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Things to do to 'unrot' your brain · Do You F*cking Mind?

0:10
Speaker 1: Hello, beautiful beans, and welcome to the podcast episode of Today.
0:15
Speaker 1: This is kind of like a part two of the
0:16
Speaker 1: most recent episode that I did, and it was all
0:18
Speaker 1: about cognitive fatigue or just fatigue in general, and how
0:22
Speaker 1: that is a form of mental fatigue, and how this
0:25
Speaker 1: concept of brain rot is also mental fatigue. So if
0:28
Speaker 1: you haven't yet listened to that episode and you want
0:30
Speaker 1: to kind of truly understand what is going on and
0:32
Speaker 1: how brain rot is mental fatigue, and how mental fatigue
0:37
Speaker 1: kind of affects almost every area of your life, then
0:39
Speaker 1: go check that out because it's going to give you
0:40
Speaker 1: some really good ideas and just a better understanding of
0:44
Speaker 1: where you're at and what you can do and if
0:46
Speaker 1: that even is you or if what you're going through
0:48
Speaker 1: is something completely different to that. So that's a really
0:49
Speaker 1: good episode to give you some insight into your brain,
0:53
Speaker 1: your mind, and your life. Anyway, this episode, we're going
0:56
Speaker 1: to be talking about things you can do about your
1:00
Speaker 1: quote unquote brain rot and how you're going to and
1:03
Speaker 1: I say this with inverted commas unwrot your brain. That's
1:06
Speaker 1: not a scientific term at all, And I'm going to
1:09
Speaker 1: explain why because I'll give you I'll explain all of
1:12
Speaker 1: that in a second. But before we do get into it,
1:14
Speaker 1: if you haven't already, go check out my substack. It's
1:17
Speaker 1: notes on the mind dot substack dot com. There I
1:21
Speaker 1: have written work that I put out every week. There
1:23
Speaker 1: is also a paid tier. If you are part of
1:25
Speaker 1: that paid t you get extra paid content, different articles
1:30
Speaker 1: that I put out, different you know, substick articles that
1:32
Speaker 1: I'm putting out. You also get access to the Hotel
1:35
Speaker 1: Mindset membership. So that's affirmations, challenges, fucking guided statements, meditation, soundscape,
1:44
Speaker 1: sleep stories, absolutely everything on there as part of the membership. Okay,
1:48
Speaker 1: so that's all wrapped up into one membership. So anyone
1:50
Speaker 1: who joins my paid substack tier gets access and direct
1:54
Speaker 1: membership into Hotel Mindset. So let's talk about what we're
1:58
Speaker 1: talking about in today's episode, which is the Year of
2:00
Speaker 1: Unrotting your brain? Now? Is I had a listener question recently.
2:04
Speaker 1: I might even play that right now if I remember
2:06
Speaker 1: to slotted in lulf Hi.
2:08
Speaker 2: Alexis longtime listener from Sydney here and I have an
2:11
Speaker 2: interesting brain question for you. I want to know how
2:15
Speaker 2: real is brain rot and is it reversible? I am
2:20
Speaker 2: what I would call a self inflicted victim of brain rot.
2:26
Speaker 2: After living on my own for a very long time,
2:29
Speaker 2: I have become too reliant on my phone for not
2:33
Speaker 2: only entertainment but also social connection. And I know it's
2:37
Speaker 2: not real connection. Basically doom scrolling, spending too much time
2:43
Speaker 2: on social media, checking my phone way too many times
2:46
Speaker 2: a day, all of that good stuff that's not good
2:51
Speaker 2: at all. Now I would like to know. I have
2:55
Speaker 2: recently gotten into the habit of reading before bed instead
2:59
Speaker 2: of scrolling, and my sleep quality has exponentially improved. I
3:04
Speaker 2: feel better in general, and I feel like my brain
3:08
Speaker 2: power is increasing, which is fantastic. And I'm going to keep,
3:12
Speaker 2: you know, going down this road. However, after years and
3:17
Speaker 2: years of overalliance on my phone, I want to know
3:20
Speaker 2: if I've actually done permanent damage to my brain. Can
3:23
Speaker 2: you heal brain rot? You know, fragmented attention, brain fuzz, overstimulation.
3:31
Speaker 2: Can you heal that? That's what I'd like to know.
3:34
Speaker 2: Love you so much, Thank you.
3:35
Speaker 1: This idea of brain rot, what exactly is happening in
3:38
Speaker 1: your brain? Is it reversible and is it like a
3:40
Speaker 1: kind of rotting? Know your brain is not rotting, obviously,
3:43
Speaker 1: that's just a term because it's kind of what it
3:45
Speaker 1: feels like. It feels like everything's falling apart. Our cognitive
3:48
Speaker 1: abilities just don't seem that sharp as what we know
3:51
Speaker 1: they're capable of being. We feel flat, we feel unmotivated,
3:56
Speaker 1: and the more we lean into behaviors that we feel
3:59
Speaker 1: a causing more of brain rot like doom scrolling and
4:02
Speaker 1: you know, rotting on the bed, rotten and all of that.
4:05
Speaker 1: It feels like it's just getting worse and worse. So
4:08
Speaker 1: the beauty of it is is, no, you're not causing technically,
4:11
Speaker 1: you're not causing permanent damage. But want to I want
4:14
Speaker 1: you to take that with a grain of salt. You're
4:17
Speaker 1: not causing permanent damage if it's something that you're willing
4:20
Speaker 1: to kind of stop and do something about, intercept and
4:22
Speaker 1: change it. However, permanent damage is a really difficult term
4:27
Speaker 1: to talk about when we talk about the brain because
4:29
Speaker 1: the brain is very adaptable and very plastic. But I
4:32
Speaker 1: don't want you to think, oh, well, if I'm not
4:33
Speaker 1: causing permanent damage, then I can kind of do this
4:36
Speaker 1: for a while now and then I can reverse it.
4:38
Speaker 1: The issue is when do we know when is the
4:40
Speaker 1: sweet spot to intercept and make a change in the brain. Yes,
4:43
Speaker 1: the brain is super dynamic, it is plastic. You can
4:45
Speaker 1: do a lot of self directed neuroplasticity through behavior and
4:48
Speaker 1: thought patterns and CBT and all of that. But the
4:52
Speaker 1: problem is, at what point, am am my behavior so
4:55
Speaker 1: detrimental to me that I don't have it in me
4:57
Speaker 1: to want to change that. I bring on us other
5:00
Speaker 1: conditions that make it harder and harder and harder for
5:02
Speaker 1: midted change that. It gets to a point where, yes,
5:05
Speaker 1: technically I could change my behavior, but I have zero
5:08
Speaker 1: drive left. I have zero motivation. Also, it's affecting every
5:11
Speaker 1: area in my life. All my relationships start to fail.
