Always a pleasure to collaborate with After Skool to share science and health protocols. Thank you for the collaboration!

“A short attention span makes all of your perceptions and relationships shallow and unsatisfying.” Eckhart Tolle

SUMMARY: * mental focus is linked to visual focus * focus for 60-120 seconds on a very small region in front of you, e.g. a window on your screen * the finer the visual image, and the more you can focus on it, the better your mental focus will be * to focus auditory attention, close your eyes * the typical learning bout should be 90 minutes (ultradian cycle chart @ 18:37) * put the phone out of sight * use your alert hours for useful activities, not for scrolling social media or watching TV The rest of the video is interesting, but less actionable, except for what not to do: * Adderall doesn't improve focus, it improves alertness * people have given themselves ADHD by using smartphones and watching videos instead of reading

I totally needed to hear the part when he says " Don't give up that period of time (when you're most alert) for things that are meaningless, useless or not aligned with your goals." That makes so much sense for me when it comes to focus while working remotely. Thank you Dr. Huberman and After Skool. Shout out to the awesome Lefty Artist of this channel!

“Thinking is difficult, that’s why most people judge.”--Lao Tzu

Your attention is your most valuable asset. Don't waste it on things that are not aligned with your goals. Hopefully this channel serves as a resource to help you get closer to your goals. Big thank you to Andrew Huberman for sharing this useful information. If you like this video and want to help create more, please support After Skool on Patreon. Thank you! www.patreon.com/AfterSkool

*Instructions unclear, I can't even focus on this video*

I have adhd that is medically considered disabling, but I find that its much more manageable when I view tasks as self-care and growth than something I am forcing myself to do. I also find that quick forms of short clips of media like toktoks and reels and shorts are very consuming, so i just started avoiding them and only watching long videos or movies or shows if I want some low effort entertainment. I was honestly not suprised when he said adhd meds just increase alterness, because while mine help me become alert and willing to do things, the actual time I can focus is something I have to work on daily and train. Sleep, food, ect also affect it a lot more than some may think. Unmet physical needs leads to mental and emotional dysregulation.

Reading for about 30 minutes (in the morning) of some historical or philosophical texts helps me to stay focused throughout a day. And I am structural engineer. I learned about it about a year ago and assumed that it is just "repeating coincidence"! 😅

"Your attention is your most valuable asset. Dont waste it on things that are not aligned with your goals". Yes, definitely. Your attention is the most valuable thing to others as well. If they can convince you that your goals are aligned with giving them all your attention, then that seems rational and is what we will do. Salespeople call it "Closing the deal".

One of the most powerful tips I ever read which I employ regularly: when starting a new project, write the words "THIS IS FOCUS" in very large letters at the top of the page. Continue to write it, cascading down the page, making the letters smaller and smaller until you can't write them any longer. Exactly the same principle.

Amazing that our ancient Indian practice of Trataka advocates exactly the same. Thanks for putting this out there SO scientifically.

the most useful vid i watched in my life. Not even exaggerating.

This was informative. I've always had a strong sense of focus. I remember as I kid I could focus on something so intently, without blinking my mom would think it was creepy and would break my attention. I think I had a problem with focusing too much, I wouldn't sleep, eat or use the bathroom if I was focused on a project, work, homework assignments, or learning a new skill. However, over-focusing can make it hard for you to see the bigger picture or like me, neglect my basic needs. I would get burnt out, overwhelmed and exhausted yet, I won't take breaks which led to other issues as well. I had to learn to take breaks in between which was hard but, once I saw how I was able to perform even better when I gave myself time to breathe, I had to enforce them to have a better balance in my life.

Hunting is what helped me train my focus for long periods of time, I will say though, that long periods of intense focus will tire you out more than anything!

