1 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I kind of feel like 2 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 my attention spam is dying 3 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 knocks on the door 4 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 it's just like 5 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 whenever I try and do anything, 6 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I start craving some sort of distraction 7 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I can't just focus on one thing at a time 8 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 even if that thing is sleeping. 9 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 But I have things I wanna do, things I focus on 10 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I just don't 11 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 because refreshing Instagram is 12 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 always going to be easier 13 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 ... and it's a problem! 14 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And I'm tired of it. 15 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I am tired of feeling like my life is so far out of my own control. 16 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So today, 17 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 we are figuring out how to stop scrolling, 18 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and how to start paying attention. 19 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Thank you to our Patreons for supporting the channel, 20 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and headspace for sponsoring 21 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 a portion of this video. 22 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 With focused music, motivational exercises, 23 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 guided meditations, and more, 24 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 headspace has over a thousand pieces of content 25 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to help you be kind to your mind. 26 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 If you want to see how headspace might be helpful to you, 27 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 you can try it out completely for free for 60 days. 28 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 All you have to do is sign up 29 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 with our link in the description 30 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 or scan the QR code on screen. 31 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [slam] 32 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 So, what's in the box? 33 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [box opening] 34 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 This is an electroencephalogram, or an EEG. 35 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It measures electrical activity in the brain 36 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 which are associated with certain performance metrics 37 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 like attention, excitement and stress. 38 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Does that look good? How's that - How do I look? 39 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Now these things usually look a little bit more 40 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 threatening and wire-y, however 41 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I reached out to this brand called Emotiv 42 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that creates more simplified consumer options. 43 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 They gave me a little discount 44 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 so I could actually afford this for the video. 45 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And I look like a cyborg. 46 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I think it looks cute. 47 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Okay, so these are my brainwaves 48 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and if I focus on it 49 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 really hard 50 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 it should be able to translate these 51 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 into more understandable metrics... 52 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 like attention! Look at that! 53 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 You see the building of tension and spike in excitement; 54 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 that's my brain! 55 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I kind of feel like a videogame character and these are my stats. 56 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It's cool. 57 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Now I should note that EEG data can be pretty noisy 58 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and things like movement can really impact the results. 59 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 However, I think that having any level of recording is an improvement 60 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 because I basically never pay attention to my attention. 61 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It only every really comes up when I'm feeling guilty about my screentime, 62 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 or I realise that I've done nothing all day. 63 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 And only having these really infrequent and negative interactions with my problem 64 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 makes it really hard to be objective about the whole thing, 65 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 to understand how bad it actually is 66 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and see if it's getting better or worse. 67 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 But now, with the help of this brainscanner, 68 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I finally got to measure a baseline for my attention span 69 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 without getting bogged down by guilt, 70 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 or forgetting to focus on my focus. 71 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [typing] 72 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I wore the EEG while I worked, ate, exercised and relaxed. 73 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I did take it off a few times because it gets pretty uncomfortable 74 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 after really long stretches. 75 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Woah! 76 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 But, overall, it was pretty easy to ignore 77 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 while I just lived my life for the rest of the week. 78 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Alongside the EEG, I installed a program to automatically track 79 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 how often I switched tasks on my computer, 80 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and I recorded how many times I picked up my phone. 81 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Did you know that you can't actually export you screentime data! 82 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Then I wrote a quick script to compile all this data and visualise it. 83 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Here is my life for the past three days. 84 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Ooh. 85 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 The x-axis is the number of hours in a day. 86 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 These blue bars represent the number of times I picked up my phone. 87 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 This grey line tracks how productive I was at my computer, 88 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and these coloured lines are the median performance metrics from my EEG. 89 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 Now, some highlights include this moment 90 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 where I picked up my phone to start debugging the app that I was using to scan my brain, 91 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 and then I ended up [uh] opening Instagram and spending the next two hours on it. 92 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 [laughs] 93 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 However, during my meeting the next day 94 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I was like super interested and attentive, 95 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 right? Great? No. 96 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 It's because I kept picking up my phone! 97 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I was supposed to be on call! 98 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 I kept opening up Instagram! 99 99:59:59,999 --> 99:59:59,999 But it's not all bad news.