Build Mental Models to Enhance Your Focus | Charles Duhigg | Big Think

Build Mental Models to Enhance Your Focus
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We all get the same amount of hours in a day. Some people definitely seem to have more. Writers like Steven King and James Patterson, performers like Beyoncé, filmmakers who release a new blockbuster or shoe-gazing comedy every year, and world leaders who are across all of humanity’s problems. Even some humble ordinary folks seem to get more done than appears possible, but 24 hours is the contract our planet signed with the sun so there it is, cut and dried.
In these distracted and competitive times, there is an overwhelming thirst for knowledge on productivity and life hacks to beat procrastination. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Charles Duhigg finds it incredibly problematic that even though we have more tools and digital assistance than ever in achieving our goals, that same luxury interrupts us more often and makes it so much harder to focus.
In researching his latest book Smarter Faster Better Duhigg spent an inordinate amount of time (well-structured time, we assume) talking to over 400 people about productivity, collecting several hundred tips and hacks, many of which contradicted one another. So what reliably and consistently sets ultra-productive people and organizations apart?
One of the key commonalities he found was the ability of some people to selectively focus. It turns out the most efficient among us are constantly prioritizing and asking themselves: what are the goals that I should be chasing after right now? According Duhigg, this process starts with mental imagery, what he calls building a ‘mental model’ in your head at the start of each day, something Duhigg now dedicates his morning commute time to. He advises that we spend that time picturing what our day will look like – what do you need to get done? What are the events you can expect? How will you go about doing them? We are surrounded by the needs of others all day long, whether it’s a boss, colleagues, family or friends, email requests or social notifications, and it’s our natural impulse to react immediately when called upon. A notification 'ding!' is tragically pavlovian. Many of us will get a text while we’re busy and send a quick reply that we later regret, or blurt out an unsatisfactory answer to a boss who puts us on the spot. People with a mental model in their minds, on the other hand, already know what to focus on, and have the ability to say or ‘Can we discuss that at a later time?’ or simply leave a text or email to sit for a while. "The more that I have thought through what’s about to occur, the more that I have a strong vision in my mind of what I should expect and anticipate, the more my subconscious is going to be able to decide this is what you should focus on." Instead of reacting immediately, your time is actually much better spent taking a couple of minutes to make a better decision about where your focus should go.
Charles Duhigg's most recent book is Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business.
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CHARLES DUHIGG:
Charles Duhigg is a Pulitzer Prize–winning investigative reporter for The New York Times and the author of The Power of Habit. He is a winner of the National Academies of Sciences, National Journalism, and George Polk awards. A graduate of Harvard Business School and Yale College, he lives in Brooklyn with his wife and two children.
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TRANSCRIPT:
Charles Duhigg: Nowadays it’s incredibly hard to stay focused. There’s so many distractions around us at any given moment. Your pocket vibrates at any given moment because you’re getting ten new emails and on social media there’s all these new notifications and the phone is ringing and your kids need help and your colleagues are coming up because you are working in an open office plan and they’re asking you to chime in on some memo. Maintaining focus nowadays is harder than ever before. But it’s way more critical too. One of the things that we know about the most productive people and the most productive companies is that they create ways to enhance their focus. They manage their mind in such a way that they’re able to focus on what’s important and ignore distractions much better. And the way that they do this is by what’s known as building mental models.
Essentially telling themselves stories about what they expect to see, engaging in this kind of inner dialogue about what they think should be happening...

[iteese]

This is very similar to athletes that use mental visualisation before there athletic performance. It queues the brain, prompts it for the expected requirements of the day and directs energy to the focus.
This technique works even better when used the night before as well. Before bed, or in bed, mentally steep through the day you've just experienced. It shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes. Don't get caught up in what you should have done or didn't do, just walk through what happened or what you experienced. Then walk through tomorrow, how you'd like it to look, what you'd like to do, what you'd like to experience, what you'd like to feel. Again, this needs to be constructive, and should take about the same amount of time.
Then when you wake up tomorrow, walk through the coming day again.

[CatchMyPoint]

To the entire YouTube community,

Regarding getting knowledge:
I learn 30% from the video and I understand 70% from the comment section alone.
I thank each one of the good commentator who explain as simple as they can.

