Full transcript
0:00In 2012, I got a job offer that today
0:03gives me the ick. A company whose name I
0:06have been legally told I am not allowed
0:08to name by name, but you can use your
0:10imagination, started sending me emails
0:12to hire me. Now, it was not to build
0:14their product cuz quite frankly I I
0:16can't do that. I don't have those
0:17skills. It was to make their product
0:19impossible to put down. And this is
0:21something I do know quite a bit about,
0:23um, as I'm a cognitive neuroscientist
0:25and I happen to study addiction. Back
0:27then, I worked in an addiction lab
0:29studying exactly how a brain gets hooked
0:32in the first place. And these companies
0:34were quietly poaching people, just like
0:36me, one lab at a time. Now, I still have
0:38these emails and they say things like,
0:40"We want to increase engagement. We want
0:43to make our product more sticky." Sticky
0:46is a very politically correct way of
0:48saying addictive. And it's not that
0:50slick. So, here's what I'd like you to
0:52know. The reason you can't focus, the
0:54reason you might sit down to do one
0:57really important thing and then look up
0:58two hours later having done everything
1:00except that one important thing, it does
1:03not mean you're lazy, it does not mean
1:04you're broken. You just have an ancient
1:06brain like the rest of us do, like an
1:09old piece of hardware that is trying to
1:11run software that was engineered by
1:13people like me, on purpose, to beat your
1:16biology. Every default setting on that
1:19phone of yours was picked intentionally
1:22to support their goals, their bottom
1:25line, not yours. My name is Dr. Sahar
1:27Yousef. I'm a cognitive neuroscientist
1:29at Berkeley and I study human
1:31performance for a living. Give me the
1:33next few minutes and I will give you six
1:35changes that hand the controls back to
1:38you. I use every single one of these
1:40myself, my students and the execs that I
1:43work with win back one [music] hour a
1:45day on average just from the second
1:48strategy alone. And by the end, one
1:50small idea that I want to share with you
1:53that almost nobody plans around, but
1:55determines how you feel and how much
1:58energy you have during the entire day.
2:00You are better than your default [music]
2:02settings. So, let's go take them back.
2:05Change one, declare war on your
2:07notifications. It is so easy to forget
2:09this, but when the first iPhone came
2:11out, it didn't have notifications. Yes,
2:13yes, yes, of course, obviously it would
2:14ring when somebody called you or you get
2:16like an actual ping when someone texted
2:18you, but the apps didn't have notices,
2:20zero. You actually had to organically
2:22remember to open these apps in order to
2:24check to see if messages come in or if
2:26you're playing Scrabble with friends,
2:27with a friend from far away, whatever it
2:29may be. You had to go and open the app
2:31yourself. Well, that's not good for a
2:32business when you're in the business of
2:34selling ads, right? Because people
2:36forgot to come back to the app and they
2:37didn't form that habit loop. Months and
2:39months of research later, actually have
2:41a friend who worked on this research,
2:43out popped the notification. Based on
2:45the same science behind slap machines,
2:48by the way. That's where it comes from.
2:50Ported straight into your pocket, right
2:52in your hand. And none of that is your
2:54fault. [music] Obviously. You're handed
2:56a machine built by people who optimize
2:59for stickiness for a living. So, we are
3:02going to fight fire with fire. Tonight,
3:05[music] open your settings. Go to your
3:07notifications and question every [music]
3:09single one of them like it owes you
3:11money. Do you have alerts on for the
3:14news? Unless you're in law enforcement
3:17or are a journalist, turn them off. You
3:19don't need them. You can check the news,
3:21but the news does not need to check you.
3:24And do not panic. You're not going to
3:25lose the people who matter. You're going
3:26to build [music] what we call a VIP
3:29list. Your partner, your kids' school,
3:32handful of the most important [music]
3:33clients, your boss, your boss's boss,
3:34your mom, whoever it is that is on your
3:37VIP list, you're actually going to go
3:39into settings and [music] put them on
3:40your actual VIP list, so that their
3:43calls, their texts actually come through
3:45the filter even if you're on Do Not
3:47Disturb. 15 people max, I mean, [music]
3:49let's be real, you shouldn't have more
3:50than 15 on your VIP list, otherwise, who
3:52are you? Madonna? They ring true,
3:54always, but everyone else can wait 30
3:56minutes for you to check [music] on your
3:58own terms. Both your phone and your
4:01email have VIP settings hidden in them.
