All right, chat. Today we're going to

talk about how to stop zoning out. And

the basic mistake that most people make

is they think of zoning out as a problem

to be solved, which it sort of is, and

we're going to do. But there's one main

thing you need to understand. Zoning out

is your brain's way of trying to

increase cognitive resources. So if we

look at zoning out, first thing is that

everybody does it. And we do it when we

are tired, when we are overwhelmed, when

we are bored. So, if I'm studying for a

test and I feel cognitively fatigued and

I take a break or I zone out for a

little while, when I zone back in, I'm

able to study. The problem though is

that a lot of people get into this cycle

of constantly zoning out, zoning back in

in a way that's really unproductive. And

this is something that I really sort of

dove into with a patient of mine who had

ADHD that was getting worse. Now, this

is something that sounds really common,

but is actually very unusual because

ADHD is one of the illnesses that should

not really ever get worse. And I know

that sounds weird, but let me explain.

So, ADHD is a neurodedevelopmental

disorder, which means that it is it is a

disorder related to the way that our

brain develops. So, if you look at the

trajectory of ADHD over time, someone's

brain develops in a particular way. They

either have mild, moderate, or severe

ADHD. And if anything, as we get older,

ADHD should improve. About one in five

people who are diagnosed with ADHD as

kids will end up growing out of it as

their brain matures as adults. But I had

a patient who came into my office who

said, "My ADHD is getting worse over

time." Which doesn't make any sense

because ADHD is a disease of how the

brain is actually wired. And like we

just said, it should be getting better.

Now, there are things that can

temporarily alter your ADHD. If you

don't sleep very well, if you just went

through a breakup or you're stressed out

in some way, sure, we can have

temporarily fluctuations, but

fundamentally ADHD is a diagnosis that

should be relatively static or improve

over time. And so, as I started working

with this person, we tried a couple of

different things like increasing his

medication. But even if increasing his

medication allows him to focus today, it

doesn't explain the trajectory of his

attention span. And that's when we've

had to start thinking outside of the

box. And we dug into this idea of zoning

out. And by the way, if you guys want

more of these out of the box solutions,

definitely check out the ADHD guide,

which is basically like my exploration

of things that work for patients that

aren't a part of standard evidence-based

treatment. So as I was trying to figure

out what was going on with my patient, I

stumbled into something called attention

restoration theory. So there's a I think

a couple of Dr. Kaplan's who sort of

made an interesting observation that

when we go out into nature, we tend to

zone out. So as they started to explore

this idea of zoning out in nature, they

discovered a couple of important things.

The first is that when we zone out, it

appears to restore some of our cognitive

function. So when I'm studying for a

test, like I said earlier, and I zone

out, when I zone back in, I'm able to

start working on the studying again. The

second thing that they noticed is that

when we zone out, we seem to be dealing

with unresolved issues. So the more

stuff I have inside me, the more likely

I am to zone out. Now, y'all may have

experienced this in a very negative way.

If you went through a breakup or

something social is going on or you feel

really hurt, you'll notice that when you

try to focus on a task, your brain will

essentially zone out and you will start

thinking about other stuff, right? Your

brain will start trying to solve other

problems and that's how we discover what

the role of zoning out is. It does these

two fundamental things. And some aspects

of attention restoration theory have

basically been been debunked. But

subsequent research has basically shown

us that these two elements are why we

zone out. It is a way for our brain to

cognitively recover some RAM. So you can

kind of think about this like even a

timeout in sports, right? So if I'm

playing a game of basketball and I take

a timeout, I need some time to catch my

breath and when I go back on the court,

I'm able to play a little bit better.

The second consistent finding is that

when we zone out, we are usually dealing

with internal and emotional stuff. And

when I was working with my patient, this

is the way that we approached zoning

out. Not that it's a problem to be

solved, but we tried to understand that,

okay, when you zone out, your brain is

trying to accomplish a couple of tasks.

And the more that we focus on

accomplishing those tasks outside of the

way that your brain kind of does it, the

better off you will be. Because

essentially what starts to happen is we

get into this cycle where we're trapped

in zoning out. And the way that this

works, it's a bit complicated, but this

is essentially what we kind of stumbled

into. So the first thing to understand

is that your mind keeps track of all the

tasks that you have to do. That is how

it is able to remind you that you need

to do something. Now, there's a basic

problem here because the more things

your mind is keeping track of, the less

cognitive RAM you have to actually solve

a problem. And what was happening with

my patient, and this may resonate with

y'all, is let's say they were working on

f five tasks, one of which was a

personal task, which they didn't even

think of as a task that they were trying

to solve. They had gone through a a sort

of a breakup or they were on a break.

