How Your Phone Makes You Dumber: Neuroscience of Focus & Success

If you let people have their phones out, the IQ of your employees is lower. Cuz there was a study done when the phone

was visible to you. Scores were significantly decreased. >> Like my attention decreased.

>> Yes, Raj. It was also general fluid intelligence. That means you're dumber. This is the scary reality of how

attention works in the brain. people who hold their phone or put their phone out on the table when they're talking to

people and they first meet you. You seem less trustworthy, less capable, less intelligent, all of these different

things. [music] I'm a cognitive neuroscientist. Study how we can train the brain to be better.

Every single time you [music] switch your attention, you pay for it in time and you pay for it in energy. And if you

don't believe me, we can test it out. >> Grab a piece of paper. You have some paper and a pen. Now, on the top line,

[music] I want you to write, "I am a great multitasker." And then on the bottom line, I want you to write the

numbers 1 through 20. I want you to go as fast as you can. Okay? Go. [music]

17.72. Now, turn this paper around. Draw two more lines. You're going to do this one more time, but the way in which you

will arrive will be very different. >> Okay? >> You're going to alternate. You're going

to go back and forth until you finish both lines. >> Okay?

>> Go. >> [music] >> done. So you went from 17.72

to 41.35 more than double. >> Every single time you switch your

attention, there's a payment, a biological payment. This is what makes the people that are ultra successful

different from everybody else. They just choose [music] differently. >> A lot of people think that ultra

successful people have better ideas. >> They have [music] more ideas. >> So what should I do? How can someone

become a person who gets incredible ideas all the time? >> Be bored and do nothing and you get

ideas. You have to let those ideas come to you by cultivating the space for them.

>> I'm going to show you a city map. Explain me how my brain works as if it was a city.

>> We're here to learn about getting [music] done and being productive. Yeah. >> How do I become this person who ends up

achieving all the goals? Yes. >> Yes. Okay. [music] I have a small favor to ask you. I need

you to subscribe to our channel. The more subscribers we have, the better and bigger guests we can bring and provide

you more value through these conversations. And the full audio experience of this show is also

available on Spotify where you can follow us and listen to the new episodes as well. We usually think about how food

affects our body, but we rarely think about how it affects our brain. What you eat impacts your focus, your energy, and

your ability to think clearly. [snorts] That's why the ingredients used in your food matter so much. Urban Platter

understands this, and that's why they make better for you products that deliver on both taste and quality, so

you don't have to choose between the two. Every ingredient is thoughtfully sourced, giving you cleaner alternatives

for your everyday meals. Because when you eat clean, your body feels better and your brain thinks better. To know

more about Urban Platter, check the link in the description below. >> If

>> yeah, >> someone's watching you for the first time.

>> Yes. >> They have no clue who you are. >> Then how would you explain what do you

do and why they should watch it? >> So I'm a cognitive neuroscientist and my

research is focused on cognitive neuroplasticity and also cognitive training. So I in particular study how

we can train the brain to be better, better, faster, stronger. >> Okay?

>> Which is why my lab colloquially is kind of called the becoming superhuman lab because that's what I study. I study how

to make superhumans. And I'm obsessed with this topic. I have been for a very very long time. When I learned early on

in my career that the brain is capable of change, that it's dynamic, that we can we're not born with a certain brain

or it doesn't crystallize, that based on training, based on what you think, what you feel, what you do, the habits that

you have, your brain can completely change and become different. Then my question became that means that people

can be become smarter. That means that your ability to focus can increase. That means your memory can get better. like

you can get better at that just like any other muscle, right? Like with fitness. And then of course now a huge part of

what I do is really focused on minds and machines, >> okay?

>> And how they interact together. If you ignore the fact that we are human and by that, by the way, I mean the biological

laws that dictate how our brains and our bodies actually work. Like the laws of physics, right? Like if I like I always

say gravity. >> Yeah, >> there it is. Laws of physics. Nobody's

questioning the laws of gravity. Like, oh, today, never mind. It's not for me. I don't want to do that. Right? This is

how our universe works. Well, there are also biological laws that dictate how our brains work best, how our bodies

work best. And my goal is for people to learn these biological laws so that they can work more in line with their biology

instead of against it. Right now I feel and I say this all of the time that the way in which we as a society, human

global society are living and working goes against our biology. It goes against the laws of biology and we can

feel it. People have brain fog. They're exhausted. They're burning out. They're not reaching their goals. Everybody I

always talk to says, "Oh, I'm busy all of the time. I'm working non-stop. I'm busy busy busy busy." And it's like, "Do

you actually meet your goals consistently?" Oh, no. I'm busy all of the time. I'm like, how

could that be possible? [snorts] >> But then do you see the difference between people who are achieving their

goals all the time versus people who are not? >> Yes.

>> And is it the all the difference is in the brain and the biological laws they're following.

>> The most important word you just said was following. We all have very similar brains.

>> The laws are the same. Physics is physics no matter where you go. The difference between me and let's say like

an Elon Musk is for the laws of physics is I'm not sending rockets into space, >> right?

>> It's about am I learning the laws and am I leveraging the laws and my big push to every person in the world is you have to

learn the laws of your brain and your body so that you can follow them and leverage them meaning actually get more

done. That's the concept of becoming superhuman is if you can learn those laws then you can do amazing things with

this brain and body that other people often times they ignore those laws. They're exhausted again they're burned

out. They're working all of the time but they're working inefficiently. >> These are the issues you know they say

they have these dreams and they have these goals but they find it difficult to actually do those things. But the so

the difference is between the people who consistently meet their goals is if they're following the actual laws of

like it's it's like almost like a a cheat sheet. It's like a blueprint for how to live well.

>> So you're telling me if I follow my biological laws >> Mhm. which is how like let's say if my

brain is supposed to function in a certain way and I follow those laws >> then my likelihood of achieving my goals

increases than normal people like other people do not follow

>> but also I will say you're like I don't buy it >> okay yeah

>> well you have to remember the a lot of biological laws the laws I'm hopefully we're going to talk about

>> uh that I'm obsessed with are also laws around what's the science behind motivation,

>> what's the science behind goal achievement, >> what's the science behind focus, what's

the science behind distraction management, energy management, you realize you can have all these amazing

goals in life, but if you mess up on those things, you're not going to meet those goals. Imagine like an Olympic

athlete, right? Somebody wants to go to the Olympics, but they say, "I'm not focused on my training."

>> Okay? I am not doing a good job managing my energy. Okay. Um I'm not motivated. >> Yeah.

>> I'm motivated for 3 weeks and then I give up. >> Do you think they're going to go to the

Olympics? No. That means you have to figure out, you have to hack the science of motivation. You have to hack the

science of focus. You have to hack the science of managing your time, your energy, all of these things in order to

meet any goals, whatever your goals are. You know, you could have any goals in the whole world. But yeah, that's these

are what I mean by the laws of biology. I don't mean like take a blood test necessarily. I mean learn how does the

brain motivate like what is dopamine really for example, right? How does it really work? Because the people that say

like oh I want to whatever I don't know get fit. I want to raise a certain amount of money. I want to start a

company. I want to do these things. That's great. But what's the first step? And do you lose hope after 3 weeks, 3

months, 3 years? >> True. with [snorts] we'll come to biological loss but for

>> for simple average human being okay super human could mean a billionaire who looks like he's killing it in life

>> right so you have also trained a lot of people from lot of these large companies you've worked with people from Nvidia

Google you teach a lot of people you research about ultra achievers all of these things you do right so you have

you've You've dealt with a lot of people who look like superhumans from the outside.

What is one fundamental difference between a brain of, let's say, a billionaire and a broke person?

>> I've worked with some [gasps] pretty amazing people that have achieved amazing things.

>> Truly superhuman things. And I'm always the most curious about people that achieve great things that come from

nothing. If you started at zero and you achieved something close to 100, that's

interesting. That's worth studying, right? >> Yeah, absolutely.