5:14
Speaker 1: I have no more creativity and no more drive. I'm suffering,
5:17
Speaker 1: you know, professionally, I'm suffering in my mat Like, at
5:20
Speaker 1: what point do you call something irreversible? If that makes sense. So,
5:24
Speaker 1: while your brain isn't technically rotting, you aren't contributing to
5:30
Speaker 1: kind of like a buffer in your brain. And when
5:34
Speaker 1: what I talk about a buffer is when you're doing
5:37
Speaker 1: cognitive tasks where you're always challenging your brain, you've got
5:39
Speaker 1: something called like a cognitive reserve. You're really building out
5:44
Speaker 1: all these networks. You're keeping all these networks really rich
5:47
Speaker 1: in your brain because you're using them, and if you
5:50
Speaker 1: don't use it, you lose it. And because you're using
5:52
Speaker 1: your brain so much, even when you do have atrophy,
5:56
Speaker 1: whether it's through injury or whether it's through just cognitive
5:58
Speaker 1: decline through old age, you're going to have a bit
6:01
Speaker 1: of a reserve there because you spend all this time,
6:03
Speaker 1: you know, physically moving your body, paying attention to your
6:06
Speaker 1: relationships in your life, also paying attention to creative tasks,
6:10
Speaker 1: to focus tasks. You're working on every aspect of your brain,
6:14
Speaker 1: and you're focusing on growing, growing, growing, challenging, challenging, challenging,
6:17
Speaker 1: challenging yourself. Kind of look at it like a muscle. Okay,
6:20
Speaker 1: if you have strong muscles and strong bones and you're
6:23
Speaker 1: always working on your bone density and your muscle density
6:27
Speaker 1: and all of that, and you have an injury, there's
6:29
Speaker 1: going to be a level of atrophy. Your bone density
6:32
Speaker 1: might go down a little bit because you're not able
6:33
Speaker 1: to move. Your muscles are going to atrophy a little
6:36
Speaker 1: bit because you're not able to move, But because you've
6:39
Speaker 1: got that buffer of denser bones and more muscle, the
6:43
Speaker 1: atrophy is nowhere near as bad and it's not going
6:46
Speaker 1: to affect you nowhere near as bad as if you
6:47
Speaker 1: were someone that was maybe really underweight with weak bones
6:51
Speaker 1: and weak muscles to start with, who then has an injury.
6:53
Speaker 1: So you want to look at the brain in that sense.
6:55
Speaker 1: So when we talk about brain rot, it's hard to
6:58
Speaker 1: say what point it becomes irreversible if that analogy that
7:02
Speaker 1: I just spoke about makes sense. So I don't say
7:04
Speaker 1: that to scare you, but I say that to say that, yes,
7:07
Speaker 1: the brain is very malleable, and yes there's so much
7:09
Speaker 1: that can be done, but I wouldn't take it for
7:11
Speaker 1: granted either, because there's many things that affect us in
7:14
Speaker 1: our life and blows that come our way that we
7:16
Speaker 1: need to be able to deal with. If you are
7:18
Speaker 1: setting your brain up to be one that is resilient,
7:22
Speaker 1: adaptable always, can you work well under pressure and does
7:27
Speaker 1: well with challenges, and is you know, cognitively capable, then
7:32
Speaker 1: if you adealt a blow that you have no control over,
7:35
Speaker 1: your ability to deal with that is going to be
7:36
Speaker 1: a lot better. It would be a shame if you
7:38
Speaker 1: take your brain for granted and you're constantly engaging in
7:41
Speaker 1: things that cause brain rot and you're not doing things
7:44
Speaker 1: to try and pull yourself out of that, and then
7:45
Speaker 1: you were dealt with a blow like maybe crazy grief,
7:48
Speaker 1: some mental health disorder, or you know, something that you've
7:51
Speaker 1: got to overcome, and you don't feel like you have
7:53
Speaker 1: the cognitive resources to tackle it the way someone would
7:57
Speaker 1: if they were always working on their you know, strengthening
7:59
Speaker 1: them brain. So I'm going to talk about this episode
8:05
Speaker 1: if you're not in that position of like, oh, I'm
8:08
Speaker 1: just gonna let it get too far gone, and I'm
8:09
Speaker 1: going to talk about things that you can really do
8:11
Speaker 1: to turn this brain rot around and to feel like
8:13
Speaker 1: you are really in control cognitively off your brain. There's
8:16
Speaker 1: so many things that you can do, and the beauty
8:18
Speaker 1: of it is every single thing that I mentioned here,
8:21
Speaker 1: I would say all of it, if not ninety nine
8:24
Speaker 1: point nine percent, is something that every single one if
8:27
Speaker 1: you can do with the resource that you have. I'm
8:29
Speaker 1: not trying to make something cost too much money or
8:31
Speaker 1: take way too much time. These are all things that
8:35
Speaker 1: if you want to, you can implement this into your day.
8:39
Speaker 1: I'm trying to set it up in a way that
8:40
Speaker 1: you have no excuse. And you know, I once heard
8:43
Speaker 1: this dentist talk about you only floss around the teeth
8:48
Speaker 1: that you want to keep. And I was like, that's
8:50
Speaker 1: such a good way of putting it, because when people
8:51
Speaker 1: are like, oh, I don't flass this and that, it's like,
8:53
Speaker 1: that's fine. Just floss around the teeth that you want
8:55
Speaker 1: to keep. You obviously want to keep all your fucking teeth.
8:57
Speaker 1: So that's like you have to floss every tooth. So
9:00
Speaker 1: I want to talk about looking at your brain. Is
9:02
Speaker 1: only work your brain if you want to keep it,
9:05
Speaker 1: and if you don't want to keep it, don't. It's
9:07
Speaker 1: like if he wanted to, he would. You've got to
9:09
Speaker 1: act that way when it comes to your brain, to
9:12
Speaker 1: your mental health, to your overall enjoyment of life. You
9:16
Speaker 1: have to you have to do what you can with
9:19
Speaker 1: the things that are within your control, because there is
9:22
Speaker 1: so much shit that's not within our control in our
9:24
Speaker 1: lives that we really need to harness what is and
9:28
Speaker 1: maximize every opportunity. Number one, so I've got sixteen points,
9:33
Speaker 1: cre I wouldn't be surprised if I then rattle off
9:35
Speaker 1: another fucking fifty after this. But Number one, find a time,
9:38
Speaker 1: ideally once a day, but if not once every second day,
9:42
Speaker 1: to eat in peace, sounds so basic and so boring,
9:46
Speaker 1: but you will be amazed at what you can do
9:48
Speaker 1: by taking one thing like eating, something that we have
9:51
Speaker 1: to do, and it's normally quite enjoyable when we eat
9:54
Speaker 1: and eat in peace. I just want you to focus
9:58
Speaker 1: on the food that you're eating. Just no TV, no podcast,
10:02
Speaker 1: no music, no one talking to you. Just sit and
10:05
Speaker 1: eat in peace. If it's your lunch break, you can
10:07
Speaker 1: have half the lunch break to have your coffee and
10:09
Speaker 1: chat with someone. But maybe you take fifteen minutes out
10:12
Speaker 1: or however long it takes you to eat your meal
10:14
Speaker 1: and just be Maybe it's your breakfast. You wake up
10:16
Speaker 1: super early because you're going to do all this other
10:18
Speaker 1: stuff before you start work, and that's your moment to
10:21
Speaker 1: eat in peace. Okay. I want you to have a
10:23
Speaker 1: task where you are focusing on every sensation, on the taste,
10:27
Speaker 1: on chewing, on just eat in peace. Okay, slow consumption,
10:33
Speaker 1: paying attention. This is really really good for the brain.