Live healthy, and do something you love to do (turn hobby into job). Best wishes everybody 😊

The visual focus practice feels very similar to my favourite way of entering a focused mindset, which is a counting breaths meditation where you count each in and out breath while remaining aware of the movements of your breath in the body. You check in with your brain frequently to be aware of what your attention is on, if it’s wandered from your breath then you restart the count. From doing this I start at not being able to focus on it for even 3 seconds and get to 30seconds or longer and afterward focussing on something is so much easier. I believe becoming relaxed is also tied to improved focus (just not too relaxed too the point of sleepiness). ❤

This came at the perfect time for me as I know I’ve been distracted for some time and am ready to live a more intentional life. Thank you 🙏🏽

🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation: 00:00 🎙️ *Introduction to Improving Focus* - Mental focus follows visual focus. - Visual system capabilities: blurry vs. laser-focused. - Plasticity starts with alertness, which can be triggered by various factors, including love, joy, fear, and pharmacological methods like caffeine. 01:21 ☕ *Alertness and Focus: Caffeine and Adderall* - Caffeine as a tool for increasing alertness. - Adderall's chemical similarity to amphetamine and its impact on alertness. - Caution on the potential issues and abuse of Adderall. 03:07 👀 *Visual Focus and Acetylcholine System* - Visual focus options: small region with detail vs. dilated gaze with less detail. - Relationship between visual focus and acetylcholine release. - Behavioral practices anchored in visual focus enhance depth and duration of focus. 04:57 🕊️ *Virgin's Eye Movement and Neural Activation* - Explanation of a virgin's eye movement. - Activation of neurons in the brainstem triggering norepinephrine, epinephrine, and acetylcholine release. - Importance of practicing visual focus at the specific distance relevant to the task. 08:11 👁️ *Visual Focus Practice for Improved Attention* - Practical advice for practicing visual focus. - Importance of fine visual images for higher attention levels. - The relationship between reduced blinking, focus, and maintaining a mental tunnel of focus. 09:35 🤔 *Attention Drift and Re-anchoring* - The natural drift of attention and the need to re-anchor it. - Strategies to maintain visual focus even as attention drifts. - The impact of blinking on maintaining mental focus. 13:00 📱 *Phone Usage, Movies, and Passive Experiences* - Phone design and its impact on limiting visual attention. - Caution on excessive consumption of passive content like movies. - Balancing neurochemical resources for active learning versus passive experiences. 15:45 ⏲️ *Duration of Focus and Learning Bouts* - Ideal duration of focused learning bouts (about 90 minutes). - The importance of eliminating distractions during focused learning. - Incorporating breaks and disengagement for effective plasticity. 17:08 ⏰ *Peak Alertness and Learning* - Understanding personal peak alertness during the day. - Aligning learning activities with peak alertness for optimal results. - Recognizing the valuable asset of peak alertness for meaningful tasks. 18:37 💡 *Attention as a Learnable Skill* - Attention as a learnable skill critical for neuroplasticity. - The need to avoid prolonged attempts to focus continuously. - Utilizing breaks and disengagement for accelerated plasticity. 19:56 🎧 *Conclusion and Further Resources* - Promoting the Huberman Lab podcast for more tools related to mental health, physical health, and performance. - Encouraging exploration of science-based tools on various platforms. - Providing links to Huberman Lab on social media and hubermanlab.com. Made with HARPA AI

Huberman is a gift to this world

Self love taught me to focus on myself and on things that are going to matter at the moment. I no longer get tempted or distracted to do unnecessary things. I have no thrill for it anymore. Focused on being a better person more and more each day ❤

I close my eyes when I share deeper thoughts. I have aphantasia from birth and so I make the outside the inside (veiled, a curtain which translates the images I know exist into ideation and conception), which helps me to allow my unconscious mind to more easily bridge the gap to the conscious. I rarely actively think ahead, like even as I write this. My conscious mind isn't controlling the flow of what I'm writing, it's just perceiving it and fixing grammatical or spelling errors as I'm writing, acting as the analyzer which provides for the subconscious to flow along the course I'm trying to project. It's a really weird state of consciousness and I figured it out independently by questioning my experience, then found aphantasia when it was still fairly obscure in 2013-2015 or so.

I always enjoy listening to Andrew Huberman! He is very skilled at explaining concepts in an easily digestible yet mentally stimulating fashion

I used to use the visual focus training while meditating, however instead of actually focusing on something you can visually see it was an object I'd create in my mind with eyes closed. It's crazy when you see how little control you have over yourself when you begin the battle of self control over constant stimulation. It's well worth it though to actually overcome yourself for an entire day without temptation leading you back to distraction.