4:03Right now, go find them. Say it with me,
4:05I am better than the default settings. I
4:08deserve better
4:09>> [music]
4:09>> than the default settings. Change two,
4:12kill the color, then hide the phone. Two
4:14tiny tweaks, far more powerful than they
4:17sound. First is it's going to be turning
4:18your phone gray. Every bit of color and
4:21brightness on that screen was tuned to
4:23keep your eyes glued. Take the color
4:26away and the phone goes a little dead in
4:28your hand and you stop doing the thing
4:30that we all do, app cycling. Email,
4:33texts, WhatsApp, Instagram, LinkedIn,
4:35back to email, riding the same little
4:37Ferris wheel one more time right when
4:39you're done. In gray, that loop actually
4:41loses its grip and people spend on
4:44average one full hour less on their
4:47phone every single day. I do get hate
4:49mail for this one, I will say, cuz your
4:51phone's going to look super ugly. Um,
4:53but again, remember, seven hours a week,
4:55one hour a day back in [music] your
4:58hands, where it belongs. It's your life,
5:00you can do whatever you want with that
5:01time, it's worth it. Somebody always
5:03writes me 72 hours later going, "Sahar,
5:06I paid thousands of dollars for this
5:07phone and now it looks like garbage."
5:09You will live, all right? Second tweak,
5:11when you truly need to be at 100% in
5:14terms of your intellect, in terms of
5:15your cognitive power, in terms of your
5:17focus, put the phone out of sight, out
5:19of mind. Literally, put it in another
5:21room if you can. If you can't put it in
5:23another room cuz you need to hear it
5:24ring when it does, if it's an emergency
5:26from a VIP, then at least put it behind
5:28you, far away, out of reach. That is
5:31critical. There's a study out of UT
5:32Austin that still [music] scares me to
5:34this day. They gave people cognitive
5:36tests with their phone turned off, dead.
5:39Not airplane mode, not do not disturb,
5:41completely off. And having it just in
5:43the room in front of them, dead, made
5:47them measurably dumber. That is insane.
5:49Put it in another room, or at least put
5:51it out of sight, out of mind, if you
5:53want 100% of your intelligence available
5:55to you. Your whole life lives in that
5:57rectangle, so a part of your brain is
5:58always going to be paying attention and
6:00half listening to it, trying to figure
6:01out if something more interesting is
6:03going to come in. That's 20% of your
6:05attention, gone, to a device doing
6:07absolutely nothing. Change three. Stop
6:10being a passenger in your own day. Most
6:12of us wake up and the first thing we do
6:14is we check our phone. Why? Cuz it's
6:16[music] probably your alarm. Which means
6:18the first thing that's loading into your
6:19brain is a flood of everyone else's
6:23[music] and priorities. Before our feet
6:25even hit the floor, before your eyes
6:27have even fully opened and started your
6:29brain started to wake up, you have been
6:31launched onto this roller coaster ride
6:32that you did not anticipate. Busy,
6:34[music]
6:34reacting, moving. And at 2:00 p.m., you
6:37look up and you think, "Where did my day
6:39go? What happened? I wasn't slacking.
6:42I've been busy all day. I've been doing
6:43stuff all day. I've just been slammed,
6:45but I never touched the one thing that
6:47actually mattered." That experience that
6:50I know you've had is like riding shotgun
6:52in your own life. [music] We call it
6:54being a passenger in your day. And your
6:56old brain loves it because it's wired
6:59for quick wins, not for the big
7:00important things that are not due until
7:022 weeks from now. It's just not wired
7:04that way. You're going to want to wait
7:05on those things. None of that is a
7:07character flaw. It's just very old
7:09wiring in a very [music] modern world.