>> And I've been very lucky, you know, being especially in Silicon, I've had access to a lot of some of these amazing

people because of the work that I do. Um, it also helps that the lab is called Becoming Superhum, and everybody wants

to be superhuman. So, it's it's a it's it's it's popular for for a few different reasons, but some of these

amazing people that I've met, I'll tell you something that is wildly different from a lot of folks that I see who

struggle. And that is belief. Belief about how the world works. Belief about

who it is that they are. These people, these the the billionaire's brain, [snorts] they don't think there are

limits. They really don't. These people don't think there are any obstacles in their

way. When something looks like a brick wall to the average person,

that person sees a door. They know that they can open and create doors anywhere. They believe it. Truly,

they believe it. [snorts] And this is the fascinating thing again going back to those biological laws. [snorts]

The power of belief is so strong in the human brain when you believe something. And these are again the stories that we

tell ourselves. Who am I? How powerful am I? What am I capable of? It's like imagine you're a character in a movie.

These people like really I don't know. Have you heard of the phrase main character energy?

>> Yeah. [laughter] They have main character energy for real. Truly. And but everybody can have main character

energy. You should be the main character of your life. >> Everybody should be. And I say that not

just be to be like romantic cuz it's fun because this is how you can train the brain. If you convince yourself, I'm

going to make it. This is going to be my life. This is going to be the door that I'm going to open. This is going to

happen for me. And I know it's going to happen because it's possible because people like me have done. You know it.

It's it's not you don't have the victim mindset. You don't have the oh these are these

obstacles in my way that oh I have nothing blah blah blah. All these other people they have this help they have

that's going to keep you stuck. So many amazing examples of people again Olympic athletes people that have just crushed

it physically that didn't start out fit at all but they make it happen through training. I think it's the same thing

with mindset. All you have to do is So, here's here's my recommendation because I I do this for a living. This is what I

do. I I help people train their brains. [snorts] Every single time inside of your mind, your brain starts telling you

that story. I'm a victim. I come from nothing. Look at my background. I'm not going to make

it. You have to tell your brain to shut up. Zip it. Be like, "Uh-uh. Don't do that." And then you have I call that by

the way that's called redirection redirection. It's attentional redirection in the brain. So if your

attention is somewhere like oh I'm a victim. Oh I'm the oh it's not going to work out. Oh what if I fail? Oh

redirect. You say uh I'm not going to move my attention. I'm moving my attention. I'm redirecting it back to

what's the story you want. And you then you repeat it. And you got to get obsessive about this. Like every

day you repeat the story, who am I? What's possible? One of my favorite quotes is anything is possible because

nothing is real. All of this is man-made. All of this is made up. We can make anything happen.

But then if someone was never believed in themselves ever, they've never thought that they can ever become

better, achieve their goals, have a dreamy life, become financially free, billionaire, millionaire, whatever,

etc., etc., right? If someone never believed, how can someone build a main character energy?

>> Write the story down. Take a piece of paper and you don't have to believe it in the beginning.

Just trust me. Get a piece of paper and a pen and write out. Even if in the beginning you have to say this is this

would be believed and this would be written by a version of me that doesn't exist

that does believe in themselves and they are successful and they're amazing. Write from that person's perspective.

>> What do you write? Like you take a piece of paper and what do you write? >> You can write well it depends on the

your goals. It depends on your vision. So for example I might say I can I can come up with any scientific question

related to the things that I am obsessed with and I will find the resources. I will find the people. I will find the

funding. I will find the doors. I will make the doors open so that I can figure out what those answers are because I'm

obsessed with finding out those answers. And I'm going to keep telling myself that. And when you do that, by the way,

let me tell you the science of how this works. What's going to happen if you write that down, whatever story, but

because it depends on the person, right? Your story is going to be different than mine. There's a network in the brain,

okay? It's a neural network, >> okay? >> Which is a pattern of electrical

activation. So a neural network is a collection of different brain areas that in unison like an orchestra activate

together. So they're they're they're connected electrically and they activate together. Okay, we have many different

neural networks in the brain, but an important one is called the DMN or the default mode network.

>> Okay, >> now the DMN is the brain's storyteller. >> Interesting. M this is the brain's

narrator autobiographical narration who am I what's my identity what am I what are the stories and you know when people

talk about trauma when people talk about bag all this it's stories and I you collect these stories like in a bag and

you're carrying it around like baggage so you got to ask yourself which stories am I still carrying and are they serving

me and when I say serving me like are they actually helping you achieve your goals are they making you happier? Are

they making you healthier? Are they giving you an opportunity to live the life that you want? Because if they're

not, get rid of that story. Rip that story up. And you have to write your own story. Make up a new story. And then

that DMN every single time, every day, you review the story. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're going to get every guest you

want, you know, whatever it may be. You're going to review the story over and over and over again. And guess

what's going to happen? that DMN, the default mode network, the pattern of electrical activation that it has, it

will influence other brain areas that are related to your attention. Now, we're talking about exciting

executive function because that your beliefs, your stories. You asked me about the billionaire's brain and I told

you the number one trait they have that's different is they have crazy beliefs.

Crazy beliefs. They don't see limits. anything is possible and anything they they're capable of anything

and if you believe that that DMN and those beliefs will impact different brain areas that are related

to what you see what you pay attention to and what you notice have you heard of like priming

>> yeah it's >> explain me let's say explain everybody okay what priming is

>> it this is the science behind priming >> that if you can have information teed up so that you review that story. That's

why I said like it's not enough just to write it down one time and put it in your journal and put it away. No, no,

no, no. You're working on this is training. You got to hit the gym every single day. Be like, "Uh-uh. This is

what's going to happen. This is what I'm going to do. This is my goals. This is how I'm going to get there. This is the

plan. This is the plan." You keep writing every day. You keep reviewing and keep writing. What's going to end up

happening is you're going to notice opportunities. The opportunities are everywhere.

The possibilities are all right in front of us, but people don't see them. You will only see what the brain is primed

to see. You will see what it is that you truly your beliefs and the data behind your beliefs are priming you to attend

to in the world. So when you do that, all of a sudden so many success stories, I know you've heard these two. People

will say, "Oh, and then I met this person randomly." magic right >> they opened the door I had oh one

conversation it just idea came to me I then all random things they start talking about

>> it's it's not that random you can make you can increase the likelihood the statistical likelihood of these things

that feel random >> if you reset your DMN >> if you reset your DMN that's a beautiful

way to put it re literally design use your DMN to design your beliefs about yourself design your DMN so that you can

choose what are the stories I'm telling myself about myself what's possible and what I'm going to accomplish and who I

am and that is going to influence your behavior [snorts] because the brain is going to it's

designed this way this is what I mean by biological laws >> this is everybody's brain yours mine

everybody's our brains are designed they're designed to look for data that confirms your beliefs.

>> Yeah, true. It happens with all the negative things as well.

>> Bingo. Bingo. Which is why I'm like, if it's not helping you, get it out of there. Throw it away. Get it out. Like,

you don't need it. [snorts] >> Because people are like, "Oh, I'm a victim. Everybody blah blah blah.

Everybody hates me. I don't get what I want." And guess what? They always see they're always complaining, right?

>> Yeah. this happened, then this other thing happened. No, no, no. What's happening

is your beliefs because that's how the brain works. That's a biological law. The brain is going to find and look for

data to confirm its own beliefs. So, choose your beliefs, design your beliefs.

>> Yeah, this this is so fascinating. It happens with me all the time, right? >> I I have an irrational belief when it

comes to my work. And even if I'm sitting on a random afternoon, I start spotting

opportunities out of thin air and they end up becoming opportunities worth millions of dollars and I end up just

getting them. And I'm like this like 5 days ago this was not even the real thing. And at the same time I always

play a victim card that because of my life, because of my schedule, because of work, I'm I never I I'm never able to

sleep properly, you know, I'm not this guy who'll ever be able to get sleep, etc., etc. Every little thing just

confirms that belief and I always just find out new reasons why I can't sleep. And like just two different aspects,

same person business, work-wise, opportunities just keep getting them. Healthwise, I just keep falling,

falling, falling. >> And I just keep confirming the even if I have like 10 hours to sleep, I end up

confirming some belief and be like, "Oh, why didn't I sleep that day?" Because, you know, this happened and that

happened and just >> it happens. >> There's excuses in my head.

