How to Stay Focused For Long Periods of Time (even on boring things)

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All right, how's it going, everybody? Welcome back to Better Ideas. Today we're talking about focus—how to focus, why you should focus, and yeah, that's basically about it. In a world where distraction is becoming more and more of a problem, where social media is designed like slot machines buzzing in your pocket, rewarding you with notifications and the prospect of human connection, it's really hard to just focus on something boring for a long period of time.

I get more and more questions in the comments section being like, "How do I focus on something I don't like focusing on?" or "Something I need to focus on, but it's just boring?" I'm here to help you with that. I've struggled with this my whole life. I thought I had ADHD for pretty much my entire life, and I might still have ADHD, but I think I fixed it without drugs.

A lot of it came down to some simple tips that I just had to practice pretty religiously, but it pretty much solved my focused problems. It didn't eliminate them completely; I still get distracted by video games and social media just like everyone else, but I'm actually able to stay focused for a really long period of time, and it's saved my life. So I want to save your life too.

We're gonna jump right into it. I was editing this video and I realized that the audio is all messed up for tip number one, so that's why it looks a little different.

Anyways, tip number one is to unstimulate. I don't know if you've ever noticed this, but whenever you're binging memes on Reddit or playing Apex, your brain is really stimulated. So when you try to hop into doing something slower-paced like reading a book or writing an essay, it's really, really hard to do that. That has a lot to do with the fact that you've conditioned your brain to expect these feel-good chemicals like dopamine and serotonin.

So when you're not getting that from something slower-paced like reading a book or writing an essay, it's really boring in comparison. What you should do to fix that is take a break from the stimulating activity that you were just doing. Take a walk, go to the gym, maybe go to the library and start reading a book. Meditation is really good; maybe take a hot shower—but you've already been in there for like half an hour, kind of a waste of time.

The point being: unstimulate your brain. Give yourself a reset. Stop activating it with so much stimulation. That way when you hop into doing something slower-paced, it actually feels like you're getting a natural amount of feel-good chemicals for doing it.

This is also why I am such a huge believer in doing your most important work first thing in the morning. Set a time where you can wake up a little earlier than you normally wake up to tackle that beast that you've been avoiding. You'll find that six to eight hours—or however much sleep you get in a night—when you've had six to eight hours to reset your brain, you'll find that boring activities are actually... you're actually able to focus on them a lot easier.

This might sound like basic advice, but one of the most powerful tools in your entire productivity arsenal is to put your phone on do not disturb mode. That way when you enter a flow state—which we'll talk about in the final tip—you're not pulled out of that flow state every two minutes because somebody sent you a meme or, like, let's see, what do I get notifications about? Yeah, someone sent me an email, somebody on an Instagram group chat, I don't know, posted something; there's a Discord thing.

It's all meaningless stuff. None of this is nearly as important as doing my most important video editing for Michael early in the morning. So stop letting other people spend your time for you. This morning productivity time is for you to do your most important work, so treat it with respect. All these other people who want your attention can get it later on in the day once you've done your duty.

Okay, tip number two: this is one of my personal favorites, and that is to create a sacred productivity playlist. So most people have a playlist that they listen to when they're trying to be productive or do homework or something like that. Usually, it's sort of minimal electronic background noise or some lo-fi chill hop or some alpha waves or whatever.

When you listen to a particular sound or if you get in the habit of listening to a particular kind of music while you're being productive, then your brain will start to make the association that that music is productivity music. Whenever you hear that music, you're way more likely to be productive when you listen to it.

That being said, it's kind of a blessing and a curse. You have to try really hard not to goof off when you're listening to your sacred productivity playlist because once you goof off while listening to that music, your brain will create that pathway and it'll be a lot easier to goof off again.

So if you don't make it an option, you can maintain the sacredness of that playlist, the sanctity of that playlist. Create a playlist that you only use for productivity. If you already have one but you've goofed off while listening to that music, make another one. Make new brain associations with that playlist and only be productive while you're listening to it.