10:36
Speaker 1: These like tasks that don't require high focus where you're
10:39
Speaker 1: just allowing yourself to be number two. Do a little
10:43
Speaker 1: brain training game for yourself at the start of every day. Now,
10:46
Speaker 1: mind you can you can write all this down or
10:47
Speaker 1: you can just really listen to this episode. But number two,
10:50
Speaker 1: it's like do a little brain training game for yourself.
10:52
Speaker 1: So a good one. And this is really good to
10:54
Speaker 1: do with somebody else. It's good to do with someone
10:56
Speaker 1: else because you're hitting the social aspect of things that
10:59
Speaker 1: you that I think is super important every day, like
11:01
Speaker 1: real social connection. And it's also really good because it's
11:04
Speaker 1: great for your working memory and your recall. So where
11:08
Speaker 1: you're going to do You can do this on your own,
11:10
Speaker 1: but maybe do it with your partner or your best
11:11
Speaker 1: friend or your sibling or whatever. But I want you
11:13
Speaker 1: to get a list of five words in the morning.
11:16
Speaker 1: You cannot write it down, So this is where maybe
11:18
Speaker 1: you call. And it's obviously got to be said verbally.
11:20
Speaker 1: You can't be sent like written. It's got to be
11:23
Speaker 1: a verbal recall. So your partner can say five words.
11:26
Speaker 1: It could be like light happiness, book, chair, tomato, light happiness, book, whatebout.
11:36
Speaker 1: So that's five things, okay, And it could be a verb,
11:38
Speaker 1: it could be an object, it doesn't matter. Then you
11:42
Speaker 1: are going to just hear that list once and the
11:45
Speaker 1: goal is for you to then be able to repeat
11:47
Speaker 1: that list at the end of the day. Obviously, no cheating.
11:49
Speaker 1: You can't write this down. You have to try and
11:51
Speaker 1: recall it in your mind, and it triggers multiple times
11:55
Speaker 1: throughout the day to be like, fuck, what's that list? Okay,
11:57
Speaker 1: tomato chair. Then it starts to teach you how to
11:59
Speaker 1: try and make links between those five words in order
12:02
Speaker 1: for you to retain those five words by the end
12:05
Speaker 1: of the day. So there's gonna be many times where
12:07
Speaker 1: you don't actually remember all five words, and it's really
12:09
Speaker 1: not the end of the end of the world. It's
12:11
Speaker 1: just a good way to exercise the brain to get
12:14
Speaker 1: you focusing and working on your recall. This is something
12:17
Speaker 1: that we are getting worse and worse and worse at
12:19
Speaker 1: doing because things are too accessible. What was I doing
12:21
Speaker 1: last Sunday? I'm gonna look at my phone and look
12:23
Speaker 1: at what photos I have of that day and it
12:25
Speaker 1: will trigger like it would be that hook Okay, we
12:28
Speaker 1: lean way too heavily on hooks. What was that doing
12:31
Speaker 1: May last year? If I don't have any heavy, significant thing,
12:34
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna sit and be like, call, recall, recall,
12:36
Speaker 1: what could it be? What could it be? I'm straight
12:38
Speaker 1: away going into asking someone else for photo albums or whatever.
12:41
Speaker 1: Every time we need to remember a fact about something
12:44
Speaker 1: or a movie before we sit and really work out brain,
12:46
Speaker 1: that's like what could have been? You know that feeling
12:48
Speaker 1: of effort in the brain. We're googling it or we're
12:51
Speaker 1: going on chat japta and asking it. It's fine to
12:53
Speaker 1: reach out for these resources, but I think it's good
12:57
Speaker 1: to before you reach for the resource first, tried really
13:01
Speaker 1: sit there and try to remember, because that's a workout
13:04
Speaker 1: for your brain and you will get better and better
13:07
Speaker 1: and better. But you have to practice, and at the
13:09
Speaker 1: start you're gonna feel like a failure, especially if you're
13:11
Speaker 1: someone that's like, oh, I've got the worst recall. I've
13:12
Speaker 1: got the worst recall. Yeah, because you're never leaning on it.
13:15
Speaker 1: But you can work that and it can get better.
13:18
Speaker 1: So try that game. Do it with your partner, do
13:19
Speaker 1: it with a friend. Call each other. It could be
13:21
Speaker 1: a five minute call that you have with your best friend,
13:22
Speaker 1: like quick five words of the day, bang, mam mad bang.
13:24
Speaker 1: You do it to your friend and then at the
13:26
Speaker 1: end of the day you can either text each other
13:28
Speaker 1: what the five words were was say fuck I forgot
13:30
Speaker 1: I only remembered one or whatever.
13:34
Speaker 3: Number Three, make all social interactions a phone free zone
13:43
Speaker 3: from now on forever, unless.
13:45
Speaker 1: The phone is an active part of the interaction. So,
13:49
Speaker 1: for example, if you're taking a photo together, if you're
13:52
Speaker 1: filming something together, if you're filming a story that you
13:54
Speaker 1: want to upload, where you're both doing something that's active interactions.
13:58
Speaker 1: If you're like, fuck, oh my god, I've got a
13:59
Speaker 1: shh you this photo it's the funny. Of course you're
14:01
Speaker 1: pulling out your phone. So the phone absolutely can be
14:04
Speaker 1: a part of it. It is if it's relevant to
14:06
Speaker 1: the interaction or the conversation. What I mean is, don't
14:09
Speaker 1: ever again be that person who hangs out with a
14:13
Speaker 1: friend and all you do is sit together and start
14:14
Speaker 1: doom scrolling. Trust me, you will regret that later on
14:17
Speaker 1: in life. It is not worth it. Don't do it.
14:20
Speaker 1: Just don't do it. You've got here alone, time to
14:22
Speaker 1: do and scroll if you need to do and scroll. Like,
14:24
Speaker 1: we sometimes look at like certain behaviors that we get
14:28
Speaker 1: into and I'm like, this is actually unhinged that we
14:32
Speaker 1: will meet up with a friend when we complain that
14:34
Speaker 1: we don't have enough you know, time with our friends,
14:37
Speaker 1: or that we don't have enough friends that we want
14:38
Speaker 1: to make friends and then we behave like these fucking
14:40
Speaker 1: idiots doom scrolling when we're with our friends, Like what
14:43
Speaker 1: on what planet? Okay, so don't do that again. Yes,
14:46
Speaker 1: use your phone, whip it out if it's relevant, if
14:48
Speaker 1: you want to film stories, if you want to film
14:50
Speaker 1: stuff together, if you want to show your friends and
14:52
Speaker 1: photos that you took, if you whatever, even on Instagram,
14:55
Speaker 1: you could be like, I saw the findest video ever. Look,
14:57
Speaker 1: pull out the video, show them hahaha. Commentary. Put your
14:59
Speaker 1: phone away. You should never have your phone face up
15:02
Speaker 1: or down really when you're at a restaurant, unless you're like,
15:05
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I have to tap my phone here because
15:06
Speaker 1: I'm expecting a call, in which case you've flagged it
15:09
Speaker 1: and you've got it there so you can hear face down. Okay,
15:12
Speaker 1: But ideally you want to have your phone away when
15:15
Speaker 1: you were interacting with someone, when you're meeting up with
15:17
Speaker 1: a friend. You need to make these connections much deeper.