>> Yeah. >> But but I love this. Okay. You said main character energy. Okay. If someone's

watching this and we have to make this make main character energy exercise sort of stuff.

>> Okay. >> Okay. Okay. >> So what would you want me to write in

this story? So let's say I today I decide that from right now >> I'm going to have the main character

energy in my life. >> Yeah. >> Okay.

>> And I am going to write take a piece of paper and write my story. >> Yeah. What should I have in this story?

Identity, goal, what all did you you just threw a bunch of words. Let's make it simplest. Let's make it simpler for

people to have like a template to start doing it right now. >> Beautiful.

>> First begin with what we call identity based beliefs. >> Okay.

>> Okay. Identity based beliefs. >> Now, I actually think we should totally do this on you related to your sleep.

>> Wow. Okay. >> Cuz you brought it up yourself, right? You said, "Okay, you've got some beliefs

in there that sleep is hard for you." >> Yeah. >> Is not easy, but it's totally not

helping you. I'm sure. >> Not at all. >> Okay. So, let's get rid of it. Let's

make a new belief. You write a new one. >> So, what you're going to want to do, so the identity based beliefs, the the way

that they work is [snorts] that you need to write a belief that you have that Raj has about sleep that's based on your

values. So, I'll give you a few examples just to like >> get you inspired. You might write, "I

prioritize my health because I know how important it is for my performance and my business." You might just write that

sentence down. Do you believe that? >> Yeah. >> Totally right.

>> Absolutely. >> Okay. Absolutely. So, you might write something like that down.

>> Then you're going to stack the next one. You're going to say, "I know the data on sleep and health."

Do you feel like that's true? >> Yeah. >> Yeah. [laughter]

>> Have you had some sleep experts on the pod? >> Still, it has not helped me. A lot of

people have benefited from it, not me. >> Okay. >> We can bond about this. I'm not an easy

sleeper either. We should talk about your sleep. Seriously. Um, >> so first is identity. Second is data.

Second is well I should say identity and then you're you're still mixing your identity with facts that you know. Yeah,

pretty much your data because we're going to try to bridge all of these together,

>> right? >> What else do you believe about sleep? What is it that you know for sure about

sleep? >> It's going to make me better. >> It's going to make you even better.

So would you maybe could I even push this a little further and say I could be a smarter,

better looking and happier version of self if I slept a little bit more. >> Yeah, I'll ask better questions if I'm

I'll be more focused. Yeah, there are so many things that I'll I'll achieve by just sleeping better.

>> Yeah. So you might you'd write all of these things down and then you would start writing bringing it all together

into an identity based belief and even though it's not true yet you would say something like I make sure that I wind

down for bed >> that's >> at an early enough time to make sure I

at least get 6 to 7 hours a night. [snorts] You write what the you essentially

you're designing the habit >> like this is the part I don't believe [laughter]

>> I know you don't believe it now but you have to write it down and this is the process of fake it till you make it

right >> got it [laughter] >> yeah you got to like you got to be like

yep I do that >> okay >> because why because you prioritize your

health and your performance >> you know >> so it's like first was identity second

was data third is what better will happen after this and fourth is new habit.

>> Yeah. And this is where you bring in I would say still even one full sentence all together. I'll give you an example

actually from one of my um MBA students, one of my business students. >> I'm the type of person Oh, now we're

talking about what kind of person are you versus what kind of person is >> someone else,

>> your competitor. M m >> I'm [clears throat] the type of person who makes sure that I sleep at least 6

to 7 hours a night because I know what an edge it's going to give me in my business.

You're just going to write that down and you're like, "Oh, I don't do that every night." That's okay. You're But do you

believe you can get there? >> Yeah. >> And do you believe it's true all the

other things you've written? >> Yeah. >> Okay. Once you've done this work and

you've written down that identity, I'm the type of person who does this, >> then we start going into something that

we call implementation intentions. And this is from research from Peter Gwitzer. Now, [snorts] implementation

intentions are essentially situation action plans. For those who do computer science, it's like an old school if then

statement. >> Yeah. Okay. >> If this then that. If then, when is

probably a more apt way to describe it. Okay. >> So, a situation action plan would be

like this. When my alarm goes off every night at 11 p.m.,

I begin my designed routine. I start my windown music playlist, you know, then I make my herbal tea. I do this. I start

doing my physical therapy, you know, whatever it may be. You you go through your routine.

The difference between I'm going to try to go to bed earlier or I have this new routine, I'm just going to do it before

bed. The difference here is an implementation intention

describes in crazy detail

what does it look like when you do the thing you describe like a movie. I want to see you in your

house, Raj. Like at and it's like 11:00 p.m. the alarm goes off and you're like, uh, where are you? What is it? What does

it look like? What are you wearing? Where in the house are you? What are you doing? Phone's in your hand.

>> It's truly describe it in detail. I'll give you another example of the difference between having an

implementation intention versus having a goal. Because a goal is >> wake random.

>> Yeah. It's it's like a prayer, you know. It's like that's cute. It's nice, but there's no plan, right? There's no way

to make it to execute the thing, right? We got to have a plan. So, >> [snorts]

>> uh, let's say I've heard a lot of people say, "I'm going to try to go to sleep earlier. I want to try to get more

sleep." >> Adorable. How are you going to do that? Right. We actually have to get serious

about what this looks like. >> Yeah. So usually for people unless your body is waking you up super you know

usually we have what we have to do is >> go to bed earlier not uh keep sleeping the other way.

>> Yeah. >> So the question becomes what kind of implementation intention can you design

that's going to get you to do that. So you don't say I'm going to try to get to bed earlier. It's not going to work. So

you describe the situation when this happens then I will do this when then >> okay so when 11 let's say when whenever

my alarm goes around 11 p.m. this is what I'm going to do. That's exactly what you you want me to design.

>> Yes. >> And like I'm on the right side of the bed. I have my laptop on. and I'm doing

this like all of this and like I'll shut this down. I'll be doing like stuff like that like that minute detail.

>> Yes. >> Okay. And then >> once you visualize it and you've written

it down, then you begin the habit, you attempt to actually do the habit [snorts] and you tr and here are some

other tips here. Make it as easy and small as possible. >> As easy and small as possible. For

example, a lot of people benefit from going to bed earlier just by brushing their teeth earlier.

>> Interesting. >> That's it. You could just say, "Listen, I'm I don't know when I'm going to go to

sleep, but I told myself I have to brush my teeth at 11:00." Once you brush your teeth, that means

you're probably not going to eat or drink anything anymore. >> Now you have at least the kitchen is cut

off. You just start cutting everything off. You're like, "And then I'm going to get in my pajamas." Okay, now we're even

one step closer. You just have to figure out what behaviors that you want to design out.

Commit to it. Make it as small as possible, but really make the when part, the if part, the beginning, the

situation should be as clear as humanly possible. Truly clear. People really skip this step. They say things like,

um, I'll give you an example of when people want to stop doing something because it's possible your viewers want

to cut a habit. >> Yeah. >> Stop smoking. stop eating sweets,

whatever it may be. >> Start binging on their reels overnight. >> Tricky one, but yeah, totally. Totally.

You could say, "When I have a craving for another piece of chocolate, when I have a craving for a cigarette, then I

will do this instead." >> And I'll tell you, this is a version of an implementation intention for a

negative behavior, meaning a behavior you want to cut. >> Okay?

>> Not a positive behavior. and a behavior you want to add. Say add like positive and negative or add a behavior or remove

a behavior. >> Removing a behavior is insanely difficult.

Super super difficult. >> Way more than adding. >> Yes.