Dr.Andrew has helped me so much since I discovered him precovid. Was delighted to see this collab.

Watching the video more and more, taught me to focus more on the video.

This came at the right time

This info is worth more than years worth of working with the wrong therapists. Thank you for sharing

Thank you so much for all the information and taking your time to explain them. May Gid richly bless you and your family

I love that they actually made us focus by putting the target on the screen to see, live, how visual focus for 40 secs will help you

Mr. Huberman and After Skool are the best combo ever! Best thing in the morning!!!

Love the animations. Holds my attention and helps me absorb the info. Thank you

Thankful for this channel & community. Hope everyone has a great day

Thank you for releasing these extraordinary videos.

and thats why i can watch these videos forever because they high contrast and dynamic

"A" Huberman glad to see him on AfterSkool 🙏

Hey man, I'm a pianist composer and I'm blind. Thanks so so much for talking and explaining about visually empaired folks like myself... Yes. I have always had a very high capacity for focus and memorising sounds, music, numbers and what happened on such and such day quickly \. So yes, it's not so much a struggle for me but more a question of understanding in what I differ without falling into common place cliches. THanks a lot keep it up!!!

One time I had a dream where I could see everything in perfect clarity. Everything looked focused all at the same time. It was like high definition everything. It was unreal. I couldn't "focus" because I just naturally could see everything perfectly. I could only experience that in a dream where my eyes weren't real, but thanks to the dream I know exactly what it feels like to see everything "in focus."

This is as usual a fantastic learning! Very applicable with tons of visuals only helping to reinforce the content in the video. Thank you for all your videos and podcasts!

KZfaq is so so good at leveraging this. Why can you skip it in 5 seconds? Because that's all they need. If your focusing, and that pops in when you don't anticipate it, and it burns a hole in your brain. Literally started typing this after a commercial because I lost focus and feel that image from the commercial burned in my eyeballs and creating agitation, not learning. Should be common knowledge that this is bad for everyone.

Thank you so much for these videos 🙏 I really enjoy them. The visuals help me process what is being said much better than without them.

Thank you, what an amazing collab this was. Props to the awesome artist. I totally lost focus when an ad popped up lol. Appreciate the information.

Thank you very much. I have noticed that some of my routine already incorporated some of your advice, like meditating and staring at a point. But now I know THE WHY.

Humans, animals, living things are amazing and scary at the same time. Thank you for this very real and precise video!

Again wanted to add, SUCH a brilliant lesson on all things attention. Thanks Andrew!

Thank you! When I really need to comprehend, I will close my eyes and just sit and listen. This allows me to visualize the words being spoken. I catch a lot of flack because others think I’m not paying attention. As far as my phone, I will turn it off and lock it up to give myself a break. This has been great information!

Bless up for this episode 🙏🏽

9:40 This is absolutely true. I actually turn my ear toward the person I'm listening to. It does wonders for focusing on speech.

These videos have changed my life. Thankyou

Thanks for sharing information that is more essential to each of us than all the politics, entertainment and social challenges we are flooded and confronted with everyday in a easy to understand way. Great content!

Thank you doctor. All I was looking for to get focus, you served in 20 min. Genious animation made me focus better on the video. Also I learned to rest in between and not force to be focused all day.

Yeah when i get distracted by the visuals of this video, i looked away to focus on the audio bc it's what i want to focus on. So cool that it also talked about it as i was doing it!

I consistently double back to this video, it is the best compact resource of all the facts you need to make a change

3:06 A benefit of only being able to focus well on one thing at a time is you can use that to take your focus off negative things by focusing on positive things. 9:57 Looking at people's body language or some visual that matches the audio helps me to listen and focus more. I don't like looking at people in real life tho cause it's uncomfortable. But closing the eyes can help some people do some activities like singing, playing instruments, or dancing, etc.