15:20
Speaker 1: And if you listen to the episode I did, I
15:23
Speaker 1: think it was actually in the last episode that I
15:24
Speaker 1: didn't trying to using my recall now when I was
15:27
Speaker 1: talking about the brain drain effect and this idea of
15:30
Speaker 1: just having your phone even locked next to you, knowing
15:34
Speaker 1: that it's there. It's pulling your cognitive resources because part
15:38
Speaker 1: of our cognitive resources is this. It's trying to inhibit something.
15:43
Speaker 1: So if we're like, don't check our phone, don't check
15:45
Speaker 1: our phone, even if it's subconscious, it might not be
15:47
Speaker 1: a conscious thing at the top of your mind, it
15:49
Speaker 1: is using up part of your cognitive effort. It's draining
15:52
Speaker 1: you because you're really focusing on like, don't check your phone.
15:55
Speaker 1: Oh it's there. Oh, could it be going off? Oh,
15:57
Speaker 1: it's actually pulling some attention away from you. Okay. So
16:03
Speaker 1: that's also yeah, number four and this is a great
16:11
Speaker 1: one and it doesn't okay. So number four is carry
16:14
Speaker 1: a book around. Now, you can make this a kindle,
16:18
Speaker 1: but ideally I don't want it to be a book
16:21
Speaker 1: on your phone because it's too easy to switch tasks
16:23
Speaker 1: on your phone and you see notifications come up. Okay.
16:25
Speaker 1: So it's either a book or a kindle, something that's
16:28
Speaker 1: just an e reader, okay, or a book and the
16:31
Speaker 1: moment you could scroll, I want you to pull out
16:34
Speaker 1: the book instead. If you're waiting for a bus, pull
16:37
Speaker 1: out the book. If you're on public transport, pull out
16:39
Speaker 1: the book. If you've arrived somewhere earlier than your friend has,
16:43
Speaker 1: pull out the book and start reading. You could also
16:45
Speaker 1: do this with a notebook if you prefer to take notes.
16:47
Speaker 1: If you're not the biggest reader, but you like to
16:49
Speaker 1: jop down ideas, great, pull out a notebook or one
16:51
Speaker 1: of those digital notebook things. But don't you can't be
16:54
Speaker 1: your phone, and I want you to start using that
16:58
Speaker 1: more and more and more. And this is where it
17:00
Speaker 1: gets really good. Like I said in the last one
17:03
Speaker 1: about make social interactions a phone free zone, you can't
17:05
Speaker 1: control your friends. You can't tell them to make it
17:07
Speaker 1: a phone free zone. You can suggest it, but ultimately,
17:09
Speaker 1: if they're going to be pulling out their phone, you're
17:11
Speaker 1: those friends that actually start scrolling while you're talking to
17:14
Speaker 1: them and it's literally just the two of you, and
17:15
Speaker 1: then they get their tune out and they start scrolling,
17:17
Speaker 1: which is in my opinion wild. But when someone does that,
17:21
Speaker 1: or when someone starts like responding to a text, but
17:24
Speaker 1: then they get carried away and they're like oh yeah,
17:26
Speaker 1: and they keep doing that, this is the perfect time
17:28
Speaker 1: to pull out a physical book and start reading it.
17:30
Speaker 1: Nothing screams I'm bored. If your company, I've got better
17:34
Speaker 1: things to do then pulling out a fucking novella and
17:39
Speaker 1: reading it at a table when someone's on their phone.
17:41
Speaker 1: If that doesn't shut them down and snap them into gear,
17:44
Speaker 1: nothing will. And then you've got a good story to
17:46
Speaker 1: read anyway. So that to me. And I've done this
17:49
Speaker 1: before and people be like, oh, sorry, sorry, I'm just
17:51
Speaker 1: not and I'm like, I'm actually interested in the story.
17:53
Speaker 1: If you're not interested in this conversation, I don't care.
17:56
Speaker 1: I've got a great story. It's a cliffhanger, okay, So
18:01
Speaker 1: do that and use it and read. And then you
18:03
Speaker 1: don't even get annoyed when someone's doing that. You're like, well,
18:05
Speaker 1: i'm learning more about you than I need to. I
18:07
Speaker 1: don't care. If you need to be on your phone,
18:08
Speaker 1: your problem. I've got a great book. I'm going to
18:10
Speaker 1: finish this coffee. And if you're going to be rude
18:13
Speaker 1: bon voyage bond fucking voyage number five. Choose one article
18:19
Speaker 1: a day to read. Something educational. It could be an
18:23
Speaker 1: article on Psychology Today, which is a website that publishes
18:26
Speaker 1: really great stuff about psychology. It could be like a
18:29
Speaker 1: journal article, which is a bit heavier reading in publishing
18:32
Speaker 1: a journal like Science or Neuron. It could be something
18:35
Speaker 1: about the political landscape. It could be something on how
18:39
Speaker 1: to improve your writing or how to plant a monster.
18:43
Speaker 1: And so it's not going to die. It doesn't matter.
18:45
Speaker 1: But I want you to read something that you are
18:46
Speaker 1: going to learn from any fucking genre that you want
18:50
Speaker 1: an article, And if you're like but I don't know
18:52
Speaker 1: where to start, there are so many places to start.
18:55
Speaker 1: Start looking up blogs that you could follow on anything
18:57
Speaker 1: that interests you. You could want to know the ins
19:00
Speaker 1: and outs of rugby rules. Great, read an article that
19:03
Speaker 1: teaches you more about that. It doesn't matter. One educational
19:07
Speaker 1: article a day. Number seven. I want you to engage
19:12
Speaker 1: more in cognitive friction. Okay, now I did mention the
19:16
Speaker 1: five words a day thing that is a form of
19:18
Speaker 1: cognitive friction, but ideally I would like you to do
19:21
Speaker 1: it more than just that one time in the day.
19:24
Speaker 1: So the five words is kind of the basic version
19:27
Speaker 1: of it. But then more cognitive friction is things such
19:31
Speaker 1: as a crossword puzzle. That's a great cognitive friction and
19:34
Speaker 1: it's one that you could do alone. Crossword puzzles require
19:37
Speaker 1: you to really think. Sometimes abstract thoughts. And sometimes if
19:43
Speaker 1: you do those what are those cryptic crosswords, that's hectic.
19:47
Speaker 1: I find those like sometimes really fun. Sometimes they're just
19:50
Speaker 1: like I'm like, I'm so annoyed at this thing. But
19:52
Speaker 1: that's good cognitive friction, I guess. And then in any case,
19:56
Speaker 1: it teaches you to use your recall. It's very good
19:59
Speaker 1: for problem solving and recall. So crosswords beautiful gold staff
20:04
Speaker 1: for cognitive friction. If you are not someone that loves crosswords,
20:08
Speaker 1: you could do this. You could play those games. There's
20:11
Speaker 1: apps that show you are just the outline of a country,
20:15
Speaker 1: and you have to remember the name of the country.