>> Why? Why cutting off an habit is more difficult than making a new habit? >> Do you have a whiteboard?

>> Yeah. >> All right. All right. [snorts] >> Okay. So

we were talking about neural networks before, right? So neural networks again are patterns of electrical activation.

So let's say for example, >> you have some pattern of electrical activation

here in the brain. And let's say this represents your craving for something you don't want to crave anymore.

>> Yeah. Watching reals, let's like binge watching random stuff. Yeah. >> Oh wow. Binge watching. Okay. So

>> mindless scrolling, whatever you want to call Yeah, >> great. I'll even draw a little phone,

you know. Okay, there you go. All right. So, this is this is the craving for it, though.

>> Okay. >> This is not the behavior. This is the craving. So if this dot here represents

the the actual craving for it, what that let's say ends up getting connected to is a set of patterns of electrical

activation here that represents the complex behavior that ends up being you grab the phone and you start scrolling.

>> Okay. >> Okay. So it starts with a craving. The craving is not by the way usually to

binge watch. Usually the craving is something else. Usually, and this is where we can get a little more emotional

here, it's a feeling. >> Okay. What do you mean by that? >> Well, let's let's

>> The craving is not for binge watching. >> Well, that ends up becoming the behavior for you to satisfy a craving. The

craving you think is actually for binge watching, but it's it's a craving to binge watch in order to satisfy some

feeling. That's usually what's happening. like something I'm missing. >> Something you're missing or something

that you want to disassociate from, numb from usually. Usually

the feeling that people have is overwhelm, stress, let's say.

>> Okay, >> if you're overwhelmed, you're stressed out, you're tired, you lack motivation,

>> right? M >> you're looking to solve for these feelings

>> and your brain has decided a nice thing to do if you have these feelings. You're like, I don't nobody wants to feel this

by the way, right? These are bad feelings. >> So if you have these feelings, your

brain goes, let's get out of this. How do I solve this? >> There's a few different things you can

do. But let's say you accidentally develop this addiction, this habit. >> Because by the way,

>> the word habit is a common one. We're all interested in habits. >> Yeah.

>> It's pretty much the same thing as addiction. >> It's the same thing. People hear the

word addiction and they think it's like scary, like it's some moral, >> you know.

>> Yeah. It's a bad thing. >> It's a bad thing. What about when people are addicted to exercise or addicted to

feeling healthy or addicted to being kind, right? Cuz you can you've I've met

people who definitely are addicted to those things >> and I know you probably have met lots of

these kinds of people because these are the people you collect. People addicted to their own success.

>> Absolutely. Yeah. >> Yeah. So, it's not a bad thing. Addiction just means habit. That's it.

>> Okay. >> So, we can demystify, dethrone, you know, uh uh these words really. They're

coupled together. They're the same thing. They're the same thing. >> So, what is a habit? What is also an

addiction? It's also the same thing as just a behavior that you do over and over.

I would just say that you do a lot, right? So what ends up happening is you have a feeling there is some brain

state, some cognitive or emotional brain state and then what ends up happening is you want to move away from that feeling.

If it's a if it's a bad feeling like this, right? You want to move away from it. Your your brain wants to help you

solve it. It doesn't want to let you sit in that in that bad feeling. >> So whatever it is that you did, let's

say you did binge watching one time when you felt that way. You're like, "Let me distract myself, you know,

>> go somewhere else. We don't need to think that. We don't need to feel that." So then you start binge watching and

what's going to happen in the beginning? In the beginning you're distracted, right? So it feels good.

>> Yeah. >> Okay. So what you ended up doing is you ended up doing the actual binge

watching. So you scrolled and then what happens uh uh at the at the very end. Let's say now you're done scrolling and

you put the phone away. [snorts] This is a bit of a trick question because let's say you were overwhelmed

about a work deadline >> and then you started binge watching for >> 45 minutes

>> in the evening instead of working on the thing that's overwhelming you. So then you did the binge watching and then

afterwards you put the phone down. Did you deal with the thing that you were actually stressed about?

>> No, I get guilty. >> Yeah. So now you have this, you have the overwhelm and you have shame.

>> Yeah. So the person is super sad now. We're we're just super sad. So now that you

have overwhelm and shame, you know that's even worse than before. No. >> Yeah.

>> So guess what I want to do again? >> Watch again. >> Go around the circle again. So okay,

let's say you've done this one night. But come on, let's be honest. I've done this even like at least 100 times. Do

you know what I mean? >> Here's the answer to your your original question. Every single time you do this,

you go through this path. Every time you traverse this road and you do it again and again and again, do you see what's

happening here? We're making it darker. No, >> we're making it maybe even bigger,

>> stronger, deeper. This neural network starts to become like a tree trunk, like the roots of a tree.

That is how a behavior. If you do it one time, that's fine. You do it 100 times, 1,000 times, a million times,

that's a behavior that you do a lot, that's the same thing as addiction. It's the same thing as a habit. It's all the

same. So habits, addictions, and behaviors that you do a lot are just really entrenched and strong

associations between a feeling, a craving, and a behavior. >> So how do we break this?

>> One, tip number one, don't wait for it to get so strong. You know, ideally, >> what if it's so strong already?

>> Okay, let's assume it's strong >> because there I'm sure there must be hundreds of bad behaviors which are

strong in my head. Obviously hundreds of good behaviors as well. >> Yes.

>> But the bad behaviors, let's talk about them. Let's get rid of them first. >> Okay. [snorts]

Step one, awareness. You have to understand and see the loop for yourself. You cannot

change something that you do not understand that you don't have data on. >> Right? You have to understand a system

if you want to change the system. So you need knowledge. >> Okay?

>> Self-nowledge in this case. So you need to be aware. You need to be able to see your own behavior as it's happening.

That means you actually have to answer the question, what's the feeling? So step one is you got to identify the

emotions and the feelings that cause you to go down the loop in the first place. >> How do I identify this? Because I don't

know if I'm if I'm falling into this trap >> of feeling

like I I want to crave something. That craving can be dessert at midnight. It can be binge watching. It can be

just doing all sorts of bad habits. Some for some people it can be alcohol, smoking weed, uh smoking, you know, like

a cigarette. >> Mhm. >> For some a lot of young people it can be

porn like all of these behaviors are stem from feeling, right? >> Yes.

>> But we don't know why are they occurring. >> Yeah. Like it it can be overwhelm, it

can be stress, it can be anxiety, it can be tired, it can be all it can be just pure shame or maybe lack of ability to

turn around my life or the feeling like a victim. >> How do I find out which one is it?

>> You have to have what's called a cognitive pause. So that means when you before you go

grab the chocolate at midnight, before you grab the phone and maybe you've already grabbed it, by the way, you just

you've grabbed the phone, >> you've opened up Instagram, whatever it is that your app of choice, you know,

>> you grabbed it, you opened it, and you just were about to start scrolling and you go,

>> you have to start to build the awareness. You go, hold on, hold on, hold on. I'm not saying you can't have

it. By the way, in the beginning, we just want to know why. >> So you go, okay, hold on.

What am I feeling right now? What is it that Why do I want to go and binge watch right now?

>> I'm just exhausted. Like just >> Okay, so you're you're tired. >> I would still ask you go deeper.

Why are you exhausted? And then I'd force you I if I were in the room with you, I would say, well, Raj, if you're

exhausted, shouldn't you go do something else like rest? Right. Or gain more energy. Do something

that gives you energy. >> Like, right. If you're tired, if it depends. If it's right before bed, then

if you're tired, yeah, that's right. Go to bed. >> Sleep.

>> So then you go to sleep, right? We go, we help you with the sleep thing. [laughter]

>> But if you're tired in the middle of the day, you're like halfway in the middle of the day and you're like, I'm just

exhausted and I need a break. >> Yeah. >> This is not a break. There was, by the

way, a paper published in Nature. >> What is it? the world's like premier science journal 2024 that actually

measured the effectiveness of different kinds of breaks. >> Okay.