7:12So, get back into the driver's seat
7:13every morning, or better yet, the night
7:15before if you can do it. Pick your MITs,
7:19your most important tasks, one to three
7:23maximum, not 17. Otherwise, you'll
7:25finish seven and you'll still feel super
7:26disappointed that there are 10 [music]
7:28left. At the top of the page, and I
7:29highly recommend doing this on an actual
7:32piece of paper with an actual pen or
7:33pencil, or a whiteboard. I also love
7:36using a whiteboard, you all know that
7:37already. At the top of the page, write
7:39the question my husband and I keep on
7:41ours. What will my future self thank me
7:43for? Then, physically write the task
7:46down on an actual piece of paper because
7:48writing actually activates the areas of
7:49the brain which makes you more likely to
7:51remember those MITs and also feel more
7:54sustainably motivated to accomplish them
7:57in light of all of our competing
7:59priorities. At the end of the day, I
8:01need you to rip the page up. Like
8:02literally, be done with it. Like you
8:04don't move the baggage of all the
8:05of today cuz listen, some days
8:07are a dumpster fire and happens,
8:09[music] right? And we didn't get the
8:10things done. Forget it. Don't worry
8:12about it. Throw the paper away and
8:14tomorrow you're going to have a clean
8:15slate. [music] I don't want yesterday's
8:17unfinished business bringing shame into
8:19tomorrow. Change four, stop trying to
8:23multitask because you can't. You just
8:25cannot. The brain is a focus machine. It
8:28does one thing at a time. When you think
8:30you're multitasking, you're actually
8:32just task switching and you pay a tax on
8:35every single switch you do in time and
8:38in energy. Think that this we have
8:40infinite amounts of both of those
8:41things, right? Want to actually feel it?
8:44Grab a pen and a piece of paper and just
8:46watch. Write the sentence, I am a great
8:49multitasker and under it write the
8:51sequence of numbers 1 through 20 as fast
8:53as you can. It seems easy, right? Maybe
8:55you'll get it done in about 20 seconds.
8:56Now, do it again but alternate. [music]
8:59Letter I, number one, letter A, number
9:02two, dragging your attention up and down
9:04between the two lines every single time.
9:05It's the same output but the way in
9:07which you arrive will be markedly
9:09different. This version takes most
9:11people at least 50 [music] to 100%
9:13longer to do round two. Their
9:16handwriting gets weird [music] or
9:17sometimes it gets even better cuz
9:19they're really trying hard not to screw
9:20it up and it feels genuinely awful and
9:22stressful. That drag that you feel,
9:25that's a biological tax. You already
9:28know this in your body. Let's say you're
9:30driving and you're listening to a
9:31podcast while you're driving but it's
9:32your normal commute, right? You're
9:34headed home, let's say from work or from
9:35the grocery store or something like
9:36that. Then, you missed your exit. What's
9:38the first thing that you instinctively
9:40do? You turn the podcast off, or you
9:42turn it down, so you actually have 100%
9:44of your attention back to deal with the
9:45fact that you just missed your exit. The
9:47best you can do is split your focus,
9:50everybody. Maybe 75% on the podcast,
9:52maybe 25% on the road, but you are
9:55splitting your attention. You can't
9:56actually do both 100%. I like to say you
9:59can either whole ass one thing, or you
10:01can half ass two things, but you cannot
10:04whole ass two things at once. And
10:06knowledge workers lose two plus hours a
10:09day to all of these unnecessary switch
10:12costs [music] that silently add up in
10:13the background. Just think about that
10:14for a second. Two hours. That means your
10:17work day is two hours longer than it
10:19needs to be. That's the difference
10:21between logging off at 5:00 and
10:23finishing at 7:00, wondering who's
10:25making dinner. You're still going to
10:26switch 100 times a day. That's life, but
10:29don't add 100 times more that [music]
10:31you don't need. So, seriously think
10:33about reducing the number of switches
10:35and focusing on one thing at a time.
