How to Calm Your Mind for Hyperfocus by Chris Bailey

On this episode of the Lifehack Present, we invited Chris Bailey to be our visitor to share his ideas on how one can keep targeted in a world filled with distractions.

Chris Bailey is a productiveness professional and the best-selling creator of The Productiveness Challenge, which has been translated into eleven languages; And Hyperfocus: Tips on how to be extra productive in a world of distraction. Chris blogs about productiveness and tells companies all over the world how one can develop into extra productive with out hating the method. He additionally lately printed a brand new e-book How to Calm Your Mind: Find Presence and Productivity in Times of Anxiety.

Try the complete interview right here:

Right here I will share a few of the insights Chris shared with us throughout the interview.

The human mind is wired for distractions

We direct our consideration to each new and novel factor as a result of our mind rewards us with successful of this neurotransmitter – dopamine. Dopamine does not give us pleasure, but it surely makes us really feel like pleasure is on the way in which, so after we use our telephones, we really feel anticipation reasonably than pleasure, and we by no means actually attain a state of satisfaction. But it surely’s this fixed anticipation that retains the cycle of distraction going.

We’re so vulnerable to distractions as a result of we’re so dangerous at measuring our personal productiveness. After we are consistently distracted, our mind can not distinguish between true progress and empty occupation. When our thoughts is stimulated, we imagine that we’re progressing as a result of the gears of our thoughts are turning. We think about it as an indicator of our productiveness.

Additionally, after we attempt to focus, numerous issues get in our means that we did not count on and perceive in some ways, together with our personal thoughts. Our mind due to this fact has all these organic biases that we should actively fight. Additionally, with the addictive nature of our cellphone, saying no to distraction or putting in a distraction blocker on the pc to be extra targeted simply is not sufficient.

That is why we have now to manage our consideration. Our consideration is a useful resource that we should handle if we need to be productive and act with extra intention.

Tips on how to increase your focus by calming your thoughts

Having a extremely stimulated mind makes you vulnerable to stress and nervousness, which may have an effect on your capacity to remain targeted.

Researchers used to imagine that nervousness escalated from delicate to extreme, however the latest analysis signifies that nervousness isn’t just a spectrum of tension. It truly ranges from excessive nervousness to excessive calm, and is set by how lively our thoughts is and whether or not we really feel content material and nice within the current second.

The calmer we develop into, the extra productive we develop into as a result of we’re in a position to deliver a stage of thoughtfulness to the issues we do throughout the day. —Chris Bailey

Listed below are some methods to attempt to calm your thoughts:

1. Respect the pace of your thoughts

Folks typically rail in opposition to sluggish work, however for instance with mental work, we have now to respect the pace of our thoughts and work on the pace of our thoughts.

We won’t drive our minds to go quicker. It’ll run on the pace for which it’s designed. We have to think about how a lot of our work is psychological, requiring intensive thought and intentionality.

Velocity ​​is not the enemy of productiveness, it sustains us in methods we do not actually anticipate. —Chris Bailey

2. Join along with your future self

One of many causes we procrastinate is that we’re not related to our future.

If you happen to put the typical individual by an MRI mind scan and ask them to think about themselves sooner or later after which think about a celeb, the 2 mind scans could be almost an identical as a result of they noticed themselves as a stranger they weren’t with. had no connection. . Consequently, placing issues off is nearly like handing them over to a stranger.

The reality is, the extra seemingly we’re to attach with our future, the higher. Journaling and writing about your future self, in addition to planning your day and setting your intentions, are all good practices.

Personally, firstly of every day, I shortly transfer ahead in my head till the top of the day. I ask myself what three issues I want I had completed by the top of at the present time, and I phrase them very intentionally as if I have been stepping over the day and it at first of the day. Setting intentions in a means the place I feel again to a day I want I had. —Chris Bailey

So attempt to think about the place you may be on the finish of the 12 months, the top of the week, and the top of the day.

3. Bear in mind: it is typically if you appear the least busy that you just take advantage of progress

Chris illustrated this level with an instance:

The CEO of a Fortune 500 firm took a kind of nature walks to get away from the workplace and clear his thoughts of all of the conferences, emails, and issues. Throughout this stroll, his thoughts wandered and he had an concept that modified the course of his enterprise. It allowed him to develop and take advantage of important distinction in his profession, including tens of billions of {dollars} in worth to his enterprise. A nature stroll might be simpler than responding to a decade of emails by way of progress.

One other instance is after we learn a non-fiction e-book and take into consideration the way it pertains to what we do and the problems we face. An concept that falls into our psychological pond can ripple, cascade, and join with different concepts. We lastly have to shut the e-book and get out our pocket book as a result of we’re drowning in concepts.

There isn’t a productiveness. There’s solely proof of productiveness. —Chris Bailey

After we have a look at another person’s work, we simply must belief their productiveness alerts. It is arduous to gauge an individual’s true progress since you do not management all the pieces on their plate. Consequently, we are likely to interpret alerts that different persons are busy as indicators of their productiveness, and we do the identical for ourselves. Nonetheless, true productiveness is sluggish and deliberate.

4. Embrace boredom

The sensation we get after we go from a state of excessive stimulation to a state of low stimulation is named boredom. What most individuals do not understand is that boredom is an effective way to deliver our minds again to a decrease stage of stimulation the place we will focus extra deeply and the place concepts and plans emerge. This occurs as a result of our minds have extra freedom to wander.

The decrease peak of stimulation additionally results in a larger depth of calm, permitting us to deliver extra deliberation to no matter we do with much less stimulation. In truth, Chris tried to embrace boredom for an hour a day for 31 days.

In the course of the “boredom experiment,” Chris learn the iTunes phrases and circumstances, painted a canvas with a single coloration, and sat for an hour watching a clock tick by. He tried quite a lot of boring actions and located that on the finish of the experiment he did not thoughts boring actions. He realized that boredom was after we began making an attempt to make one thing new out of the scenario we have been in.

5. Meditate

Meditation is an artwork of specializing in the breath – the breath, the ins and outs of the flows; and the breath is extraordinarily boring.

(If) you may have interaction along with your breath, you may have interaction with absolutely anything. —Chris Bailey

Meditation helps with focus as a result of it leads us to search for new issues which are much less stimulating within the second. If you focus in your breath, your thoughts consistently wanders throughout meditation. However in case you can focus in your respiratory, you can too give attention to different issues. It is like a observe to sharpen our consideration.

Chris advisable meditating within the morning to start out the day on a constructive word with out instantly overstimulating our thoughts, which ends up in extra distraction, much less focus, fewer concepts and fewer plans for the remainder of the day.

Closing Ideas

After we are careworn or anxious, our minds are sometimes preoccupied with fear or racing ideas, making it troublesome to pay attention. We are able to quiet our minds and higher direct our consideration to the current second by cultivating stillness. It may assist us be extra productive and targeted in our each day actions, in addition to really feel extra current and engaged in them.

If you wish to study extra about how one can calm the thoughts to spice up your focus, take a look at Chris’ newest e-book Tips on how to Calm Your Thoughts on Amazon.