(relaxed music)
- You know, as someone who wants to taper off caffeine,
I'm not doing a very good job.
Having an espresso machine right next to my desk
is very dangerous and probably a stupid idea.
So you know what's pretty crazy?
The human brain is pretty crazy.
It's such a fascinating machine,
and we barely have scratched the surface
of what it's capable of.
But for that very reason,
we don't really understand it fully.
Like why is it that some days it seems like our friend,
like we're full of confidence, full of energy,
witty, sharp as a tack,
while other days it feels like our enemy.
You know, you feel lethargic, you feel sluggish.
It feels like someone just poured over a wad of molasses
over your brain, and it's just slowing down
all the gears of your mind.
And on these days, it seems to completely sabotage
our ability to focus or remember in the short term,
or even the long term.
Basically, it just screws over our brain completely.
This dilapidated state is often referred to as brain fog,
and, according to the internet,
is characterized primarily by a lack of mental clarity,
inability to focus and a decreased function
of working memory.
But why does this happen and how can we prevent it?
Over the past couple of years,
I've been trying to answer this question.
Because brain fog sucks,
especially, if you have an important meeting or a date,
or you're interacting with people a lot of the time,
or you have to solve a problem.
A lot of days you can't afford to be
in this state of brain fog.
You're presenting to the world like the worst possible
version of yourself, and it's annoying.
So in this video, we're gonna go over
three powerful strategies to clear up that mental bleh.
We're gonna go over three reasons
why you probably have brain fog and how to fix them,
how to fix them,
how to fix them, how to catch them all.
Factor number one is overstimulation.
I think it was Tim Ferriss who said
that we live in a digital environment
where attention is currency.
All of these different companies,
all these different websites, these advertisers,
they want your attention because they can monetize it.
Whenever you click on something, somebody gets paid.
Whenever you watch something, somebody gets paid.
Even on this channel, I have ads before my videos,
unless you have ad blocker and turned it off.
If that's the case, that's fine.
I'm not picky about it.
I'm making like $6 off these videos anyways.
Moral of the story is everybody wants your attention.
What this means for you is if you spend a lot of time
on the internet and around screens,
inevitably your attention is gonna be completely dispersed
in a thousand different directions.
And if you spend a long enough time doing this,
you start to get used to having your attention fragmented.
YouTube is a perfect example of this.
Clickbait on YouTube is so powerful
because of something called supernormal stimulus.
I'll put a link in the description
to my favorite comic on this.
I mean, I don't read comics too often,
but there's actually a really, really good comic
on supernormal stimulus,
what it is and how you can fix it, or not fix it,
it's just a phenomenon.
It's a psychological phenomenon.
Improvement Pill has YouTube channel called
the "Dopamine Fast," or it's about a dopamine fast.
It talks about having a single day
where you drink nothing but water,
and, yeah, you don't intake any information.
You can only output information.
This is obviously a very extreme example.
And if you don't live like a Shaolin monk,
you probably have errands to run on a Saturday.
So you probably don't have time to do nothing all day,
like a scheduled day where you do nothing.
But it is a really cool concept.
And I still think you should check the video out.
But what I think is a lot more practical of a solution
is to practice meditation.
I know I talk about meditation all the time,
but it's so powerful in this day and age
because people can't sit still with themselves
for more than five minutes.
And it trains you to collect this scattered focus of yours
and redirect it into doing something super boring.
What's more boring than sitting there by yourself,
doing nothing?
And after you develop this muscle of being able to do that,
you can focus on conversations better.
You'll be able to focus on a math problem.
So reducing social media use, bad screen time
and learning how to meditate,
or just focusing on doing something slower pace
for an extended period of time,
you will train yourself to stop being so scattered,
so foggy, so in your head
and really focus in on what's in front of you,
and it'll help with your brain fog a lot.
(upbeat music)
So one of the best ways to clear up that brain fog
and become more present, and focused,
and dialed in is to prevent being scattered
in the first place.
Say, you have to write a paper,
and the deadline is one month from now.
You have some clear days where you could work on your paper,
but you say to yourself, "Oh, it's due a month from now.
I can definitely do it three weeks before."
And then three weeks before comes, and you're like,
"I can do it two weeks before."
Every time you do that,
you're not forgetting about this deadline.
You're just giving it to your subconscious to worry about.
And the more things your subconscious has to worry about,
the more scattered you become.
Just because it isn't on the front lines of your brain
and the thing that you're actively thinking about
all the time, you're still thinking about it.
Subconsciously, you're worrying about it.
And the more things you give to your subconscious
to worry about, the worst your brain fog gets.
So just get it done
so you don't have to worry about it anymore
and you can just focus on the task at hand.
So tip number one is don't procrastinate.