20:17
Speaker 1: You've got to learn what does that outline mean for
20:18
Speaker 1: the country, or maybe it's just the flag and you've
20:20
Speaker 1: got to know the name of the country that corresponds
20:23
Speaker 1: to the flag, or it's the flag and you've got
20:25
Speaker 1: to know the name of the country and the capital.
20:27
Speaker 1: Shit like that is just really good for recall. So
20:32
Speaker 1: that's number seven. Number eight. You guys are gonna kill
20:36
Speaker 1: me for saying this. Things are gonna kill me, and
20:38
Speaker 1: even I falter on this often, but I have started
20:41
Speaker 1: putting it into practice. Not every time, I'll be so
20:44
Speaker 1: honest with you. I don't do it every time, but
20:46
Speaker 1: when I do, I feel like offensively, like overly proud,
20:50
Speaker 1: And I'd be so annoying if you were in my
20:52
Speaker 1: presence because I boast about it. But when you're you're
20:55
Speaker 1: gonna hate me. When you're watching a show, watch one episode,
21:00
Speaker 1: do not binge the show. Now, what you could do
21:04
Speaker 1: is you could have five shows on rotation. But the
21:08
Speaker 1: aim is to administer some level of self control. This
21:12
Speaker 1: is one of the things that we are challenged with.
21:16
Speaker 1: I feel in this day and age, we administer less
21:18
Speaker 1: and less and less and less self control because things
21:21
Speaker 1: are too easy, things are a little bit too accessible.
21:23
Speaker 1: But it doesn't make us happier. That's the problem. We
21:25
Speaker 1: think that instant and accessible means happier, and it doesn't
21:30
Speaker 1: always sometimes, but a lot of the time it doesn't.
21:33
Speaker 1: So let's say you're watching like a show that you're like,
21:35
Speaker 1: this is fucking unbelievable. That was what was so good
21:37
Speaker 1: about the nineties and the early two thousands when you
21:39
Speaker 1: had TV and that's the only form of kind of
21:43
Speaker 1: media that you had, and even when we did rent
21:45
Speaker 1: videos at Blockbuster, it was like you get one, maybe three.
21:48
Speaker 1: But even then you've got those three for the whole week,
21:52
Speaker 1: and so you wouldn't have to you know, you'd have
21:55
Speaker 1: that thing and you're like, oh, I can't wait for
21:56
Speaker 1: the next one. I can't wait for the next one.
21:58
Speaker 1: And then maybe you trawl through the channels and you'd
22:02
Speaker 1: just be more interested in things because you don't really
22:04
Speaker 1: have an option, so you would lean you would like
22:06
Speaker 1: lend your interest to watch something. If I'm at a
22:08
Speaker 1: hotel and there's no way you can link it to
22:11
Speaker 1: a streaming service, then I'm stuck with free to air
22:14
Speaker 1: TV and I'm scrolling, scrolling, and before i know what,
22:16
Speaker 1: I actually end up finding a show that I would
22:18
Speaker 1: have never landed on and never paid attention to, and
22:20
Speaker 1: then I'm actually really interested in it could be a
22:22
Speaker 1: gardening show for Fox's sake, and I kill all my plans,
22:25
Speaker 1: but I'll be like, oh, I'm actually I'm invested because
22:29
Speaker 1: I gave it a chance. I gave it a chance,
22:31
Speaker 1: and I spent some time, and I'm now invested. So
22:34
Speaker 1: I think instead of thinking, what's you know, I've got
22:36
Speaker 1: to watch this season and I've got to watch seven
22:38
Speaker 1: episodes in one night until it's one am in the morning,
22:40
Speaker 1: and now let's learn to get excited about another episode again.
22:44
Speaker 1: So watch one episode and you could have five shows
22:47
Speaker 1: on rotation when you watch one episode every night and
22:49
Speaker 1: you guys are like, fuck off, Alexis I watch four
22:51
Speaker 1: episodes a night, Well, try not to if possible. Maybe
22:53
Speaker 1: read a book instead, Maybe go for a walk, I
22:56
Speaker 1: don't know, Maybe do two episodes max if you normally
22:59
Speaker 1: do four. And it's that self control off. I need
23:02
Speaker 1: to switch this off and I need to now watch
23:04
Speaker 1: either a different show or mainstream TV, or do a
23:07
Speaker 1: different activity altogether. But you're just working on that self
23:10
Speaker 1: control aspect of what is the opposite of brain rotting,
23:14
Speaker 1: Because the typical brain what would be like, I'm going
23:15
Speaker 1: to watch this series until it's finished, and then I'm
23:17
Speaker 1: going to go to bed at some ngodly hour way
23:19
Speaker 1: later than I said I was going to go to bed.
23:20
Speaker 1: That's the typical thing, and that contributes to brain rot
23:24
Speaker 1: So this is just one of the things that i'mdoing
23:27
Speaker 1: when it comes to brain rot Just pretend that you're
23:29
Speaker 1: living in nineteen ninety nine pretty much now number nine.
23:34
Speaker 1: Before using AI, try to do some of the task yourself,
23:39
Speaker 1: depending on what the kind of task is but especially
23:43
Speaker 1: if it's one that requires the formation of an idea
23:46
Speaker 1: or a brainstorm. So what I would recommend, let's say
23:49
Speaker 1: you normally lean into AI for every idea generation. Before
23:53
Speaker 1: you do that, use your fucking brain and sit down
23:56
Speaker 1: and brainstorm at least twenty points, at least twenty points
24:00
Speaker 1: on something. So you go in bang bank bank, bank bank,
24:03
Speaker 1: and then okay, you've done that. Then you can grab
24:05
Speaker 1: those twenty points and chuck it into AI, CHATJBT, cord, whatever,
24:08
Speaker 1: and say, feed me more ideas based on this. Okay.
24:12
Speaker 1: So that's you've used your brain. You've tried to and
24:15
Speaker 1: you'll realize that the more you do this, the quicker
24:17
Speaker 1: those twenty points are going to come to you. You'll
24:19
Speaker 1: be bank bank bank, bank, bank bank generating ideas. And
24:22
Speaker 1: then yes, okay, you can lean in for assistance here
24:25
Speaker 1: and there, but I don't want you to substitute your
24:27
Speaker 1: own ability to generate novel ideas and creative ideas and
24:31
Speaker 1: give it to something else, because that is a sure
24:34
Speaker 1: way of reducing your ability to produce that information on
24:38
Speaker 1: your own. Now, if it's something or like I could
24:41
Speaker 1: not care less about this thing, I don't need to
24:43
Speaker 1: develop this skill then who cares. Like, if I'm trying
24:45
Speaker 1: to develop a website and I need code, do you
24:47
Speaker 1: think I'm going to go on loan code when I'm
24:49
Speaker 1: someone who hasn't no interest in learning code because it's
24:52
Speaker 1: not my forte. I can go into a chat to
24:54
Speaker 1: me like, give me whatever code for this. Fine. If
24:57
Speaker 1: I'm trying to simplify something for my finances, rate to
25:00
Speaker 1: chat ABT like, there's certain things that I'm like, I
25:04
Speaker 1: don't want to come across as a total you know again,
25:07
Speaker 1: I use chat JBT often and it's great. I will
25:10
Speaker 1: transcribe one of my episodes and be like, I wonder
25:13
Speaker 1: if I already said this point, bang, punch it into
25:15
Speaker 1: chat JAPT here's my transcribed episode. I want you to
25:17
Speaker 1: summarize this in ten key points and based on those
25:19
Speaker 1: ten key and I say, and only use my language.
