Джон Харгрейв - Mind Hacking [How to Change Your Mind for Good in 21 Days]

• Internet distractions.Whether it’s checking your stock portfolio or updating your fantasy football team, we pay heavy attention tax on Internet distractions. It’s okay to allow yourself these distractions, but ideally as “rewards” for periods of focused concentration. By flipping the model on its head—using Internet distractions as rewards for completing difficult work, rather than avoiding it—you can greatly improve your concentration as well as your quality of work.

• Audible and visual notifications.App developers and software companies have a vested interest in getting you to use their products . Therefore, they have developed a wide array of attention-getting devices to remind you to check in—icons, messages, notifications, beeps, boops, and ding-dong aroogah s. Like Pavlov’s dogs, these train us to expect a quick hit of satisfaction whenever the bell rings—so turn off the bell . Get the icons out of your system tray! Turn off notifications! Ruthlessly uninstall!

• Media.Do you switch on the TV as soon as you enter the house? Do you turn on a podcast as soon as you get in the car? We are voracious consumers of media, binge-viewing entire seasons of TV, watching sports games as we eat in restaurants, keeping “one eye on the TV” as we do our daily tasks. Instead of making media consumption your default activity, with brief periods of silence, try to make silence your default activity, with planned entertainment breaks of TV, radio, or movies. Silence is golden.

• Email.Eliminate! Filter! Unsubscribe! Do you really need the daily Doctor Who Digest, or the impassioned pleas to save the chickens in El Salvador? It’s true that individual emails are easy to delete, but each mailing list you get off eliminates dozens of micro-distractions and deletions in the future. They add up.

To begin, you’re only investing an hour in cleaning up these distractions. Set a timer, and stop when the hour is up. Don’t fall into the ironic trap of wasting the next week trying to reclaim your time. You’re not after perfection, just simplification; you can always continue to simplify later. In other words, simplification is a process . It’s much better to start with an hour, then set a recurring appointment in your calendar to review and eliminate further once a month. Keep it simple, Skywalker.

MIND GAME

The One-Hour Investment

Spend one hour cleaning out or turning off unnecessary digital distractions, including:

• Instant messaging

• Text messaging

• Notifications and alerts

• Time-wasting Internet sites

• Unnecessary emails

Set a recurring appointment in your calendar for a monthly review to eliminate further.

Count the number of digital distractions you turned off, and record that number in your practice sheet.

Retraining Your Mind

“If you just sit and observe, you will see how restless your mind is. If you try to calm it, it only makes it worse, but over time it does calm, and when it does, there’s room to hear more subtle things. You see so much more than you could see before. It’s a discipline; you have to practice it.”

—Steve Jobs 6

The basic concentration game is simple—so simple, in fact, that you may be tempted to ignore or discount it. Some people call it “meditation” or “mindfulness,” but I prefer to call it concentration training , since that’s what it is. Your mind hacking success rests largely with the seriousness and tenacity with which you approach this basic game. Like chess, it offers a lifelong challenge of mastery.

• Find a comfortable place to sit where it’s reasonably quiet and you’re free from distractions.

• Sit with your legs crossed or your feet on the ground. If you find yourself getting drowsy, stand.

• Close your eyes and focus on your breath.

• Relax each part of your body, starting from the top of your head, your forehead, eyes, cheeks, mouth, jaw, etc., down through your toes, then back up again. This should take two to three minutes.

• Mentally tell your mind what you are going to do, e.g., For the next twenty minutes, I will focus on the breath, so that I may develop superhuman concentration .

• Now focus on the breath at the center of the nostrils.

• When you find yourself following your mind (“lost in the movie”), simply redirect it back to the breath at the nostrils. Score +1 point for noticing and calmly redirect back to your breath. (Keep track of your points on your fingers or in your head.)

• You can set a soft timer or alarm for twenty minutes, though eventually you will get a feel for when twenty minutes have passed.

• Remember to write down your final score (the number of times you caught your mind wandering) on your practice sheet.

Make it your goal to practice faithfully, and you will see the benefits. Studies show this type of game will improve attention, 7regulate emotions, 8keep you healthier, 9make your relationships better, 10and even make you feel good. 11It’s scientifically proven to nourish, revitalize, and refresh both you and your mind.

How to Make This a Habit

Practicing for twenty minutes a day is a terrific goal: just wake up half an hour earlier. If your schedule doesn’t allow it, then do fifteen, ten, or even five minutes to start. The trick to succeeding over the long term is to make this concentration game a habit . As with getting your body in shape with regular physical exercise, getting your mind in shape requires developing a routine that integrates this exercise into your lifestyle.

In his book The Power of Habit , Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Charles Duhigg proposes that we can more easily create new habits by “bookending” them with a cue to start the habit, as well as a reward once we’ve completed the habit. 12For example, if we’re trying to create a habit of daily exercise, we might always set our running shoes by the bed as a visual cue upon waking, and always treat ourselves to a post-workout smoothie reward when finished.

In order to turn the concentration game into a positive habit, then, you need to consciously set up a cue to begin, as well as a reward when complete. Here are some tips:

• Choose a consistent time.First thing in the morning is best, before your to-do list kicks in. Make it a part of your day-starting routine, as I do, and be sure to practice at the same time .

• Choose a consistent place.Pick somewhere you will not be disturbed; this can be your bedroom or a spare room. I have been known to practice in my car before work (often while parked).

• Choose a consistent reminder.Keep this book by your bed, or set out your favorite chair. You can also set a digital reminder like a phone alert (here’s where alerts can be a useful thing).

• Choose a consistent reward.The first reward is logging your score into your practice sheet, creating a positive feedback loop. Adding in a second healthy reward locks in that motivation: a shower, or breakfast, or music.

• Be consistentin your cue and reward. As with training children or pets, continuing to enforce the same routine, day after day, will help the practice habit stick.

• Practice, not perfection.Avoid all-or-nothing thinking, where you either stick to a perfect schedule or you don’t practice at all. The important thing is to keep practicing: If you miss a few days, just pick it back up!

Variations

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