And tip number two is to write down your goals,
objectives and tasks.
Say, you meet a friend on the street
that you haven't seen for a while and you catch up,
you have a great conversation, and they say,
"Hey, let's meet up Tuesday afternoon and let's grab lunch."
And you say, "Yeah, that sounds like a great idea.
I'll see you then."
And then you depart.
You depart, I said that archaically,
you depart from each other.
Write that down.
Schedule it in, set a reminder on your phone
so that you can forget about it.
Don't give it to your subconscious to have to worry about.
You're just gonna be thinking, "Tuesday afternoon,
I've got a dinner, dinner date.
Tuesday afternoon I've got a lunch date with Kevin."
And that makes your attention to everything else
for that entire week reduced
because you're just gonna be thinking
about this lunch date with Kevin that you have to remember.
This is dumb.
Every time that you have a task to do,
every time have something scheduled,
you agree to something, write it down,
set a reminder on your phone
so that you can forget about it.
It'll free up mental RAM,
and it'll bring your subconscious soup you have going on,
it'll reduce the ingredients of that soup,
giving you a nice, clear broth
that will help your brain operate better.
(coughs)
It's so hot in here.
I look terrible, holy.
Take it from somebody who has struggled through anxiety
his entire life, has pretty much conquered it.
Not having things to worry about
completely reduces your anxiety.
Not completely.
I can't diagnose you and say like,
"Oh yeah, if you schedule your day,
your anxiety disorder will go away."
That's not what I'm saying.
I'm saying that you're doing yourself a lot of favors
if you become more organized,
you don't procrastinate,
and you have less things to worry about in general.
So tip number two is all about being on top of things.
(upbeat music)
Okay, factor number three is general health.
This one's not gonna be a long one.
There's a million videos on how to optimize your health.
Going to sleep on time, waking up at a decent hour,
getting enough sleep, all that yada yada yada.
I have a million videos about sleep.
Actually, I probably only have two. Whatever.
For most people that means between seven and nine hours
of sleep per night,
or 7 1/2 and 8 1/2 hours of sleep per night,
stay hydrated, eat good food and exercise.
Everybody knows these things,
but almost nobody does all of them correctly.
So if you feel like you've tried everything
to reduce brain fog,
and you haven't tried to optimize your health,
you're doing yourself a huge disservice.
And the biggest one of all of these probably,
in my experience, is getting exercise.
There's a video from a channel called "What I've Learned"
about the cognitive benefits of exercise.
And in this video, he talks about how
whenever someone talks about the benefits of exercise,
they talk about reduced heart disease
and maybe the ability to, you know, not get a stroke
when you're older, it's all.
Basically, exercise isn't sold very well.
Almost nobody talks about the cognitive benefits
that you receive from exercise.
If exercise was sold in a pill,
it would be the best-selling pill ever.
If exercise was sold in a pill,
it would be the closest thing to NZT 48
you could possibly find.
I've started weightlifting five days a week
over the past couple of weeks,
and I'm gonna continue to do so.
Mostly because it makes me feel amazing.
And I'm not even talking about my bodily energy.
I'm talking about my mental energy.
I'm on the ball these days.
I don't know if you could tell, but I'm just like,
I'm sick these days.
I attribute a lot of that to exercise.
My diet hasn't changed much,
I've been heating more protein,
and I've been staying hydrated.
But there's something about exerting yourself
every single day.
It's almost like your body and mind learn
that you're an energetic person,
and it gives you all this energy for free.
It's amazing.
So that's about it, guys.
If you take all three of these factors into account,
I guarantee you, unless there's something seriously wrong
with you and you need to see a doctor,
your brain fog will significantly reduce.
You'll become a focused tiger.
10 times more attractive, five times more focused,
three times more productive,
and one times more yourself.
And probably less friends 'cause they'll all be jealous.
Okay guys, before you go, I have relaunched my Patreon.
By being my patron, not only do you get to support
the channel and help me make better ideas, better ideas?
I mean, yeah, better ideas videos,
but you helped me make better videos in general.
All you need to be is a $1 patron to unlock my vlog.
But there are two more tiers of rewards.
If you become a tier two patron, the Doer,
you unlock the bi-weekly live stream,
which is specifically dedicated to answering your questions
live in front of the camera.
You might also get to see me play
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It's a rarity.
I don't play very many video games these days,
but it could happen.
And the final tier, if you become a level three patron,
you're just the greatest human being who ever lived.
I would appreciate you like no one else.
I would favor your opinion over everyone else's,
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It's basically just a really good gig for you.
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And finally, if you're not part
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People are posting all the time.
We have a group chat, people are casually asking questions.
It's fantastic.
The link for that is in the description as well.
Thanks for watching, and we'll catch you in the next video.
(soft music)