25:21
Speaker 1: Do not add anything else into this. Bang. I've got
25:24
Speaker 1: my own ten k points in my own language that
25:26
Speaker 1: I can summarize and be like, Okay, now I can
25:28
Speaker 1: do a part two of this episode. So I use
25:30
Speaker 1: it as ethically as I possibly can, as far as
25:34
Speaker 1: my own work. I try my best not to use
25:35
Speaker 1: it for idea generation. So think about what is it like.
25:38
Speaker 1: I don't want to replace something. I don't want to
25:41
Speaker 1: replace the skill with technology. Cool num Bah eleven. Have
25:49
Speaker 1: magnesium creatine and electrolytes. Magnesium creatine electrolytes. Try and have
25:55
Speaker 1: that every single day. It's brain food. And also when
25:58
Speaker 1: we talk about brain food, try and have unless you
26:02
Speaker 1: have an allergy, try and have a balanced diet. We
26:04
Speaker 1: want carbohydrates, we want fats, and we want proteins. So
26:07
Speaker 1: we need all the macronutrients for the brain to work properly.
26:10
Speaker 1: If there is no reason for you to be on
26:13
Speaker 1: a diet that cuts out one of those macro nutrients, don't, okay,
26:17
Speaker 1: because all those things are important for brain function. There
26:22
Speaker 1: is a reason they're called macro nutrients. Okay. Now with creatine,
26:27
Speaker 1: I have mentioned this earlier, but they say that five
26:29
Speaker 1: miligrams of creatine is kind of the maximum that you need,
26:32
Speaker 1: and once you hit that point, muscle wise, you've kind
26:34
Speaker 1: of reached maximum absorption. Any more than that is just
26:37
Speaker 1: going to be peed out. However, they say that five
26:41
Speaker 1: milligrams is what you need for muscles, but sometimes ten
26:46
Speaker 1: or more is what you need to get actual cognitive
26:49
Speaker 1: benefits from that. Creatine, So if you're looking for more
26:53
Speaker 1: cognitive benefits, I would look into creatine. Magnesium is great,
26:56
Speaker 1: especially if you like on the tail end of the day,
26:59
Speaker 1: is really helpful for good sleep, and you need the
27:02
Speaker 1: good quality magnesium, not the oxide one. The oxide one
27:05
Speaker 1: is really good if you want to shit, okay. And
27:09
Speaker 1: electrolytes of course, because they help you stay hydrated. Eleven
27:16
Speaker 1: Movement in between tasks. One of the biggest predictors of
27:20
Speaker 1: all cause mortality is having a sedentary lifestyle, and it's
27:24
Speaker 1: obviously not good for your mental health either. So if
27:27
Speaker 1: you are someone that's going to be on your computer
27:29
Speaker 1: all day, then if you are like, oh, I need
27:34
Speaker 1: a rest from my work, and you stay in your
27:35
Speaker 1: seat and then grab your phone and do a bit
27:37
Speaker 1: of scrolling just to tune out from that exercise to another,
27:41
Speaker 1: that's still going to contribute to brain fog. And I'm
27:44
Speaker 1: not going to be some like I'm not some other tracer.
27:46
Speaker 1: I know that we all want to scroll and sometimes
27:47
Speaker 1: you want to have fuck fuck off, Alexis. I just
27:49
Speaker 1: want fifteen minutes of scrolling, fun, fun, but stand up
27:52
Speaker 1: and walk as you do it. We need to break
27:54
Speaker 1: up this sedentary lifestyle, and that's going to help. Ideally,
27:57
Speaker 1: don't be doing scrolling the whole time. But if you're
27:59
Speaker 1: like I need my squll, fine, but don't sit in
28:02
Speaker 1: your fucking chair and work work work, work, work, pause,
28:04
Speaker 1: doom scroll, doom scroll stop, work, work, work, and you're
28:07
Speaker 1: in your chair the whole time and the only time
28:08
Speaker 1: you got up is to eat pea or drink a
28:10
Speaker 1: glass of water. Not good enough. I want you walking.
28:12
Speaker 1: I want you to When we talk about those ten
28:14
Speaker 1: thousand steps today, people are like, oh, that's a fucking
28:16
Speaker 1: myth because walking is such like a waste of time.
28:19
Speaker 1: I think, yeah, fine, that might that's fine. But what
28:22
Speaker 1: I like about the ten thousand steps a day is
28:25
Speaker 1: not I have to go on a walk to hit
28:27
Speaker 1: ten thousand steps. It's more so how much interim movement
28:30
Speaker 1: am I doing between jobs? Okay? I've clocked up on
28:36
Speaker 1: some days twelve thousand steps in my own home because
28:40
Speaker 1: I've got kids, Okay, and so I've gone back. I
28:42
Speaker 1: forgot this bbot. I've gotta watch that all day around
28:46
Speaker 1: the house, and I've done. I think my record in
28:47
Speaker 1: the home is twelve thousand steps, which is fucking hectic.
28:52
Speaker 1: But anyway, that's what I want you to focus on.
28:54
Speaker 1: Breaking it up with movement. Movement. Movement, movement, movement. If
28:57
Speaker 1: you're at your desk and you're like, well, there's no
28:58
Speaker 1: way really to walk, stand up, dude, twenty scots, twenty
29:01
Speaker 1: up and down, hold a plank, whatever, Just move your body,
29:04
Speaker 1: get your heart rate up. Number twelve boredom. I want
29:08
Speaker 1: you to factor in at least I wrote fifteen minutes here,
29:13
Speaker 1: but let's start with ten. If you need to ten
29:16
Speaker 1: to fifteen minutes of boredom in the day. You do
29:18
Speaker 1: not need constant input into your brain. If you always
29:24
Speaker 1: have constant input into your brain, it's going to be
29:26
Speaker 1: harder and harder to generate quality output. We have to
29:29
Speaker 1: give ourselves time to create thoughts and ideas that aren't
29:34
Speaker 1: just us thinking about the past or thinking about the
29:37
Speaker 1: future and what needs to be done. Just give yourself time.
29:40
Speaker 1: If you are only this background player of like, oh shu,
29:42
Speaker 1: I've got to do this thing. Fuck fu fuck I
29:44
Speaker 1: oh god, that was really embarrassing what I did the
29:46
Speaker 1: other day. If if you only have tiny pockets here
29:49
Speaker 1: and there there, yeah, you're only going to think about
29:51
Speaker 1: the past and the future and maybe something that was
29:53
Speaker 1: good or something that you're stressing about. But if you
29:55
Speaker 1: give yourself boredom time, which is longer than those little
29:59
Speaker 1: fleeting moments thoughts here and there, then you have to
30:01
Speaker 1: see it for your thoughts. And then this is where
30:03
Speaker 1: daydreaming comes in. This is where you start imagining, well,
30:06
Speaker 1: what if I did this thing? And imagine if I
30:07
Speaker 1: did this, and what would be this? What if and
30:10
Speaker 1: imagine if? Is really good for the brain. You start
30:13
Speaker 1: getting quite creative with concepts and ideas and brainstorming. You
30:17
Speaker 1: can play games with yourself. So one of the dreams
30:20
Speaker 1: that I have, I'm not sure if I've shared this
30:21
Speaker 1: with you before. I think I have, but I really
30:24
Speaker 1: want to write I've shared it definitely on my substack,
30:26
Speaker 1: But I really want to write a rom com as
30:28
Speaker 1: a book first and then I want like to turn
30:31
Speaker 1: it into a wrong com. That's my dream. And I
30:35
Speaker 1: think about character development, ideas and concepts for this rom
30:39
Speaker 1: com all the time. And it's been so good for
30:42
Speaker 1: idea generation that I've already reaped the benefits from it,
30:46
Speaker 1: even if no one ever wants to pick up the book.