>> One option was no break at all. You do no break. Raj, keep working. Tired. So what?

>> Keep going. Hustle. Come on. You're young. You got it. Let's go. >> The next option was you take a break uh

and you look outside or you go take a walk outside in nature. >> Okay. So you're exposed to something

natural. Okay. The next break was scrolling. >> Yeah.

>> Can you imagine what the results were? >> It showed that scrolling is pretty much

the same as not taking a break. So instead of actually letting this brain rest and make energy for you, because

again this is all chemistry up in here. This is like again biological laws. You need to learn that if this system is

tired in and listen I'm a high performance like I'm all about productivity and performance. So if

let's say for example treat yourself like an Olympic athlete. >> If an athlete is telling you I'm

exhausted right then you say okay okay get off the field go sit and rest drink some water get a snack you know we tell

them to like stretch you know get ready. Why? Because I need you to go back out there and keep training.

>> Yeah. [snorts] If they say I'm tired, like let me open Tik Tok. That's we already know. We science has already

shown that that's not a break. It doesn't replenish and increase your energy. Right?

>> So going back to this, I would you would say, "Oh, I'm tired." I would actually want you to sit down and really dig into

the feeling more. You know, are you really is it just tired? What's really going on? And like I then you need a

replacement behavior. So in this previous example, you were doing the scrolling.

It's this is what I meant by negative behavior, right? If you want to cut something off, you cannot just say, "Oh,

next time I'm exhausted, I will not binge watch. >> This is impossible. Good luck. It won't

happen. >> It won't happen. You're going to do it because look at this. Look at how deep

this network was. It's not your choice. It's going to happen automatically. You don't have a choice. Raj is not driving

this car. It's automatically just driving it on. >> It's automatically driving it. So, you

need to aggressively, that's what I meant, a cognitive pause. You need to aggressively start. Number one, you need

to start where it starts, which is the feeling. It starts here. >> The feeling, the brain state, the

cognitive state, the craving. Why do you do the behavior in the first place? We have to cut it off there and make you

pause and then say, "Okay, we're going to do something else." So that ends up being this feeling, right? That was our

first step here. >> So instead of going towards the the actual binge watching, we're going to do

something else. >> So let's say instead, what's a healthy behavior that you wish you did more of,

too? >> Let's say breath work. >> I mean, yeah, that would be nice. I love

it. Yeah, sure. So, you're going to do breath work. Great. Okay. >> Like just 1 minute.

>> 1 minute is amazing. >> 60 seconds. Close your eyes. That's it. You don't have to do anything else. You

just [snorts] >> that's it. >> Okay.

>> Okay. >> That's going to be the new replacement behavior. [snorts] Now, here's what I

would tell you if you're really addicted. If after 60 seconds of closing your eyes, you still want to scroll, go

for it. Makes it a lot easier. No. >> Yeah. >> But what you're doing when you do that,

by the way, is let's say the closing your eyes, this is the feeling that started. This is the new behavior. Close

your eyes. >> Mhm. >> Right. I draw a little eye for you here.

>> Okay. So, you [snorts] close your eyes. This is the new behavior. Instead of this going immediately to the original

scrolling behavior, it's going to go here first. >> Okay?

>> This is you're breaking the cycle. Instead of the energy going this way, it's now going to go this way. Even if

it goes this way afterwards, we're helping. Maybe one time you go, "No, I still want to scroll." Okay? The second

time, maybe you're like, "Okay, fine. Really, >> I'll do something else. This is you just

you have to find a way to break this thing. >> And if I break this, you're saying that

after 1 minute, if I still want to do it, if I do this every time, I'll reduce.

>> If you do it every time, I promise you're going to start not doing it. If you then you're just going to create a

new one. I mean, listen, if you do it every time, then you're just going to start creating a new habit this way,

right? >> Yeah. So, you're just saying, "Okay, before the route was this way. Now, this

is a new route that I'm going to go to scrolling." Like, now you're going to be that guy that before he binge watches,

he closes [laughter] his 60 seconds. You've just designed a new addiction. But the idea here is you're giving your

brain an opportunity. It's just an opportunity to to redirect. And what we call all of this by the way is to do one

thing and that thing is called emotional regulation. >> Interesting.

>> That's what you're trying to do because every behavior, even people doing hard drugs, porn addiction, it's coming from

an emotion. It starts here. If you can understand the emotion, you can control the behavior because you can choose it.

You can design it. But that requires regulating. Regulating [snorts] is hard. So what you can do is you just can

create a cognitive pause and get yourself to do something tiny. Easy, not hard. Easy, easy, easy. And then you're

creating a bit of a pattern interrupt and it's an opportunity for you to choose something different. So then what

ends up happening is this p road becomes less traveled. Let's say this is after one month of you

closing your eyes after the feeling instead of going immediately. So now it gets skinnier. After 3 months it's

even skinnier. Then this one you've been doing this, right? So this is getting stronger and stronger and this one keeps

getting skinnier and this one keeps getting stronger. That's the idea. This is how you build new habits and kill bad

ones that you don't want anymore. And why killing bad ones is more difficult than building a new one?

>> Starting new ones. It's difficult because you're both pruning. You're both pruning. Meaning you're

trying to deactivate and and weaken a neural network or a pattern of electrical

activation. And in order to do that, you should be building another one. So it's like you're doing two things. You

know, if you think about it from like a business perspective, it's like um if you're trying to downsize one department

and create a whole new department, it's a little easier just to say everyone else keep going. We're also just going

to build a new department, new project. So, you're doing two things. You're pruning is hard because the energy wants

to go that way because you let it you let it go that way over and over and over again. And then it became that

muscle became really strong. Going back to your identity, remember those stories? Yeah. It's the same thing.

>> So, if you let yourself say, "I'm a victim. I'm a victim. I'm a victim. I'm going to stay poor forever." Blah, blah,

blah. Because the system is messed up. Those people who are successful, they they were, you know, uh they they did it

through tricks. They got it through luck. I'm unlucky. My family is not lucky. My We just We

don't That doesn't happen for us. It doesn't happen for people from like where I'm from. Whatever it may,

whatever story you're telling yourself, [snorts] >> any one of these stories, if you let

yourself say that story again, >> what you're doing is again you're make you're just saying that's this is what's

up. This is real. This is real. This is real. This is real. And what we said before,

beliefs look for data and data informs beliefs and then that cycle becomes even

stronger then becomes your whole life. So when you [clears throat] when you get hired by these large companies to

upgrade their mindset or upgrade mindset of their CEOs and their billionaires and multi-millionaire executives, right?

What actual habit or like a sort of a routine you help them build

so that they don't get they upgrade their mind and they don't get exhausted because you must be improving some

things in their life. That's why they keep coming back to you. >> Yeah, there's a lot of habits and a lot

of strategies. It kind of depends on We can go through the list. >> Yeah, tell me the list. What what can an

average 25year-old or 35year-old who's watching this >> can follow in their life which you teach

the top executives? >> Okay. The first and I would say the most pervasive issue that I see in most

people's lives right now and in places of work as it relates to productivity is what we call bad digital hygiene.

>> Okay. What do you mean by that? >> So hygiene, right? It's like having clean hands and things like this. Yeah.

Bad digital hygiene is having a bad relationship with your digital tools >> and specifically your notifications.

[snorts] >> I'll give you an example. You sit down to work. You sit down to focus on

something. Where is your phone when you're doing this? Usually

>> it's on my desk like right here. >> Yeah. >> Like right now it's not here, but mostly

it's >> Yeah. Yeah. It's right there. Actually, for this

I can actually we can do a mini experiment together if you're up for it. >> Okay, I'm up for it.

>> Okay, cuz there was a study done in UT Austin that I want to share with you. >> Okay,

>> but we're going to pretend like you are doing you're you're in the actual study itself.

>> You're going to be like one of the participants. Okay. [snorts] >> Okay. All right. So, this is your phone.

>> All right. So, in this study, everybody came into the lab. So let's say you're the in the exact same situation, right?

