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  • - Be honest with me here.

  • When you study or get work done,

  • how good are you at focusing on that work?

  • And by that I mean how susceptible are you

  • to distractions that pop up or the temptation to multitask?

  • This is a really important question to ask yourself

  • because a lack of focus, a lack of the ability

  • to concentrate is one of the best ways

  • to waste a lot of the time you dedicate to studying.

  • That's because when you get pulled away

  • from your main task into a distraction

  • or some other task, you're not just wasting

  • the time that it takes to get that distraction done with.

  • There's also something called a cognitive

  • switching penalty, and as Josh Kaufman points out

  • in his book The Personal MBA,

  • which I highly recommend, by the way,

  • "In order to take action, your brain has to load

  • the context of what you're doing into working memory.

  • If you constantly switch the focus of your attention,

  • you're forcing your brain to spend time and effort

  • thrashing, loading and reloading contexts

  • over and over again.

  • That's why it's possible to spend an entire day

  • multitasking, getting nothing done,

  • and feel exhausted at the end.

  • You've burned all of your energy context switching

  • instead of making progress."

  • This is why it's so important to build

  • the ability to focus.

  • If you can do that, you're going to eliminate

  • a lot of these potential cognitive switching

  • penalties you could have incurred from your day,

  • and that means you're going to be able

  • to pack your work into a more concentrated,

  • shorter amount of time, and get more done.

  • So in this video, I'm gonna give you five

  • quick ways that you can start building the ability

  • to focus and concentrate on the task at hand.

  • The first one is called pre-commitment.

  • Pre-committing to a task is simply building

  • some sort of device that binds you to finishing it

  • before you actually get started, and to do this

  • you can use what are used commitment devices.

  • It's why I use Beeminder to ensure that I create

  • two things every week on my website.

  • If you have some way of making sure

  • there's a consequence for not getting your work done,

  • you're gonna be more motivated to stay focused on that work.

  • This can be as simple as writing down

  • that you're going to get X done in 30 minutes,

  • and if you don't finish within 30 minutes,

  • you know that you've failed.

  • You've externalized that goal by writing it down,

  • and now that you've failed it, you're gonna feel bad.

  • You could even do something crazy like

  • hiring a lady off Craigslist to slap you in the face

  • like Maneesh Sethi did,

  • or you could stay within the realm of sanity.

  • That's cool too.

  • You can also pre-commit to one task

  • by eliminating your ability to do anything else

  • during that time.

  • This is often called the burnt ships technique

  • and it's in reference to an inaccurate

  • but still compelling story about Hernán Cortés

  • telling his men to burn their ships

  • before they attack the Aztecs.

  • The motivation for doing this would have been

  • to keep his men focused on the task

  • because they had no other option.

  • They couldn't go back.

  • Now you probably don't have an actual boat to burn

  • of your own, and even if you did,

  • it probably wouldn't help you get your homework done,

  • but you can take inspiration from this idea

  • by removing the ability to do other things

  • while you're focused on a task.

  • One way you can do this is by blocking

  • distracting websites on your computer

  • using an extension like StayFocusd

  • or a program like FocalFilter.

  • You could even entirely disconnect the internet

  • if you didn't need it.

  • Tip number two is to have a distraction sheet

  • next to you while you work.

  • Now I talked to you about this before

  • as an addition to the Pomodoro Technique,

  • but whether or not you're pre-committing

  • using that technique or just studying in a different way,

  • having a piece of paper next to you

  • where you write down what's distracting you

  • helps you get back into your work

  • because you know you've made a reminder

  • of that distraction, you can get back to it later

  • if it's important, but you're externalizing it.

  • You're pulling it out of your brain

  • and you're allowing your brain to get back

  • to the task at hand.

  • Tip number three is to try out an app called Forest,

  • which is available for both iPhones and Android devices.

  • Forest is an app that tries to help make

  • your smartphone less of a distraction,

  • and it does this by letting you plant a seed

  • and then if you don't touch your phone for 30 minutes,

  • it grows into a tree.