Again You and dr Andrew maid a huge impact on me can't be enough gratfull for you both

Wow! Thank you for the information. When I hear people speak to me I have to be close so I can hear their words and focus on what they are saying. It takes a lot of concentration, and if course losing hearing is challenging. On top of this trying to learn another language, and understand what is being said. I get so tired at the end of the day, I quickly fall asleep.

I really appreciate this video. A place where you can find unbiased indispensable information that makes sense.

Thank you for these gems.

This was great. I really resonate with the 90 minute performance cycles. Good advice. Several creative projects to get on to, so this gives me a solid way to go about it. Cheers!

Thank you Huberman, content was great very informative.

As someone who severely struggles with adhd thank you for this video hard to find good actionable steps to scientifically improve attention and focus

One of my favourites, Andrew Huberman! Hehe. I saw this in my feed hours ago, but I didn't get to it till now. Hehe. Awesome! :3

I think I agree with the point of this video 100% - I used to be so fukn active, did so much with my time but I got hurt and it slowed me down... and along the way I stopped doing anything and now I almost can't start at all!!! It is really troubling but I will admit there is also something attractive about just sitting back and constantly reading, watching some mindless videos but mostly videos on how this works, how to do that, etc... instructional and informative stuff so worth my time??? I am better now after years (years!) of tough going but just can't seem to get motivated for anything yet i still love learning and reading...

INCREDIBLE !!!!!!!!!!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS VIDEO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fascinating, thank you so much!

Thank you! Your videos have brought me so much further in life…

Thank you guys. You have helped me change my life ❤

So nice to hear some advice about focus that isn't the same thing I've heard vomited up by every other article

Beautiful stuff guys. As someone who holds a podcast for helping aspiring entrepreneurs, it’s definitely a challenge having to build a platform and work my way around the attention span disorder happening in society. Nonetheless, the work you guys are doing is so important for bringing awareness to what really matters in life. Much love 🤲🏽🌱

I need to bookmark this and watch it again! Really helpful, thank you

This makes me feel better about looking away at nothing when listening. I do it out of habit because it helps me focus on what is being said. But have been told it comes off as rude

thank you, this was so good and needed. I enjoyed the videos and the takeaways from this video are so interesting that I want to apply them right away. So innovative and appropriate

This makes a lot of sense because I’ve always been able to focus well & have also had a problem with not blinking enough. My eyes get dry because of it.

Thank you - this presentation was inspiring😊

Most his studies are simply giving spiritual practices scientific words and explaining it to a scientific audience.. Which is amazing.

I love that they actually made us focus by putting the target on the screen to see

Wild how this got recommended to me right after I took twice my normal ADHD prescription dose. Algorithm synchronicity ❤

Thanks SO MUCH for your knowledge and time for Us 😃!!!

thank you . great video.

So useful! I'm definitely going to implement many of the thing's mentioned in this video.

This is actually super helpful! Thank you!

Loved It!! thank you

One of the best episode.keep going.

I'm 62 years old 😅 I'd have passed school with honors if I'd been able to learn with my instructor and information had been given to me with a system like After School 💯 😅😊🎉

"Attention can be learned" and yes, I'm actually re-learning it. After years of scrolling, which began way before my first smartphone, with forums and newsreaders, I feel my attention span and ability to focus and to learn have been shattered. Thanks for sharing these resources!

Thank you so much for this.

Thank you for your valuable advice.

Thanks a lot for this video. I'll use these new tips in my daily work !

such a powerful knowledge

Thank you for this video it’s so helpful

This is critical in an age of digital distraction. Thanks!

This is incredible! I use three screens at work and at times I absolutely cannot focus on my work no matter how hard I try. I am going to start using just one screen when possible

Amazing how well this worked for me. Seemed to really come together via visual focus. Totally underestimated the eyes being the portal to the brain. Makes total sense. Thank you @hubermanlab

Incredible content and presentation, Thank you

Great one. Thank you!

thank you Huberman i alaways watch your videos to lear and grow as well as to improve my english. actually i am from Uzbekistan. bunch of "hello"s from uzbekistan

Thanks for the valuable information.

Thank you for this video!

Thank you. This video IS very informative 👍

THANK YOU!