You've just come into the lab and what we're going to do, Raj, is we're going to test your general fluid intelligence.

>> Okay. What do you mean by that? >> It means your mind's ability to hold important information in mind and then

get new information and compute with that information without losing the stuff that was already in your mind.

Honestly, you you've been doing it this whole conversation. >> You're amazing at it,

>> but that's why you're successful. So, [snorts] it's an important skill. Have you noticed some people, it's hard for

them to do that? They like lose track of what they were trying to remember and they can't compute the stuff. Yeah. New

stuff. >> Okay. So, there's actually a test for this which I bet you would score really

high. >> Okay. >> Okay. It's a complex working memory

task. And complex working memory is a phenomenal way to test for general fluid intelligence.

>> Okay. [clears throat] >> I can give you this test later if you like

>> uh for real. But let's say you come into the lab and I want to test that >> and I want to test your attention span.

>> Okay. >> Okay. >> Now you come in and I say, "Okay, you

have a phone, right?" All right, great. Go ahead and turn your phone completely off

like >> like airplane or just >> No, no, no. Full like dead.

>> Yeah. Not DND, not airplane mode. The side and the button. None.

>> Okay, it's off. Okay, scenario one. Your phone is going to be in another room with me. It's dead. You

turned it off. You give it to me. It's going to be in the waiting room. So, I'm going to hold it. You're going to go

into the testing room with a computer. You're going to sit down and you're going to hammer out all these tests.

>> We're going to test your intelligence and all these things. >> Okay.

>> Option two. Scenario two. I you can keep your phone but you have to put it in your pocket.

>> Okay. >> Or a bag. >> Okay. [snorts] Now imagine now you come

and you sit down by yourself in the room. >> Remember your phone is dead.

>> Okay. This off. >> Yeah. >> You're not taking a text or something in

the middle of the test. >> You sit down. You do the attention span test. You do all the different tests.

Scenario three. You can take your phone out of your pocket, but this time I let you put your phone face down just like

where you said it was when you were working. Okay. Face down on the side. Then you're sitting in front of the

computer >> and you're doing all of these assessments.

>> Okay. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Okay.

>> In this study, and remember the phone is dead. >> Yeah. Yeah. Technically, nothing changes

in all three scenarios. The phone's dead. You're not using it. >> Exactly. M

>> it's like having this eraser nearby, right? It's just an object. >> In this study, we were able to see, and

by the way, this is one of the most shocking studies I think I have seen in the last number of years on this topic.

>> Okay? >> When the phone was visible to you in your visual field, dead but face down

off to the side, scores were significantly decreased across the board. like my attention decreased.

>> Yes, it's the same you, right? Same Raj, same brain, different capability. And think about it's attention span.

Raj, it was also general fluid intelligence. That means you're dumber. Literally, if the phone is visible, I'm

not >> even though it's dead. >> Even though it's dead. Even though it's

dead. This is the scary reality of how attention works in the brain. Remember

the stories we tell, right? The brain is all about storytelling and narration. All the memories you have using that

thing, all of the memories you have, binge watching, talking to friends, making plans, good news, bad news,

drama, all these things are happening in the phone, right? For me, like I don't know if you use like Apple Pay, but I'm

also like tapping. It's like my payment system. It's like >> everything.

>> It's everything. Everything is in the phone. Memories. I have pictures, you know, of my dog. Like all this stuff is

on there that I love, right? It's all there. >> And you know that. Your brain knows

that. So if you can see it, it's always [snorts] going to be thinking, "Oh, I'm remembering all those amazing things and

I want to play." Like right now since the time we've spoken about phone, I've been anticipating

>> really >> like a notification will come right >> but it's dead. It's dead. So here's my

recommendation. You should have like a parking lot, a box, something there where you hide your phone. Just put it

away so that you don't see it. Bam. Gone. Out of sight, out of mind. We don't need it. Right? And this is

listen, I'm not saying all the time, but when you want when you want 100% of your intelligence for me, right, I run a

business, right? I I do research, I do all these different things. When it's game time,

again, remember, treat yourself like an Olympic athlete. If it's game time, it's go time, you're making a big important

decision, you're sitting down with your team and you're having a brainstorm, get the phones out of the room because

you're literally lowering the IQ of your whole team. If you let people have their phones out, the IQ of your employees,

the IQ of your team is lower. >> You're making everybody dumber just by having phone here.

>> Just by having the phone there. And if you care about this, people like you less. There's been lots of really

interesting studies that people who hold their phone or put their phone out on the table when they're talking to people

and they first meet you, [snorts] you seem less trustworthy, um, less capable, less intelligent, all

of these different things. Why would that be? It's because I'm really saying, listen, you're not so important that I'm

going to give up the opportunity >> to put my attention somewhere else. somebody more important than you might

call me. So, I'm going to keep it here in my hand, you know, cuz that's wherever it is. Usually, it's pee in

people's hands or like, you know, some I'll like sometimes put it under my arm and carry it that way, you know,

whatever. But it's on the table. Two people who have a coffee chat, right? They put it on the table and they sit

down and they have their coffee. But it's literally lowering the quality of the conversation. It's lowering the

quality of the connection. You know, >> you're not married yet, are you?

>> No. >> Okay. Hey, so you're going to be dating. It's also going to lower the quality of

your date. >> No, I don't take that on the rates. [laughter]

>> Like, all right, good, good, good. >> I've learned it on my podcast that days when I have my phone right next to me.

>> Yeah. >> My attention during the conversation is much lower

versus that's why I just always give it to these guys and just, you know, either out of the room or they have it

somewhere I don't even care. >> Yeah. >> And it's like on airplane mode. The

moment you like you entering before even you enter like 30 minutes before you enter just off like it's gone. I don't

care. >> That's such a good habit. I'm so glad you mentioned that. Your listeners need

to do that too. It's the same thing. It's the same exact thing. I would also recommend going back to your sleep

because now I care about your sleep. Remember I used to coach CEOs and I know I'm like so I'm going to start like

coaching you. Bring it back to your sleep. I would ask you to respect your sleep enough because it's going to

impact your performance that much too for you to put your phone away 30 minutes before bed.

>> Okay. >> You said you did it 30 minutes before I arrived.

>> Yeah, but this was Yeah, >> I'm not as important as your sleep. [laughter]

>> Raj, your sleep is more important than me. I promise. I promise. Because if you start doing that, oh, you're going to

see such a radical shift in your life and in your mindset. And do you want to know something? Okay, here's what I this

I'm going to dare you to do this. >> Okay? And I'm going to follow up with you.

>> Okay? >> I'm going to dare you to do this. 30 minutes before you go to bed, have a cut

off where you have to turn your phone off. And then don't turn it back on until 30

minutes after you wake up. If 30 minutes is too much, 15 minutes. 15 minutes before you go to bed off and then after

you wake up just let your eyes open because people use the phone as an alarm. It's right next to them. The

phone rings. They immediately grab it and then they start. They're still in bed. They're like doing this. They're

just like, "Oh, >> that that's me. Thanks for attacking." [laughter] Like that's just

>> got to talk about the truth. Yeah. I didn't know that. But it's this is the reality for so many people though,

right? There's no no point in the shame because the shame makes it worse. Remember,

>> it's adding an extra feeling on top of the other feeling. So that feeling in the morning, you're looking for

stimulation and it's FOMO. >> You want to figure out what you missed while you've been sleeping.

>> Yeah. >> But here, okay, here's my this is why I want you to not look at it for 15

minutes. [snorts] First thing in the morning, your brain is in a very delicate and powerful

state. You have an opportunity to reinforce those new beliefs that we were talking about. You have an opportunity

to set your brain up for the right mindset, for the right goals, for the right priorities first thing in the

morning. When you allow the rest of the world to tell you who you are, where you should be putting your attention. So,

hey, there's news over here. Look at this notification. Look at this email. I need this Raj. I need you to send me the

Can I see you Tuesday at 3 p.m. Please confirm. Is that when we're me all this noise?