10:37Change number five.
10:38>> [music]
10:38>> Run a real focus sprint. Done right,
10:42people get about twice as much done in
10:44the same block of time when they work in
10:46the style of a focus sprint, but you
10:48have to follow each and every single
10:49step of it. One, [music] put it on your
10:51calendar ahead of time. Your body has
10:53anticipatory network, so when it knows a
10:56sprint is coming, [music] it actually
10:58starts producing cortisol and adrenaline
11:01before you even sit down, and so you get
11:03ready to execute. The same way that you
11:05get butterflies in your stomach before a
11:07big presentation that you've never given
11:09before. Two, [music] outline the steps
11:11you're actually going to take before you
11:13start. And literally, I mean outline
11:15[music] in tiny little bursts what it is
11:17that you're going to do. First five
11:19minutes are going to be this, then the
11:21next 10 minutes I'm going to do this,
11:22and for three minutes I'm going to do
11:23this other subtask. Actually break it
11:25down so you have an execution list. Now,
11:27that scary mountain of a task that,
11:29let's be honest, you don't want to do,
11:31[music] neither do I, actually becomes a
11:33set of small little hills or ideally
11:35speed bumps. And you're not bleeding
11:37energy every few minutes asking, "Okay,
11:39okay, what's next? What now? What's
11:41next? What now?" Because let me be
11:42honest with you, if you ask that
11:43question, it's going to be go back to
11:45scrolling or let me check my phone.
11:46Three, cut out all of the distractions.
11:49Phone in another room. You should have
11:51one screen, one task, fully open,
11:54nothing else distracting you, no email
11:56open off to the side, no Slack open off
11:58to the side, your phone is not next to
12:00you face up staring at you. Turn off
12:02your notifications. Keep what we call a
12:04parking lot just a notepad right next to
12:06you because the second it gets really
12:08quiet around you and it starts getting
12:09quiet in your brain and you want to
12:11focus, guess what your brain's going to
12:12do? It's going to perk up and it's going
12:14to say, "Hey, are we out of milk or
12:16toilet paper? Should we do this other
12:17[music] thing? Did John ever email us
12:19back? We should probably follow up."
12:20It's going to remind you all of the
12:22little things that come up in the back
12:23of your mind that are on your to-do
12:25list. And that's a healthy brain, by the
12:27way. It's just trying to help. Don't
12:28fight it. Your [music] brain is not
12:30going to stop giving you what we call
12:32interruptive ideas, but also do not
12:35chase it because then you're just
12:36feeding the beast and it's going to keep
12:37doing it. So, what you're going to do is
12:39you're going to write that interruptive
12:40idea down on that piece of paper, on
12:42that parking lot, and then you're going
12:44to let it go, redirect your attention
12:46back to focus, and get back to work.
12:47Number four, set a timer. You will
12:51simply work faster if you know you will
12:53need to finish before the time is up.
12:55And five, when it ends, take a real
12:58brain break. A brain break is defined as
13:01a short period of time where you are not
13:04processing information. [music]
13:06So, that means no email, no scrolling,
13:07no input at all. It's a focus sprint,
13:11not a focus jog or a jaunt or a stroll,
13:14all right? After you actually sprint,
13:16you have to actually rest so that you
13:18can recover and regain the ability to do
13:21another sprint afterwards. Change number
13:23six, and this is one that impacts your
13:25entire day. Respect your biological
13:28clock. An hour is not an hour is not an
13:30hour. We treat ourselves like laptops,
13:32plugged in, therefore 100% all the time.
13:35That's not how your body works. We are
13:37big bags of blood, guts, and chemicals.
