How to Get Your Brain to Focus | Chris Bailey | TEDxManchester

The speaker limited phone use to 30 minutes per day for a month. After about a week of adjustment, they noticed three main effects: an expanded attention span (it became easier to focus), an increase in spontaneous ideas when the mind wandered, and more planning and future-oriented thoughts. The phone experiment showed that reducing one highly stimulating device lowered overall stimulation, which in turn reduced the mind's urge to seek distraction.

According to the speaker's research, the root cause is not simply that our brains are weak or easily distracted, but that they are overstimulated. Our brains crave tiny, novel nuggets of information (social media, email, etc.) because of a 'novelty bias' that rewards new stimuli with dopamine—the same pleasure chemical involved in eating or sex. That reward makes us seek out distraction, so distraction is a symptom of overstimulation rather than the fundamental enemy of focus.

The speaker cites research showing that when we work in front of a computer with a phone nearby, we typically focus on one thing for just about 40 seconds before switching to something else. If we have collaborative chat tools like Slack open while working, that average drops to around 35 seconds. These short attention bursts reflect the overstimulated state described earlier.

The speaker tried daily boredom tasks for a month (examples included reading the iTunes terms and conditions, waiting on hold with Air Canada's baggage claims, counting zeroes in the first 10,000 digits of pi, and watching a clock tick for an hour). After roughly a week of adjustment, they observed the same benefits as the smartphone reduction experiment: a longer attention span, more ideas, and more plans. Deliberate boredom allowed their mind to wander more often and make unexpected connections.

'Scatter focus' is the mode the speaker uses to describe deliberate mind-wandering. When you allow your attention to rest rather than force it into concentrated work, your mind tends to roam and connect disparate thoughts. The speaker notes that many of our best ideas come when we're not actively focused—during showers, walks, knitting, or other low-demand activities—because those moments let the mind recombine existing thoughts into novel ideas and plans.

Research the speaker cites shows that in mind-wandering episodes the mind goes to: the past about 12% of the time, the present about 28% of the time, and the future about 48% of the time. The remaining time is spent in a dull or blank state or in thoughts not rooted in time. Importantly, the mind spends more time thinking about the future than the past and present combined—this is called the mind's 'prospective bias' and explains why we often plan whole days in the shower.

The speaker reports it took about a week for their mind to adjust downward into a lower level of stimulation in both the phone-reduction and boredom experiments. They also reference research indicating it takes roughly eight days for the mind to fully calm down and rest (using vacation recovery as an example), which is why shorter breaks or vacations may not be sufficient.

Practical recommendations from the talk include: try a two-week challenge to make your mind less stimulated and observe the effects; use device features that limit screen time and block distracting apps; create a nightly disconnection ritual (the speaker disconnects from the internet from 8pm to 8am); adopt a weekly 'technology Sabbath' (the speaker and their fiancée disconnect on Sundays); rediscover boredom for a few minutes each day (no need to call Air Canada); and do low-demand activities that let your mind wander (examples the speaker gives: knitting, longer showers or baths, walking between rooms without your phone, or getting a massage and keeping a notepad nearby to capture ideas).

The speaker suggests two fundamental shifts: first, stop trying to cram more in—our problem is doing too much, not too little. We need more space between activities (like space between cars on a highway) to allow progress and creativity. Second, stop seeing distraction solely as the enemy of focus; distraction is a symptom of overstimulation. By reducing stimulation and allowing the mind to wander, we gain attention, creativity, and better planning, which leads to both better work and a better life.