30:48
Speaker 1: It's been such a good brain exercise for me and
30:50
Speaker 1: really good for my creative outlet. That it's when I'm
30:55
Speaker 1: having this quote unquote boredom time, I'm really putting my
30:58
Speaker 1: mind to use when I'm thinking, but could another scene be?
31:00
Speaker 1: And then how could I have this character development? And
31:03
Speaker 1: how could it? It's just great and I only do
31:05
Speaker 1: that when I have my quote unquote boredom time number
31:11
Speaker 1: thirteen of course, and this kind of slots in with
31:15
Speaker 1: number four, so that's kind of good. But it's read
31:19
Speaker 1: more read read, read, read read. One of the best
31:23
Speaker 1: things you can do to regulate your emotions, to regulate everything,
31:28
Speaker 1: and to improve your intelligence and your vocabulary is to read,
31:33
Speaker 1: So do more of it. It could be fiction, it
31:36
Speaker 1: could be nonfiction. Just read even reading fiction. If you're
31:39
Speaker 1: like I don't like nonfiction, I just want to read fiction.
31:41
Speaker 1: That still improves your intelligence. Read read read read okay,
31:46
Speaker 1: and audiobooks are good, but they do say now the
31:53
Speaker 1: literature is a little bit split here. So if you're
31:56
Speaker 1: someone that's like, no, no, no, I have to have
31:57
Speaker 1: an audiobook, then by all means have the audiobook. That's fine,
31:59
Speaker 1: But there are some studies, although there's been some counter
32:02
Speaker 1: studies as well. I'll be honest with that, but there
32:05
Speaker 1: are some studies that do say that reading a book
32:09
Speaker 1: does use more areas of the brain, which is true,
32:12
Speaker 1: but does that actually benefit you from the actual retention
32:14
Speaker 1: of the book or not. Some studies say yes, it does,
32:17
Speaker 1: some studies saying it's kind of negligible the difference, But
32:21
Speaker 1: they say that because the pacing is slower and reading
32:24
Speaker 1: you are more likely to retain it. It requires more
32:27
Speaker 1: working memory and you kind of have to decode that
32:32
Speaker 1: visual input that enters your brain into language and context,
32:35
Speaker 1: which is a bit easier than decoding audio input when
32:39
Speaker 1: it comes to the brain. Now, personally, I feel that
32:43
Speaker 1: from like an anecdotal standpoint, I do feel that that's
32:45
Speaker 1: the case for me. If I'm reading a book, I
32:48
Speaker 1: retain way more than if I have an audiobook. The
32:50
Speaker 1: amount of times I have to go back on an
32:51
Speaker 1: audiobook because I'm too distracted, whereas reading a book, I'm
32:55
Speaker 1: way more focused on the words it's and if i
32:58
Speaker 1: miss something because I've thought about else, and you know,
33:00
Speaker 1: when you're reading with your eyes and not your brain,
33:02
Speaker 1: I know exactly what I missed. I'm not like, oh,
33:05
Speaker 1: do I go about fifteen seconds? Was it thirty seconds?
33:06
Speaker 1: I don't know I've been a so for me personally,
33:09
Speaker 1: that does ring true. But at the end of the day,
33:12
Speaker 1: if you just want an audiobook, that's great to have
33:14
Speaker 1: that number fourteen. Engage in physically challenging tasks. This is
33:19
Speaker 1: not necessarily exercise, but something that your body must learn.
33:23
Speaker 1: So it could be dancing, it could be rock climbing,
33:25
Speaker 1: it could be yoga, juggling, juggling a soccer ball, playing
33:29
Speaker 1: a racket sport, just shooting hoops. Anything something that you
33:33
Speaker 1: physically want to get good at. An instrument as well
33:38
Speaker 1: is good, but I think a bit more off the
33:39
Speaker 1: body ideally would be really really really really really really
33:44
Speaker 1: really good. And this is great to combat brain rot.
33:47
Speaker 1: So get into a physical sport. You don't ever have
33:51
Speaker 1: to get good at it. It's not about that. It's
33:52
Speaker 1: about challenging your brain. As long as it's semi enjoyable
33:56
Speaker 1: and you feel the challenge great. I don't care if
33:59
Speaker 1: your shit every single day that you do that thing,
34:01
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter. Okay, go and do jiu jitsu. Got
34:04
Speaker 1: whatever it is. This is so good what do you
34:08
Speaker 1: call it? Pad? Padwork? Like you know, boxing, but just
34:11
Speaker 1: against pads. That stuff so fucking good. So it can
34:14
Speaker 1: be a workout or not up to you. Second last one,
34:18
Speaker 1: number fifteen, get outside often throughout the day, whenever possible,
34:23
Speaker 1: even if you've got a little bell, going to get outside,
34:25
Speaker 1: get some fresh air. But ideally go walk around the block.
34:28
Speaker 1: If you've got a dog, perfect excuse, go chake that
34:30
Speaker 1: dog out out in out. You know this is very
34:33
Speaker 1: good for you. Get outside. Natural sunlight into the eyes
34:36
Speaker 1: is so good. It's good for your mood. It's good
34:39
Speaker 1: for your motivation. It's good for quartisol. To keep that
34:42
Speaker 1: like quartersole high in the morning, it's good, you just
34:44
Speaker 1: feel better. It's just grape for your mental health. Literally,
34:46
Speaker 1: I've spoken about it so many times about seasonal effective
34:49
Speaker 1: disorder in places where it's like dark and gloomy. So
34:53
Speaker 1: if you have sunlight, or even if it's overcast, getting
34:56
Speaker 1: outside is going to bring that sunlight into your eyes.
34:58
Speaker 1: It's going to really help set that's Kadin rhythm. It's
35:00
Speaker 1: just good for you and very good for your brain.
35:03
Speaker 1: And lastly, number sixteen, set a time limit on passive
35:09
Speaker 1: consumption of social media and what does that time limit
35:12
Speaker 1: look like? And I think a good idea of what
35:14
Speaker 1: that time limit should look like. It's it's obviously dependent
35:16
Speaker 1: on each individual. Look at how much you're spending now
35:20
Speaker 1: and think what's a reasonable reduction that I could make?