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Tip number three is to use caffeine the right way. And yes, I am the guy who made a video about why you should quit caffeine, and I actually, and actually believe it or not, I'm not a complete hypocrite because I totally stand by everything I said in that video.

If you want to quit caffeine because you're finding you have too many peaks and valleys in your energy levels throughout the day, then I think quitting caffeine is a very constructive thing to do. Because when you quit caffeine, you get a more steady, reliable energy buzz throughout the day.

The reason why I've gotten back on caffeine is because I actually need more peaks and valleys throughout my day because I do super focus work for a short amount of time and then I'm done for the day. Or, you know, I will have to run some errands, and then there'll be another period of time where I need another caffeine boost, and for like two hours, I'm super focused again and then I'm done for the day. I have a really sporadic work schedule like that, so caffeine suits my needs well.

However, it's not enough to just guzzle back coffee without being methodical about it. So I have a couple tips on how to use caffeine the right way, or at least a smarter way. My first tip is to not have too much. If you're exceeding 300 milligrams of caffeine a day, you might want to consider toning it back a little bit, because after that I find that you're kind of—you’re too reliant on it. It's harder to wake up in the morning, you get crazy crashes, and you basically develop a pretty intense chemical dependency on caffeine.

So if you're under 300 milligrams, check mark number one. Check mark number two is to space out your caffeine intelligently. Don't have it all at once; otherwise, you'll have a huge crash. Try to space it out while not having an empty stomach because according to Caffeine Informer—which I've been doing a lot of research on—it's a really cool website to learn more about caffeine. They recommend you don't have caffeine on an empty stomach if you want to avoid the crash.

Lastly, I find that combining caffeine with L-theanine really helps mitigate the crash, helps mitigate the jitters, the anxiety, and all of that kind of temporary buzz you feel when you're on caffeine. It makes it longer lasting and more steady. So I would recommend getting yourself some L-theanine. Make sure you get the dosage correct. Don't listen to some random YouTuber before you put random pills in your mouth. Consult your doctor if you have concerns; look at the back of the bottle, all of that stuff. I am NOT responsible if you misuse L-theanine, but I'm pretty sure it's fairly harmless.

Anyways, before we dive into the final tip, let's just have a quick word from today's video sponsor, T Shandle.

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So there's this thing called the concentration hump—I just named it now; it's not an official term or anything like that. Maybe you've experienced this in your life: you finally are able to grab yourself, sit yourself down, and start to write your essay or file your taxes or read the book. You're at it for about five minutes, and then that sensation hits you where you really want to quit. Like it's becoming super boring; it's becoming unbearable. You're starting to lose focus, so then you quit and you go do something else, as if five minutes was enough to do any sort of meaningful work.

But that's because you didn't push through the concentration hump. If you're able to stick with an activity past the 20-minute mark, then you'll enter the flow state, in which doing that activity is way easier. You've probably had a crazy deadline that you, like, the fear of God has put into you, and you really just have to sit down and do it regardless if you enjoy it or not. You've probably found that once you sit down to do it, it's kind of hard at first, but after about 20 minutes of doing it, you start to get into a flow.

Then like things are happening around you, someone knocks on your door, and you're like, "Don't!" Like, don't! It's almost like you're so into doing that thing that nothing else in the world matters. You've entered the 11th dimension, and all you have is that thing in front of you—that's the flow state. If you can make it past the 20-minute mark, you can enter the flow state.

So tip number four is to be aware of the flow state. Try to stick with it uninterrupted for more than twenty minutes, and I guarantee you you'll enter a flow state, assuming that you have notifications turned off, which will just completely ruin the whole thing. You'll find that your most impactful creative work will be able to be accomplished with that hyper-focus that people seem to lack these days—you'll be a superpower.

So that's it! If you like this video, hit that like button. If you like videos like these in general, hit that subscribe button. Join the Facebook page; we have a Discord now! You can hear each other's voices, talk with each other. If you want to eliminate T Shandle ads in my videos, head over to my Patreon and start donating money so that I don't have to have ads in my videos.

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