13:39Your focus at 9:00 a.m. is a completely
13:42different animal from your focus at 2:00
13:44p.m. or 10:00 p.m. In 2017, the Nobel
13:47Prize in Medicine went to researchers
13:49who showed that every one of us carries
13:51a genetically preset internal clock, a
13:54chronotype. That's just a fancy term for
13:56whether you're a morning bird or a night
13:58owl or in between, which I'll get into
14:00in just a second. Roughly a quarter of
14:02us are what we call AM shifted. They
14:04wake up bright-eyed and bushy-tailed,
14:06and the majority of the human
14:07population, they're biphasic, and nobody
14:11talks about them. Statistically, if
14:13you're watching this, you are probably
14:15biphasic, and you should learn what that
14:17means. Biphasic people wake up a little
14:19bit groggy, but after the first hour or
14:21so, they're peaking, and they have a
14:22second wind later in the day. So, they
14:25have two peaks, hence the name [music]
14:27biphasic, standing for the Latin two
14:29phases or two peaks. They also have a
14:32pretty big afternoon dip right after
14:34lunch. They dip the hardest of the human
14:36species, in fact. And some of us are
14:38night owls or PM shifted, like me, the
14:41minority of the human population. We're
14:43tired, coffee addicted. [music]
14:45Shout out to the night owls.
14:46Historically and anthropologically, we
14:48hypothesize the reason why night owls
14:50exist is you were the ones who stayed up
14:53and kept the fire going and keeping
14:55watch over the entire tribe while
14:56everybody else slept. [music] So, you're
14:58welcome, everybody else. Now, we still
15:01exist, very tired, during modern work
15:03days. Every one of us gets a
15:05two-to-three-hour window every single
15:08day where we're genuinely at our
15:10cognitive best. [music] McKinsey has
15:11data showing people report being up to
15:13five times more productive inside that
15:15window. Not 5%, not 20%, five times
15:19[music] more productive. So, the worst
15:21advice on the internet, honestly, comes
15:23from some hustle culture stuff
15:24that I've actually seen right here on
15:26YouTube that tells you to wake up 4:00
15:28in the morning, take a cold plunge for
15:29exactly 57 seconds, then drink a tall
15:32glass of lemon water with cayenne in it,
15:34and then meditate, and then crush your
15:35hardest work all before dawn. Listen,
15:37that [music] is phenomenal advice if
15:39you're genetically AM shifted and you go
15:41to bed at 9:00 p.m. Wonderful. Take
15:43advantage of the early morning quiet
15:44hours before everybody else has woken up
15:46and they bother you with their stuff.
15:48But, if you are not, all you are doing
15:50is sleep depriving yourself to pretend
15:52to be a Navy SEAL at the crack ass of
15:54dawn and showing up completely useless
15:56to life by 10:00 a.m. Find your two to
15:59three hour [music] peak and defend it
16:01like your life depends on it because
16:03your best work does. If you're not sure
16:06what your chronotype is, you can also go
16:08to www.mychronotype.com.
16:11The W's are important, I've been told,
16:13and use the code Dr. Sahar to take the
16:15official assessment for free. So, there
16:17they are. Six changes, your
16:19notifications, grayscale and distance,
16:22your MITs, single tasking and focus
16:26sprints, [music] and your peak
16:27performance window based on your
16:29chronotype. And if you only take away
16:31just one thing, let it be this. [music]
16:33Not a single one of these pieces of
16:35advice is about doing more, grinding
16:38harder, optimizing, or squeezing more
16:41hours out of out of your day. Every one
16:43of them is about doing less [music] and
16:45exists to give you your life and your
16:49time back. [music] The evenings, the
16:51attention, the quiet, all the hours that
16:54were being stolen from you one
16:56notification at a time. [music]
16:57You were handed a device and a default
17:00way of living, and both of them were
17:02built around someone else's goals. You
17:05get to change the settings. You're in
17:08charge.
17:09>> [music]
17:09>> The ones on the phone, the ones in your
17:11own head. You really are better than the
17:13default settings [music] that are given
17:15to you and that life even gives you. You
17:17deserve to live like this, and you
17:19deserve [music] to live like it. One
17:21last thing, all six of these clear the
17:24noise, so your brain can finally focus.
17:28What they don't do is rebuild an
17:30attention span that years of scrolling
17:32have already worn down. Actually
17:34repairing your focus so it holds longer
17:37than 90 seconds is its own science.