35:24
Speaker 1: So I feel like it's achievable. So if you're someone
35:27
Speaker 1: that like and you can do this, go on Instagram
35:28
Speaker 1: for example, and you can actually look at how much
35:30
Speaker 1: time you spend spend on the app. Let's say you
35:33
Speaker 1: spend and this is going to sound dramatic, but it's
35:35
Speaker 1: actually quite common. Let's say you spend four hours a
35:37
Speaker 1: day and I'm not talking if you work on like
35:39
Speaker 1: social media or whatever and you have to be uploading
35:41
Speaker 1: stuff constantly. Obviously it's going to be skewed if that's
35:44
Speaker 1: your job. But say you spend four hours a day
35:47
Speaker 1: on Instagram specifically, what do you think is a reasonable
35:50
Speaker 1: reduction of that time? Would it be fifty percent reduction?
35:53
Speaker 1: Are you horrified by four hours and you think, oh
35:54
Speaker 1: my god, two hours is more than enough and you're like, no,
35:56
Speaker 1: that's fucked. I should there should never be a time
35:58
Speaker 1: on spending more than one hour like what it is,
36:01
Speaker 1: But you've got to make a reasonable reduction and then
36:02
Speaker 1: stick to that, and how are you going to stick
36:04
Speaker 1: to it? So one thing that I did for myself,
36:06
Speaker 1: and now I don't really need to do it because
36:08
Speaker 1: I think it's become now automatic. And I'm also just
36:11
Speaker 1: less inclined to scroll as much as I used to
36:14
Speaker 1: because I've set these parameters and now it's like I'm
36:17
Speaker 1: just over it. I'm over scrolling a little bit. It's
36:19
Speaker 1: almost like I don't know it's good though. But I
36:24
Speaker 1: would set like twenty minutes, and mind you, I did
36:27
Speaker 1: have like exceptions to the rule, so of just passive consumption,
36:32
Speaker 1: which is just scrolling, I would allow twenty minutes in
36:35
Speaker 1: the morning and twenty minutes in the afternoon. Because I
36:38
Speaker 1: had a time limit and it was only to passively scroll.
36:40
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, I don't really need to passively
36:42
Speaker 1: scroll because I was aware that that's what I was
36:44
Speaker 1: going to do. So I was like, well, do I
36:46
Speaker 1: need to scroll right? Not? Not really, not really no.
36:50
Speaker 1: But what I do say is if I want to
36:52
Speaker 1: respond to a DM that doesn't count, I can go
36:54
Speaker 1: in and respond. If I want to upload a story
36:56
Speaker 1: that also doesn't count, and if I want to watch
36:58
Speaker 1: my friend's stories that doesn't count, as long as I
37:00
Speaker 1: don't go from stories into doom scrolling as well. So
37:02
Speaker 1: passive consumption is limited, so for me, it was twenty
37:04
Speaker 1: minutes the morning, twenty minutes in the evening. Now at
37:06
Speaker 1: the moment, I'm probably doing twenty minutes once a day
37:09
Speaker 1: if that so. Yeah, that's that's it, guys. Those are
37:16
Speaker 1: the sixteen things that you can do to unrot your brain.
37:21
Speaker 1: So I'll go over them very quickly again. Number one
37:24
Speaker 1: eating peace once a day, maybe once every two days.
37:26
Speaker 1: Number two. Do a little brain training game where you
37:28
Speaker 1: find the list of five words that maybe your partner
37:31
Speaker 1: or a friend gives you every day, and you recall
37:33
Speaker 1: it at the end of the day. You are not
37:34
Speaker 1: allowed to write them down at any point. Number three.
37:37
Speaker 1: Make all social interactions a phone free zone unless the
37:40
Speaker 1: phone is an active part of that interaction. Number four.
37:43
Speaker 1: Carry a book around or a kindle, and every time
37:46
Speaker 1: you could scroll, I want you to read that book instead.
37:48
Speaker 1: Number five. Choose one article a day, something educational, in
37:52
Speaker 1: anything that interests you. Number six, Oh my god, I
37:56
Speaker 1: didn't do number six. Well I'm gonna tell you right now.
37:59
Speaker 1: You want to do a top and tail of the day.
38:01
Speaker 1: I missed out number six altogether. And what your top
38:05
Speaker 1: and tail of the day is. You want to have
38:07
Speaker 1: your first hour of the day and the last hour
38:08
Speaker 1: of the day sacred. As far as distractions go, you
38:11
Speaker 1: are giving your life your full attention, whether it's interacting
38:14
Speaker 1: with your family members, making breakfast, washing your face. We're
38:17
Speaker 1: not checking what other people are doing with their lives
38:19
Speaker 1: on social media. We're done. This is the top and
38:20
Speaker 1: tail of the day is sacred. Number seven cognitive friction games.
38:25
Speaker 1: So this is where I like crosswords or you know
38:28
Speaker 1: those flag games that I was referring to. Number eight.
38:31
Speaker 1: When you're watching a show, watch one episode, even if
38:34
Speaker 1: you have to watch multiple series at a time, just
38:35
Speaker 1: one episode at a time, so you administer a bit
38:38
Speaker 1: of self control. Number nine. Before using AI to do
38:41
Speaker 1: some tasks that you don't want to completely lose the
38:43
Speaker 1: ability of doing, make sure that you generate at least
38:46
Speaker 1: twenty at dot points first before you go in for
38:48
Speaker 1: that assistance in generating more creative ideas. Number ten. Have magnesium, creatine,
38:54
Speaker 1: and electrolytes. Number eleven. Move in between your tasks. Number twelve.
38:58
Speaker 1: Allow for fifteen minutes of boredom every day with no
39:01
Speaker 1: entertainment input. Number thirteen Read Read Read Read ideally a
39:05
Speaker 1: physical book, but if you prefer audiobooks. Who Am I
39:07
Speaker 1: to stop you? Number fourteen engage in physically challenging tasks
39:11
Speaker 1: where your body has to learn how to do something
39:12
Speaker 1: and it doesn't have to be a workout. It could
39:14
Speaker 1: be like juggling or whatever. Number fifteen get outside often,
39:19
Speaker 1: get some fresh air, get some sunlight. And Number sixteen
39:22
Speaker 1: set a daily time limit on passive consumption and what
39:26
Speaker 1: would that look like and how does it compare to
39:28
Speaker 1: your current time usage on social media? So try one,
39:34
Speaker 1: try them all, and if you listen to this podcast
39:37
Speaker 1: on Spotify, comment on which ones you're like, that's the
39:39
Speaker 1: one that I need to do, or I'm going to
39:40
Speaker 1: do all of them, or I've maybe after a week
39:42
Speaker 1: of doing it, come back to this episode and say
39:44
Speaker 1: this is I did the challenge because my challenges do
39:47
Speaker 1: them all for a week. So I did the challenge
39:49
Speaker 1: and after one week, this is what I noticed. This
39:52
Speaker 1: is what changed for me, This is what I felt
39:55
Speaker 1: a bit better in. This is whatever what I learned
39:57
Speaker 1: about myself. Okay, so that's what you're going to do. Guys,
40:00
Speaker 1: thank you so much for tuning into today's episode. As always,
40:03
Speaker 1: remember be kind to yourself, be kind to your brain,
40:06
Speaker 1: don't take shit from anyone, and especially don't take shit
40:09
Speaker 1: from yourself. Don't care