9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I kind of feel like 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 my attention spam is dying 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 knocks on the door 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 it's just like 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 whenever I try and do anything, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I start craving some sort of distraction 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I can't just focus on one thing at a time 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 even if that thing is sleeping. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But I have things I wanna do, things I focus on 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I just don't 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 because refreshing Instagram is 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 always going to be easier 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 ... and it's a problem! 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And I'm tired of it. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I am tired of feeling like my life is [br]so far out of my own control. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So today, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 we are figuring out how to stop scrolling, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and how to start paying attention. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Thank you to our Patreons for [br]supporting the channel, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and headspace for sponsoring 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 a portion of this video. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 With focused music, motivational exercises, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 guided meditations, and more, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 headspace has over a thousand [br]pieces of content 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to help you be kind to your mind. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 If you want to see how headspace[br]might be helpful to you, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you can try it out completely for free[br]for 60 days. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 All you have to do is sign up 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 with our link in the description 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 or scan the QR code on screen. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 [slam] 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So, what's in the box? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 [box opening] 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 This is an electroencephalogram, [br]or an EEG. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It measures electrical activity in the brain 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 which are associated with certain[br]performance metrics 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 like attention, excitement and stress. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Does that look good?[br]How's that - How do I look? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Now these things usually look[br]a little bit more 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 threatening and wire-y,[br]however 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I reached out to this brand[br]called Emotiv 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that creates more simplified[br]consumer options. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 They gave me a little discount 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 so I could actually afford this[br]for the video. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And I look like a cyborg. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I think it looks cute. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Okay, so these are my brainwaves 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and if I focus on it 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 really hard 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 it should be able to translate these 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 into more understandable metrics... 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 like attention![br]Look at that! 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 You see the building of tension[br]and spike in excitement; 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that's my brain! 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I kind of feel like a videogame character[br]and these are my stats. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It's cool. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Now I should note that EEG data[br]can be pretty noisy 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and things like movement [br]can really impact the results. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 However, I think that having any level of [br]recording is an improvement 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 because I basically never pay attention[br]to my attention. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It only every really comes up when[br]I'm feeling guilty about my screentime, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 or I realise that [br]I've done nothing all day. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And only having these really infrequent[br]and negative interactions with my problem 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 makes it really hard to be [br]objective about the whole thing, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to understand how bad it actually is 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and see if it's getting better or worse. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But now, with the help of this brainscanner, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I finally got to measure a [br]baseline for my attention span 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 without getting bogged down by guilt, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 or forgetting to focus on my focus. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 [typing] 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I wore the EEG while I worked, ate,[br]exercised and relaxed. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I did take it off a few times[br]because it gets pretty uncomfortable 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 after really long stretches. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Woah! 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But, overall, [br]it was pretty easy to ignore 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 while I just lived my life [br]for the rest of the week. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Alongside the EEG, I installed[br]a program to automatically track 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 how often I switched tasks on my computer, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and I recorded [br]how many times I picked up my phone. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Did you know that you can't actually[br]export you screentime data! 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Then I wrote a quick script[br]to compile all this data and visualise it. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Here is my life for the past three days. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Ooh. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The x-axis is the number of hours in a day. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 These blue bars represent the [br]number of times I picked up my phone. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 This grey line tracks how productive[br]I was at my computer, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and these coloured lines are the median[br]performance metrics from my EEG. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Now, some highlights include this moment 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 where I picked up my phone to start [br]debugging the app that I was using to scan my brain, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and then I ended up [uh] opening Instagram[br]and spending the next two hours on it. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 [laughs] 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 However, during my meeting the next day 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I was like super interested and attentive, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 right? Great? No. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It's because I kept picking up my phone! 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I was supposed to be on call! 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I kept opening up Instagram! 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But it's not all bad news.