All the noise from the outside is removing an opportunity for your own brain to tell you some amazing idea

that's going to unlock something for you because peeps so many people have such amazing clarity and amazing ideas first

thing in the morning. But right now across the world I think it's it's a generation of people are losing that

like we're missing out. We're missing out on so many things. So the first mistake you asked me the biggest mistake

that people are making is bad digital hygiene. They leave their notifications on on their computers. So they sit down

on the computer and now we let's say we put the phones away at least, right? Phone is gone cuz we learned about that.

>> Okay. If you want to be fully focused, you want to have the best productivity, the highest level of effectiveness.

>> You also need to make sure all your other forms of digital hygiene are locked in,

>> dialed in. That means, and let me be clear, most of the CEOs I work with, when I sat down and I would observe them

working, you know, I would show up with my clipboard and all of my, you know, observational tools and stuff and I'd be

like, "Go ahead. Just I'll be over here watching." They have they immediately open a

document, right? Let's say they're getting ready for the board meeting or something. They open up a document,

they're looking at a deck, and then bing, what was that? Okay. And then they go here. They have two monitors. on the

other monitor they have like Slack open. Yeah. >> Constantly pinging

like all this stuff and the phone is out and they have an Apple Watch and they're just like doing this thing and it's just

like this. >> Yeah. [snorts] >> But the brain is literally a focusing

machine. Every single time you switch your attention, you pay for it. It's not free.

>> What do you pay for it? How do you pay? What's the price? >> I'm glad you asked. You pay for it in

time and you pay for it in energy. And if you don't believe me, we can test it out.

>> Go ahead. >> Yeah. >> Tell me. Yeah.

>> Okay. Grab a piece of paper. You have some paper and a pen. So, on this piece of paper, we're just going to draw two

lines. There you go. Okay. Now, on the top line, I want you to write, I am a great multitasker, but don't start yet.

>> Okay? And then on the bottom line, I want you to write the numbers 1 through 20.

>> 1 through 20. >> 1 through 20. I want you to go as fast as you can. Okay. And then I'm going to

time you. I'll hide the phone so that you're smart as possible. No excuses. Okay. Right.

>> I'm a great multitasker. And 1 to 20. >> Exactly. >> And I want you to go as fast as you can.

I'll read the times out out loud and then and then you can go for it. Okay. >> And then actually, how about this? I

won't read them out loud. I'll you just focus. >> Okay.

>> Okay. Cuz we'll have the timer going up there. I'll watch you and I'll stop the time when you finish. Okay. Get ready.

Get [snorts] set. Go. 17.72. >> Super fast. Cool. Now, turn this paper

around. >> Awesome. >> Draw two more lines.

You're going to do this one more time. Okay. You're going to end with the same outcome. So the output at the end is

going to be I'm a great multitasker 1 through 20. But the way in which you will arrive will be very different.

>> Okay? >> You're going to alternate. >> You're going to start at one at the at

the top line. You're going to write you're going to write the letter I. You're going to drop down to the bottom

line. Write the number one. Back up to the top line. >> Letter A. And then down to the bottom

line number two. Back up to the top line >> after every letter. >> Mhm.

>> Okay. >> You're going to go back and forth until you finish both lines.

>> Okay. >> Okay. Now listen. If you think, hold on, I'm going to lose time, right? Going

back and forth like meaning just my hand moving, right? >> You can, if you want, you can draw one

extra long line, but you have to still alternate. >> So that means you still have to write in

in between I one 2 A. Okay. All right. But I just want to give you options. Get ready. Get set.

>> Yeah. >> Go. You got this.

This is where you guys need to overlay some fun music. >> Done. 40 seconds.

[snorts] So, you went from 17.72 to 41.35. >> More than double.

>> More than double. So, and I have a question. >> We all saw, but did you ever make any

mistakes? >> Oh, yeah. A lot. [laughter] >> Okay.

>> So, this goes >> because this time I was focused on like just

Yeah. Like my brain was not able to comprehend like two things at the same time.

>> Yeah. Well, really, your brain can't. This is the point I want to make.

>> So, you're saying nobody can be a good multitasker? >> No. No. Listen, what you're there's let

me and let me let's be clear. Let's define what we're talking about here. >> When people talk about multitasking, the

way they talk about it is as if they're doing two different things with full fidelity at the same time.

>> That's how they talk about it. >> Yeah. >> When they talk about multitasking,

they're like, "Yeah, yeah, I'm doing this and I'm doing this." >> Yeah.

>> Okay. How many brains do you have? >> One. >> Yeah.

Okay, that how many attention systems do you have? Like you have one of everything.

>> Yeah. >> Okay. So [snorts] you don't have two brains. You cannot say with my full Raj

brain 100% performance I am 100% doing this and at the same time I am 100% doing this. You don't have two 100s. You

have one 100. So if you want you can take your 100% like a pie chart. You can dice it up.

You could say 50/50. 50% of my attention is on this, 50% on this, 8020, 7030, 6040. No matter what your split is,

you're splitting your attention. It's split. So, when we talk about multitasking, the way people talk about

it, they Yeah. Yeah. I have my phone here, but I'm not looking. I have my email open, but I'm focused here. When

the notif comes up, no, you I see you go. You look. Even when you're on calls with people, you're like on a Zoom call

with somebody and you're look, they're looking at you and then all of a sudden you see their eyes go down and up again.

>> Yeah. >> Come, we can all see you, right? Nobody's that slick.

>> The people think like nobody's going to notice. You know, you said, "Yeah, because you've seen other people do it.

I've seen other people do it. Everyone's doing it." And they think that I can see when other people are doing it, but

nobody can tell when I do it cuz I'm fast. No, we can all see. [snorts] My point here is that it's not your choice.

It's not your choice to pay attention or not pay attention to distractions when they come up. The way

that the brain works is it's a monotasking machine, not a multitasking machine. It is designed to focus on one

thing. Now, does that mean you can never do two things at once? No, of course not. Listen, in my car, um, I listen to

podcasts. I sometimes make calls. I call my mother. You know, I call my mom on on the on the my way somewhere. I have her

on speaker, you know, and I'm driving. But listen, in that moment, I'm going to be honest with you because this is just

as a neuroscientist, I can just tell you this is how the brain works. I am not 100% focused on the road.

>> Yeah. >> Otherwise, it's imp I'm not going to hear my mom. I don't I'm not going to

listen to anything she's saying. Which, listen, that's a whole another conversation about mom's. She's like

complaining on my knee, my back, my this, my that. You didn't you need to come home, blah, blah, blah, all these

things. Okay, that's a different story cuz it's always the same stories. But the point here is that for sure it's not

possible for me to 100% focus on the conversation and 100% focus on the road because I know where I'm going in my

hometown. Honestly, it's like, >> yeah, it's like an autopilot. They're just going there.

>> Bingo. So my point is listen, it's nuance. I'm not saying Raj you can never do two. Yeah. Yeah. Sure you can. But

you just have to know the math. You have to understand the biological laws. You have to know what you're doing. Be

strategic about it. Be strategic about it. Now you know that if you And by the way, what you did just now Oh, yeah.

What you did here, this is not multitasking because that's impossible. Again, remember multitasking the way

it's defined, I you did 100% one thing and 100% another thing. That's not possible here. What you're doing and

what is possible, what happens in everybody's brains, yours, mine, everyone's, is something called task

switching, >> context switching essentially. >> Yeah,

>> this we do all the time. But every single time you switch your attention from A to B, B to C, C to D, all of the

different one thing to another, to the Apple Watch to the phone to the back to the document and back to the thing, and

then what? Oh, somebody came in my office. What did you want? But every single time you switch your attention,

there's a payment, a biological payment. So the brain pays for it in time. As you noticed, more than double. It's not for

free. Takes more time. And time is limited. Time is money. And the second thing that it takes is energy. You're

going to exhaust yourself more. And every single time, and listen, this was easy. Whose job is this easy? You want

to build an empire? You want to build a company? you want to cure cancer. Nothing is this easy. So when you're

doing something hard and you really want to do good, you have to respect yourself enough to put the distractions out of

sight, out of mind, notifications off, no email open, no phone next to you, no notifs available, and actually focus on

the thing in front of you. And in the beginning, if you're not used to it, it's going to be difficult. It's going

to be painful. Your mind's going to be all over the place, but you just need to get your muscles hard again. You need to

get your muscles strong. >> But what about people who are good at multitasking?

