bosan 1 jam sehari selama sebulan. Aku melakukan hal-hal membosankan: membaca syarat dan ketentuan iTunes, menunggu di telepon dengan maskapai, menghitung nol dalam 10.000 digit pertama pi, bahkan hanya menatap jam berdetik selama sejam.
Ternyata, efeknya sama seperti percobaan ponsel. Setelah seminggu, pikiranku menyesuaikan. Rentang perhatianku makin panjang, aku lebih fokus, dan aku mendapat lebih banyak ide serta rencana. Karena pikiranku punya waktu untuk mengembara.
Seperti kata Tolkien: “Not all those who wander are lost.” (Tidak semua yang mengembara itu tersesat). Saat pikiran kita mengembara, kita justru menghubungkan ide-ide dan menghasilkan wawasan baru. Penelitian menunjukkan, ketika pikiran kita mengembara:
12% tentang masa lalu,
28% tentang masa kini,
48% tentang masa depan.
Itu sebabnya saat mandi kita bisa merencanakan satu hari penuh.
Ada istilah yang kusebut scatter focus—saat kita sengaja membiarkan pikiran mengembara. Inilah saat ide, rencana, dan kreativitas muncul. Untukku, kegiatan itu adalah merajut. Untuk orang lain bisa mandi, berjalan, menunggu, atau bahkan pijat.
Kesimpulannya: kita perlu dua perubahan besar tentang perhatian.
Kita tidak perlu “melakukan lebih banyak”. Justru kita terlalu banyak melakukan hal, sehingga pikiran tak pernah mengembara. Kita butuh ruang kosong. Seperti jalan raya—yang membuat lalu lintas lancar bukan kecepatan, melainkan jarak antar mobil.
Gangguan bukan musuh fokus—itu hanya gejala. Akar masalahnya adalah otak kita terlalu terstimulasi.
Aku punya tantangan untukmu: selama 2 minggu, buatlah pikiranmu kurang terstimulasi. Kurangi penggunaan perangkat, buat ritual bebas internet setiap malam, coba “sabat teknologi” seminggu sekali, dan temukan kembali kebosanan.
Karena satu hal yang kupelajari: keadaan perhatian kita menentukan keadaan hidup kita. Jika kita selalu terdistraksi, hidup akan terasa kacau. Tapi jika kita menenangkan pikiran, kita lebih fokus, lebih kreatif, lebih produktif—dan pada akhirnya, hidup kita jadi lebih baik.
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