2183: Your Ability to Focus Has Probably Peaked: Here's How to Stay Sharp by Nir Eyal on Focus And Concentration

0:00Push your limits, train with precision, see the results. At Equinox, that's high performance loving. Iconic spaces that inspire. Personal training backed by real data, unlimited group fitness classes from yoga and Pilates to strength and conditioning. Elevate your post-performance ritual with sonas, steam rooms, cold plunges, and more. Everything you need to lock in and unlock your potential at Equinox. Start today at equinox.com. This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome? That's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up require compatibility and availability very 16+. This is optimal work daily. Your ability to focus has probably peaked.

1:02Here's how to stay sharp by near a all of near and far.com. Having a hard time focusing lately, you're not alone. Research shows interruptions occur about every 12 minutes in the workplace and every three minutes in university settings. In an age of constant digital interruptions, it's no wonder you're having trouble ignoring distractions. In their new book, The Distracted Mind, Ancient Brains in a High Tech World, Dr. Adam Gasele, a neuroscientist, and Dr. Larry Rosen, a psychologist, explain how our ability to pay attention works and what we can do to stay focused. It turns out attention isn't as simple as it seems. In fact, paying attention involves two separate functions. Enhancement, our ability to focus on things that matter, and suppression, our ability to ignore the things that don't. Interestingly, enhancement and suppression are not opposites. They are distinct processes in the brain. From The Distracted Mind, Ancient Brains in a High Tech World.

2:02Quote, although it may seem counterintuitive, we now appreciate that focusing and ignoring are not two sides of the same coin. It is not necessarily true that when you focus more on something, you automatically ignore everything else better. We have shown in our lab that different brain networks are engaged when we focus compared to when we ignore the same thing. End quote. These processes are so separate, in fact, there are different networks of brain structures that carry out their respective functions, each of which is critical for attention. If either of these brain processes is impaired, we lose focus. For example, we struggle with attention when we are tired, drunk, and most notably, as we age. Older adults are biologically more distractible than young adults. Personal anecdotes and scientific evidence demonstrate that our attentional capacity peaks near age 20 and diminishes over time. Gasele discovered that age-related declines are caused by a deficit in the suppression or ignoring process. Quote, our main finding in this study was that interestingly, older adults focus on relevant

3:08information as well as 20-year-olds, where older adults suffered a deficit was in suppressing the irrelevant information. We discovered their main attentional issue was that they are more distractible than young adults. End quote. The attentional decline we experience as we age has more to do with our inability to filter out distractions, not our lack of concentration. If you think it's hard to pay attention now, just wait until you age a few more years. To improve our ability to pay attention, we need to both remove distraction, especially as we age, as well as boost our capability to focus on one task at a time. Here's how. How to eliminate distraction. Have you ever noticed someone squinting their eyes in an attempt to recall something? Turns out closing your eyes to remember may actually work. Why this quirky technique is effective tells us something important about how the brain filters information. When your eyes are closed, your brain isn't working as hard to filter out visual information. Instead of struggling to ignore everything in your field of view,

4:09your brain can devote more attention towards scanning your memory. Gasele conducted an experiment to see what type of visual information is the most distracting. He and his team asked volunteers to remember details while looking at one of three visual scenes, a plain gray screen, a busy picture, or with their eyes closed. Quote. The results of this experiment revealed that their ability to remember details was significantly diminished when their eyes were open and there was a picture in front of them compared to either eyes being shut or their eyes being open while they face to gray screen. End quote. This experiment, along with others, provides evidence that cluttered and disorganized environments are more distracting than organized ones. Spaces filled with visual distractions force our brains to work harder to filter out superfluous information. When facing a pending deadline that you desperately need to focus on, clearing your desk and workspace to make it like the gray screen can increase your focus. Try clearing your virtual desktop of clutter as well. Limit yourself to one monitor, one browser tab or window, and one computer program or app at a time.