  • If you do touch your phone, it kills the tree

  • and you failed that session.

  • Now I can see it already, people in the comments

  • saying that you could just turn off your phone

  • or leave it in a different room,

  • and that does work,

  • but the thing that Forest does is it provides

  • an instant reward the minute you finish a 30-minute session.

  • Getting immediate tangible and quantifiable

  • results for something is a great way

  • to build good habits.

  • If you're just turning off your phone

  • and putting it in the other room,

  • you may not see those immediate tangible benefits,

  • but if you get a nice cool tree on your phone

  • if you don't touch it for 30 minutes,

  • then that's a nice thing you can look at.

  • So, if turning your phone off works for you,

  • that's cool, but if it doesn't, try the app out.

  • Tip number four is to meditate once a day.

  • I've been doing this for a few months now,

  • and honestly, I just do it for three minutes

  • in the morning, and I try to focus on my breath.

  • Now, the idea behind this is your attention

  • is like any other muscle in your body.

  • As you train it, it gets stronger,

  • and your ability to focus increases.

  • I've found that just trying to focus on my breath

  • for three minutes a day has increased by ability

  • to stay focused on other tasks, like reading or writing.

  • Now, an important thing to note with meditation

  • is that your attention will wonder, and that's okay.

  • The act of noticing that your attention has wondered

  • and that you've started daydreaming,

  • and then bringing that attention back

  • to your initial point of focus is what helps

  • build that attention muscle.

  • My fifth and final tip is to eliminate

  • potential distractions while you're studying.

  • Now when I talked to you about pre-committing earlier,

  • I talked about the burnt ships technique,

  • and that's focused on eliminating your ability

  • to distract yourself, but there are also

  • a lot of distractions that can happen to you,

  • environmental distractions,

  • people coming in and asking you to do things,

  • and if you can eliminate the potential

  • for these to happen, you're going to have

  • an easier time focusing,

  • so pay attention to any potential source

  • of distractions before you study.

  • This could be something that can pop a notification up,

  • like your phone or something on your computer,

  • or just being in a specific location

  • where your friends are likely to find you.

  • I actually have a whole section on eliminating

  • distractions in my book on earning better grades,

  • which is free.

  • So if you wanna get more tips in this area,

  • then you can click the card there,

  • or the link in the description, and grab the book.

  • So, those are my five tips this week

  • for helping you build concentration

  • and your ability to focus.

  • Hopefully you found this helpful,

  • and I wanna leave you with a quote

  • from the Roman poet, Horace, who said,

  • "Rule your mind, or it will rule you."

  • Now, if your internal ability to rule your mind

  • and stay focused right now isn't as strong

  • as you'd like it to be, that's okay.

  • Work on building it, but also take advantage

  • of the external systems and tools we have

  • to help you out.

  • That could be using apps and extensions

  • like Forest and StayFocusd,

  • hiring some lady off Craigslist to slap you in the face,

  • or just asking a friend

  • to keep tabs on you while you're studying.

  • Anyway, I hope you found this video useful.

  • Thanks for watching, and I will see you next week.

  • (upbeat music)

  • Hey guys, thanks so much for watching my video

  • on how to build more focus and concentration.

  • If you wanna get new videos every single week

  • on being a more effective student,

  • then the best possible decision you can make right now

  • is to click that big red "Subscribe" button right there.

  • I also wrote a book on how to get better grades,

  • and if you want to get a free copy of that,

  • click the picture and I will send you one.

  • If you wanna get links to anything I mentioned

  • in this video, then go to the companion blog post

  • by clicking the orange logo right there.

  • If you missed last week's video,

  • there's a clip of it playing right there,

  • so definitely check it out,

  • and if you wanna suggest topics

  • for new videos or just connect with me,

  • I'm TomFrankly on Twitter or you can leave a comment.

  • Thanks.

- Be honest with me here.

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