They were on a separation. They had been

on a separation for about a month and

they were like not sure exactly what's

happening in this relationship. They

weren't sure if they should move on or

they should wait or whatever. And so

anytime they're sitting down for a

particular task, let's say they're

focusing on task number one, their mind

gets tired, right? Because it has all of

this stuff in the subconscious and then

it switches to task number two. But then

our mind starts working on task number

two for a little bit and then it gets

tired and it switches to task number

three. And then as it starts working on

task number three, it gets tired and it

switches to task number four. And then

as they are moving between tasks,

eventually

thoughts about this separation that

they're going through will always creep

up. So they were sort of existing in

this place where even if they spent an

hour working, they didn't actually get

anything done. And this is when we

discovered a couple of very common

principles that they had tried from the

productivity like you know podcast

circuit actually seem to be sabotaging

them. The first is people will say just

get started. And if you just get

started, that's the most important

thing. And the second thing that people

will say is that okay, you should just

take small steps. Just take small steps.

Just take small steps. Just take small

steps. But we what we actually found was

that just getting started and just

taking small steps ended up with them

sort of taking a couple of steps over

here and then they'd get distracted and

a couple steps over here and then they'd

get distracted and they would spend an

hour trying to just get started and they

would get started again and again and

again and do a tiny little thing again

and again and again and they would never

get anything done. And there's research

that backs this up that when people

multitask a lot, it turns out that the

more experienced you are at

multitasking, the less productive you

actually are. So people who multitask a

lot actually don't get much done at all.

So the solution for this ended up being

targeting these underlying root causes.

Okay, so understanding that okay, if my

hands are full of things to do, I don't

have actually working memory to get

anything done. to understand that when I

become cognitively fatigued from holding

on to a lot of tasks, my mind has to

switch more to restore my attention and

that underlying emotional things,

personal things that things that require

self-reflection will happen a lot when

we zone out. So basically, the more

self-reflection I need to do, the more

my brain will zone out because I need to

do a lot of self-reflection. So, what we

ended up with are a couple of unusual

solutions that I've tried with several

patients and I've used in my own life

that work incredibly well. The first is

if you are stuck in a cycle of being

trapped by zoning out, don't focus on

getting started because your mind will

just wander. Focus on task completion.

Now, this may be really hard to do

because we tend to zone out anyway. But

that's why I want to explain this. So

what we sort of find with people when I

work with them is that this becomes like

a set of dominoes where the first task

that you complete is quite difficult but

the moment that you complete one task

the second task becomes easier the third

one becomes easier the fourth one

becomes easier and then you're it it

actually becomes way way easier to get

all of your stuff done. Second thing

related to that is as best as possible

do not multitask. Right? So, we live in

a society where like everyone is into

multitasking. And I know a lot of y'all

have jobs where you get interrupted and

there are notifications. These things

are everywhere that exists and we're

getting Slack notifications and emails

and texts and whatever, but basically we

want to try to multitask as little as

possible and focus on task completion.

And the last thing that may sound a

little bit counterintuitive is that if

you want to be productive, you need to

dedicate some time to being

nonproductive. to understand that the

brain that is trying to complete your

academic or your professional tasks is

the same brain that is trying to solve

your personal problems, trying to deal

with the existential threat of AI,

trying to deal with the dating and

mating crisis. It's one brain that is

trying to solve all of those problems.

And what we tend to do in modern society

is anytime we have a nonproductive day,

let's say I have a weekend, we don't

give our brain the space to process

those problems. We engage in highly

distracting, highly absorbing, highly

dopamineeric,

highly emotionally activating, usually

forms of media. We're on social media,

we're playing games, we're watching

shows, we're doing something to keep our

mind occupied. And it's so interesting,

right? Because the way we spend our

weekends, we are rarely zoning out

because we're so occupied. So, you can

circle back to what the Kaplins

originally discovered and spend a day in

nature. If y'all need more guidance or

support, you can check out the ADHD

guide, work with a coach if you don't

know what internal stuff is interfering

with your productivity, or see a

licensed mental health professional.