Thanks a lot again.
Cheers!

[Baraborn]

This is the first step of stoicism. Prethought and mental preparedness.

[otomas]

I zoned out and had to rewatch the whole thing. Worth it. Probably.

[chaugulepankaj]

Begin with the end in mind. So that you'll be able to avoid distractions and focus more on the important things.
The more you try to envision what you should expect the things to be turned out, your subconscious mind will tell you what to focus on and what to ignore.

Mental Model - Imagining the expected end - Result: No distractions and more focus.

[begbrook]

I finally now get what the phrase “mental model” means and how to apply it and why. Keep seeing this phrase but never really got a handle on what it was or how I could apply it. It all seems like psycho babble but now it makes some sense. It’s basically deciding what matters in the moment and what doesn’t so you can treat distractions as such. It’s getting very clear what is important and relevant and what isn’t. Very helpful explanation which will enable me to revisit several books and hopefully extract some value from them.

[vincentd]

Guys, this is immensely valuable if you really think it through. It's a heuristic, not just thinking. But you should also account for what you would do if the perfect scenario isn't happening, ahead of time.

[LibrarianChef]

Envisioning what should happen and identifying anomalies is good for isolating problems, but it has no bearing on the resulting action. It will not necessarily lead to better outcomes because once the problem has been identified, the mind now has to respond, and the response will be regulated by the emotional system, which may or may not be functioning to one's benefit.

[jordansean]

this is perfect for people like me who otherwise let unpredicted interruptions just RUIN their day. thank you :)

[eyad]

The concept of building a perfect mental model and compare it with the actual reality goes hand in hand with the preoccupation with failure model. Thank you Charles for sharing.

[CN-ugqt]

Im not sure how this works for people with anxiety, ya know.
Viewing all of the possible bad things that could occur can actually be freezing

[Chno]

could've just showed a clip from a sherlock holmes fight scene

[davecom]

This technique is at least 2, 000 yards alone. The very first page of ‘meditations’ by Marcus Aurelius summarizes this video perfectly.

[e.t.]

I find that when I don't pander to the thoughts in my head and 'stop thinking'. I am more alert, sensitive, aware, patient. Apposed to a train of thoughts that can distract, annoy, and direct me in a type of routine.

[tdweomer]

Eh, I dunno'. I buy the nurse studies he mentions but this doesn't seem like it is a complete picture, that it takes into account all of the ramifications of using "mental models" this way. It seems like _exactly_ the type of mindset that causes group think, ideological stubbornness, people who seem to have *blinders* on, business types that only care about making more money than the other guy and have apparently zero regard for whatever problems they create, etc. It almost makes the pitch that closed-mindedness is a good thing. Yeah sure, you will be more efficient at your predetermined task if you close yourself off to anything and everything that is not part of said predetermined plan, but *you are closing yourself off to anything and everything that is not part of said plan*!

Also, I became better at focusing as my life experience accumulated. The more big ups and downs I experienced the more perspective I gained. That perspective neutered the worry I used to feel about certain things because I had been through those things already and they didn't ruin my life. As they say: "Don't sweat the small stuff." and "This too shall pass." It's how I define _poise_, and it didn't come from proactively making mental models. It just came from getting knocked, dusting myself off, and getting back in the saddle again.

[sumit]

couldnt see the video without distraction was busy reading the comments

[iKylaAwesome]

I'm absolutely going to use this for predicting reaction mechanisms in my Organic Chemistry test tomorrow and for the rest of life! ❤️ This is great!

[GuildOfCalamity]

I just wear headphones and it works great.

[Xmj]

What works for me is being present with the moment and what i am feeling and then making a decision based on my priorities and consequences of the actions..the phone goes off and i sense the desire to pick it up and im mindful of that desire but i then focus on the task at hand bc its a greater priority and consequence of picking up the phone would be time spent not doing what I know what Id rather do...different strokes for different folks

[teflon]

Nice. He's referencing premedidatio malorum (negative visualization). it's an ancient practice by the stoics. Basically you need to visualize all possible outcomes - sometimes including even your own death - so as to react well when they come calling. Good insight Mr. Duhigg