How to Get your Brain to Focus by Chris Bailey

In this TED talk, it discusses how electronic gadgets interferes with our day-to-day activities. This is quite evident the
moment we wake up in the morning. For instance, the first thing we do is to check our phone, which we tend to extend
our time on the bed and procrastinate our activities we’re supposed to do initially. This may lead to a lot of negative
effects especially on our brain. The organization of our thoughts and the quality of ideas. It causes our brain to be over
stimulated, as a result we tend to have short attention span. Usually, this happens when we are doing a particular task
and we get distracted by our phone near us. Our brain’s attention lasts for only 40 seconds before switching to
something else and down to 35 seconds until we get hooked and no longer get back with our main task.

There was an experiment done that could alleviate this circumstance. It says that for a week, our usage of phone
should only be a maximum of 30 mins. In this way, our brain tends to be more focused on the series of tasks on our
work, more ideas to be flourished and more productive ideas about the future. Generally, our brain loves to be
distracted and stimulated with the things around us, this circumstance is called Novelty Bias. They are pleasure
chemicals called Dopamine, which are released when your brain is expecting a reward. Therefore, our mind anticipates
doing more tasks that gives us pleasure, such as when we are using our phone. Instead of doing vital tasks, we tend to
do unimportant things that give us pleasure.

Moreover, there was another experiment, however it is quite different from the first one. It is about doing boring things
for an hour daily for the entire month. Like for instance, reading iTunes Terms and Conditions, staring, and listening to
the ticking sound of the clock. It has the same effects as the first one, about the phone experiment. Individual’s brain
tends to slow down and paves the way for more productive ideas. They say, it took 8 days for a mind to calm down and
rest, therefore when we are planning to have a vacation, it is best to have at least 1 week. Hence, it enables us to focus
more effortlessly, and our brain tends to have less stimulation.

In addition, let our brain to wander to discover new things, which probably our mind fond of doing. Like for example,
doing a crochet. Sometimes, we get to discover talents that we do not realize until we give it a try. In this way, we let
our mind rest and be at peace.

At the end of the talk, the speaker gave the audience a 2-week challenge with less stimulation (no using of
smartphone). There are questions as follows: How many plans were you able to make during this challenge? What are
the ideas were you able to make it possible? Apart from this, there is an activity which you can try weekly, this is called
Technology Sabbath. An activity where you will disconnect to internet from 8:00 pm to 8:00 am. It lets your brain less
stimulated and calm. Also, we get the benefits of added productivity and focus more on ideas and creativity, which
makes us live a better life.