>> Is there someone like that or is it just a myth? >> Do you want to know something really

funny? >> Mhm. >> There was a study done at Stanford that

I'll send you. So there they're smart smart kids. Young healthy brains. Do you know what I mean? Sharp.

>> Okay. No excuses. You can't be like they're just they're dumb. No, no. We we got we got good ones.

This study on multitasking asked people upfront, "Are you a good multitasker?" The people who said yes confidently, "Oh

yeah, I'm great at it." They were actually worse when they tested them. That's crazy. It's like a joke. It's

like science jokes, right? It's absolutely mind-boggling, but it's so fascinating.

>> Why? Well, unknown to be, you know, >> this random belief they've built about themselves.

>> It could be because if you multitask so much, by the way, you try because again, we talked about it. You're just context

switching all the time. Your brain is just foggy. I don't think you see straight. I think this is the problem

with most companies right now. >> Most people are just bouncing back and forth and they think this is normal and

they just go like, "Oh, it's hard for me to focus. Maybe I have ADHD. Come on. Every 80% of the population all of a

sudden has ADHD. >> Why everybody has started saying this? Every like it's just like 50 things

because of the scrolling. That's why because our attention spans are shot. This is actually some of the re recent

research I've started doing. Truly attention spans have just gotten worse and worse and worse. And the more you

scroll, and it's by the way, it's not all scrolling. And I'm not just giving like, you know, your podcast a

a pat on the back here. This is actually the the research supports this. There is a massive difference between long form

and short form media. The short form media is truly like garbage and candy for the brain. It is it's like junk

food. That's what I mean. So the how would your body feel if you fill it with junk food? Not so good. Listen, am I

saying sometimes we don't have some junk food? Oh, for sure. No problem. You know, you got to live a balanced life.

You know what I mean? Life is short. Enjoy it a little bit. You know, do it's okay. But if your whole diet is junk

food, if you eat junk food every day, what's going to happen in one year? Not so good. Bad things.

>> Yeah. >> So, this is this this relationship that we have with our phones, our devices,

our email. This is it's not I don't want people to think I'm just talking about just Tik

Tok either. People are addicted to email. They're addicted to WhatsApp. They're addicted to messaging and

communicating constantly all the time 24/7. And that never allows them to come up with ideas.

Hear what's going on inside of them. All of the stuff we talked about before, the self-awareness. You want to train your

brain. That takes effort. That takes awareness. That takes focus. You want to build an empire. you want to build a

business, you want to do all these things, that takes focus. And when we've removed the ability to focus, this is

why everybody thinks they have ADHD because they're not listening to their biology. Again, it's like the laws like

the brain works. We just tested you. Everybody who's listening, you believe that Raj is super smart. Obviously,

that's why you're listening. That's why he's so successful. Even you couldn't do it. You more than doubled your time and

you made mistakes. So think about how you work now. When you take this to your life, when you take this to your

business, everybody who's listening, right? When you think about how you work, if you work d constantly, I'm

sitting down f and then I check this and I check that. If you're doing it that way, you're going to make more mistakes

and it's going to take you double the amount of time to get to your goals. You choose. I'm going to choose the way

that's going to be fast for me. But this is what makes the people that are ultra successful different from everybody

else. They just choose differently. >> They think about it. They're aware about it. Like, hold on a second. What you

said, you said beautifully, I notice the days when I'm on my phone, it's harder for me to focus. So, when we're

shooting, when the guest is right, I tell the guys, I turn it off and I tell the guys, get it out of here. You are in

a beautiful example of a CEO that has figured it out. Everybody else can do the same for themselves. So, [snorts]

you're telling me that a lot of people think that ultra successful people have better ideas, but you're telling that

they don't have better ideas. They just know how to protect their attention so that they can get ideas. Is that what

you're saying? >> They have more ideas. It's like fishing. I can tell you this. This is the science

of innovation and creativity. Every, by the way, inventor will tell you this. inventors, artists, engineers, people

who build, people who come up with like crazy ideas, they'll tell you for every one good idea, they had 1 million

ideas. This it's a numbers game. >> You have to become like an idea machine. It's it's a muscle. If you're exercising

your idea muscle every single day, you allow your mind to explore and wander and you give it time and space to do it.

Listen, you're going to come up with a lot of stupid ideas. That's okay. You have to. It's a process, right? One day

after another and then finally you're going to hit. >> So, what should I do? How how can

someone become a person who gets incredible ideas all the time? >> Okay, you ready? This is my number one

recommendation. You might not like it or you might be surprised. >> Okay.

>> Be bored. be bored and do nothing >> and you get ideas like that.

>> And you get ideas. Let me explain. Ideas, new ideas often come

when we are mind wandering. That goes back to the neural network that I talked about earlier, the DMN, the default mode

network. That's what that when that is active your brain is creating. Remember in the beginning I said it's the

storyteller in the brain. It's the storytelling machine. It's the area of the brain and the a areas of the brain

that are all about narration and ideas. So that's your idea machine. You need to allow the DMN to actually become active.

Now the opposite of the DMN is the central executive network, the CEN. Okay.

>> And it I mean listen to the sound of it. The central executive network. >> What do you think? It's like the CEO.

>> Yeah. >> What's the goal? >> Operator.

>> It's the operator. Beautifully said. It's the project manager. What are we doing? What's the goal? And then anytime

it's also in charge of inhibition. So inhibition is uh suppressing the things that seem distracting. Listen,

I'm on my target. I got to focus on this. So if you're telling me, hey, hey, sire, what about this idea? Shh, I don't

want to hear about ideas. I got to I'm doing this focus. That's your central executive network and you need it. And

it's mostly frontal areas, right? Because this is where a lot of your executive functioning is is happening in

the first place. So you've got all these different this neural network that's again responsible for get done,

right? Focus and do stuff. The opposite of that is the DMN. And the DMN is again all about stories, daydreaming,

being bored, let your mind wander. When you daydream, that's when a bunch of ideas can finally come and float to the

surface. >> So the first step is you have to find time and space

>> to be bored, >> to be bored, to daydream, to let your mind wander. Because again, remember,

it's easy to remember and understand why. What's the opposite of that? Get stuff done. What idea are you gonna have

when you're like on a deadline to get done if you're busy all of the time? And then what what do people do

when they're not working? What when are you what how is your brain going to shove an idea into your into

your in front of you, right? How you have to let those ideas come to you by cultivating the space for them. You have

to make the space for them. So the most creative people, the most amazing innovators, by the way, they force

themselves to sit down. Some people call it think time. Some one of the guests you had on the show, I think Bill Gates,

um, uh, he was really famous by having a think week, I believe it was, you know, whole week he takes off. No busy work,

just to think, see what ideas come. It was actually during his one of his think weeks that he decided that the internet

is not a fad. Can you imagine if Bill Gates didn't realize that decades ago?

So these ideas come, we have to give them the space to come and that requires discipline because right now distraction

is making money for these tech companies like crazy. Welcome to the distraction economy. So, it's keeping everybody

stuck. >> It's keeping everybody stuck in their old loops. Because also, this is how the

algorithm works. The algorithms that you're doom scrolling on, that you're binge watching

on, the way they work is they're going to show you stuff that you like. >> They're going to show you more of the

same. If you want to become a different version of you, you need to change your content. Your content is actually a

great example of this. a lot of other awesome podcasts that are educational, right, about like how do I become

better? How do I level myself up? If you all you're do when you're binge watching, if you're all it's just bad