5:15Removing distraction is important to maintain our focus as we age, but we also need to boost our capability to concentrate on one task at a time. Here's how. How to boost focus. Gasele and Rosen say some activities may boost cognition and attention by stimulating the brain's ability to strengthen and reorganize existing neural connections, a process called neuroplasticity. Activities that may boost cognition include physical exercise, meditation, and spending time in nature. Recent research also finds that some cognitive exercises may also help. Although there are many brain training programs, some of which have over-promised and under-delivered, some scientists believe a new crop of clinically validated programs may soon come online. Quote. Cognitive exercises are an attempt to improve brain function by harnessing our brain's inherent plasticity rather than by explicitly teaching a strategy or a skill. Most training programs attempt to accomplish this goal not just through repetitive task engagement,

6:16but also through adaptivity. End quote. For Gasele and Rosen, adaptivity is key. Just as athletes must adjust their exercise routines as they grow stronger, cognitive exercise programs must also adjust to how well or how poorly the participant is doing in the task. Personalized adjustments make the training more successful. New research shows the promising effects of cognitive exercise programs in older adults and healthy populations. Gasele and Rosen caution that while the research is encouraging, more clinical trials are needed to prove medical benefits. However, many in the industry are hopeful doctors will one day prescribe game-like cognitive exercises as part of a healthy brain training regimen. In the meantime, certainly currently available video game titles may actually be good for brain health and improve cognition. Quote. They are designed with a primary goal of engendering high levels of immersion, engagement, and enjoyment for the players. They do not tend to focus on one specific cognitive skill as exercise is usually due, but rather expose players to multiple demands

7:22that challenge a broad range of abilities. End quote. A 2003 study of video game play linked better cognition and higher scores on attention and memory tests in gamers versus non-gamers, but not all video games are created equal. Non-gamers who played the first person shooter game metal of honor one hour per day for 10 days showed improvements in cognition while the ones who played Tetris did not. Quote. The researchers conclusion was that the nature of action video game play was critical in forcing players to simultaneously juggle a number of varied tasks, like detect new enemies, track existing enemies, and avoid getting hurt, among others. End quote. Video games may give you a boost, but not every off-the-shelf game will do the trick. The difference between the games that work and the ones that don't gives us information into how the brain changes in response to its environment. Video games good for building focus create environments that are fast paced, interactive, adaptive, and have complex reward and gaming

8:26structures, like a brain playground. In 2013, gazely verified that a custom-designed cognitive video game, NeuroRacer, improves cognition and older adults. Dr. gazely's research led to a proprietary technology platform to measure and improve certain executive functions. In the future, cognitive video games will be like NeuroCrossFit training, as gazely calls it. They will combine elements of physical activity, meditation, and cognitive exercise rolled into one game. In the meantime, we can do our part to keep our attention focus sharp by first reducing distractions to improve our suppression capabilities, and then beefing up the brains enhancement functions through activities like exercise, meditation, outdoor time, and immersive video games. We can boost our ability to concentrate by doing just one thing well at a time. You just listened to the post titled Your Ability to Focus has probably peaked. Here's how to stay sharp by nearayallofnearandfar.com.

9:41Unlimited group fitness classes from yoga and Pilates to strength and conditioning. Elevate your post-performance ritual with sonnas, steam rooms, cold plunges, and more. Everything you need to lock in and unlock your potential at Equinox. Start today at Equinox.com. This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Jim and I in Chrome, that's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Jim and I in Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online makes sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up require compatibility and availability very 18 plus. And thanks to near who holds a degree from Stanford Graduate School of Business, has sold multiple companies, taught at two different schools at Stanford, and has become a best-selling author. Near also has a really excellent blog, which I encourage you to check out. That's where this post was from today. And you can find it at nearandfar.com. And please note that

10:45near is spelled N-I-R like his name. And for more insights on using psychology to change behavior, you can join near's newsletter and get a free workbook at nearandfar.com. Okay, that's going to do it for me today. Here on Optimal Startup Daily, as always, I thank you so much for being with me. And for clicking subscribe or follow in whatever podcast app you're using. And I will see you right back here tomorrow for another episode. And that is where your optimal life awaits.