This content explores various tools and strategies across behavioral, nutritional, supplemental, and technological domains to significantly enhance focus and concentration abilities.
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tools that will allow you to
significantly increase your focus and
concentration abilities those tools will
include behavioral tools nutrition-based
tools supplement based tools and brain
machine interface based
tools let's jump into the tools for
concentration and focus sleep one of the
most important things is to optimize
your sleeping behavior that is to get
enough quality sleep I would say 80% of
the nights of your life so you have to
get great sleep there is simply no tool
that's going to allow you to overcome
chronic sleep deprivation and allow you
to remain focused no pill no device no
supplement no protocol whatsoever 40
Hertz binaural beats have been shown in
a number of peer-reviewed studies to
increase focus and concentration it's
been shown in multiple quality
peer-reviewed studies that playing a
pattern of sound waves to one ear and
the other ear which is slightly offset
in frequency meaning not quite the same
frequency so more like d that that
combination of frequencies played to the
different ears actually get integrated
within deep brain centers and can
increase focus and concentration in part
by increasing levels of the
neurochemical dopamine and acetylcholine
here is my recommendation in the way
that I use it what I tend to do is use
it for about five minutes prior to that
work and then turn it off and then do
the work whether not it's reading or
math or even just emailing or something
where I require a bunch of focus for a
while however there are times in which
I'm in an area or I'm in a state of of
Mind where I'm feeling very distractable
and then I'll keep the 40 HZ binural
beads on the entire time I'm doing that
bout of cognitive work White Noise pink
noise Brown noise there is indeed some
data to support the fact that white
noise and to some extent pink noise and
brown noise can support the release of
particular neurochemicals but more data
showing that they can amplify the
activity of neurons in the so-called
prefrontal cortex this front area sort
of the bumper behind your forehead that
is directly related to your ability to
direct your own focus and remain focused
on certain things white noise or pink
noise have been shown to improve
people's ability to transition into
concentrated States this is a really key
point A lot of people are challenged
with getting into a mode of focus how
long should I try to focus the ideal
duration is about 90 minutes not exactly
90 minutes but we can reliably say 90
minutes or less visual based tools
pervert visual Focus your visual Focus
drives your cognitive Focus so what is a
practice visually focus on one location
anywhere from 30 seconds to 3 minutes
now I'm looking at the tip of my pen
that's overt Focus I'm focusing on it
with my eyes and of course the rest of
my brain then will follow and start to
analyze the details of what I'm seeing
the Contours of the pen Etc by focusing
on that particular location and by
forcing yourself to refocus on that
location anytime you're gaze your vision
drifts from that location you are
encouraging the circuits for focus to
get better at focusing for longer and
longer and at refocusing when your focus
drifts off of that location fasted full
and blood glucose there's a beautiful
study that was published in neuron not
long ago that showed that when we are
fasted or when our blood glucose is very
low we aren't able to perceive and think
about things as clearly now there's a
Twist to this however so what I'd like
you to imagine is if you had a measure
of focus from 0 to 10 these are
arbitrary units 10 being maximally
focused and zero being not focused at
all imagine a u shaped function right
where if you're very fasted you're going
to have high degree of focus and
concentration but then if you ingest
some food and your belly is full your
focus and concentration is reduced but
having enough blood glucose and maybe
even elevated blood glucose will
increase cognitive function so there are
two ends of the spectrum on one end of
the spectrum blood glucose is relatively
low and you're fasted and you can think
and behave in a very concentrated way
and on the other end of the spectrum you
have sufficient blood glucose and that
allows your neurons to encode and
perceive and basically allow you to
think really clearly so you sort of have
to pick your condition what do you want
for your bouts of focus and
concentration foods which foods can
improve concentration and focus well
foods that for instance include a lot of
tyrosine which is a precursor to
dopamine so things like parmesan cheese
certain Meats certain nuts you can look
up which foods uh contain high amounts
of tyrosine there are also some fruits
and vegetables that include high amounts
of tyrosine caffeine whether or not
caffeine can improve focus and
concentration and indeed it can most
people do quite well to ingest 100 to
200 milligrams of caffeine prior to
doing some focused work and again I
recommend delaying your caffeine intake
to 90 to0 minutes after waking unless
you are using that caffeine to really
jolt your system uh before a workout my
particular favorite way to ingest
caffeine is yerbamate um it is important
and I should note that you should
actively avoid the smoked versions of
yamon as they contain a lot of
carcinogenic cancer promoting compounds
there's one particular brand that I like
but I've been using it for years it's
Anna Park it's an organic brand that is
sold I buy mine on Amazon but you can
find it elsewhere on the internet as
well just very costeffective very clean
it doesn't have the smoked flavor at
least the one that I buy is not the
smoked variety so none of the
carcinogenic compounds are in there at
least that I'm aware of and I like the
way it tastes and it provides a very
even lift and and stimulant uh that I
think certainly works for me and that a
number of people I know that have
suggested to also enjoy stress there's
an excellent study that was carried out
not that long ago on how stress itself
can increase our ability to focus and
concentrate when we are stressed it
involves the deployment the release of
adrenaline epinephrine and that
adrenaline both changes our visual field
in other words it Narrows our vision to
a more tunnel-like Focus that is it
makes the arrow in our metaphor of the
arrow more sharp and it improves our
concentration there are other ways to
increase stress levels and to do that in
healthy ways to improve concentration
and performance and one of the best ways
to do that is deliberate cold exposure
deliberate cold exposure can be achieved
by getting into a cold shower for one to
five minutes if you're not used to it
you probably want to start with one
minute or you can get into an ice bath
and nowadays there are a number of
different commercial sources of
circulating cold water or if you have
access to a body of cold water like a
lake or a pool or an ocean there's a
beautiful study that was published in
the European Journal of physiology that
showed that the increases in dopamine
are massive you know near doubling or
more of dopamine levels that are very
long lasting for hours and indeed
cortisol levels are also increased and
in ways that support not just immune
system function because they do that but
and mood because it does that but that
can really improve concentration and
focus 13-minute meditation the study
from Dr Wendy's Suzuki's lab where they
explored a 13-minute meditation done
every day for a period of 8 weeks that
meditation led to significant
improvements in focus and concentration
ability as well as other aspects of
cognitive performance it also improved
mood and reduced stress the meditation
is very simple so if you're somebody
who's going to do a practice of
13-minute meditation practice every day
you'd want to sit or lie down close your
eyes start to concentrate on your breath
Focus your attention on a location about
an inch behind your forehead and then
fully expect that at some point you'll
be thinking about something else and
that's a cue to focus back to that
location just about an inch behind your
forehead and back to your breath
supplements the omega-3 essential fatty
acids It generally supports mood
concentration and focus and brain
function in general and it's really
clear that getting somewhere between 1
and three grams of EPA essential fatty
acid per day can improve outcomes that
is improve mood and can improve
cognitive function the other thing that
can positively modulate brain function
and that actually works as a fuel for
neurons to function and can improve
cognitive performance in particular
within the brain circuits such as the
prefrontal cortex that are involved in
concentration and focus is creatine
creatine monohydrate 5 grams a day seems
to generally support brain function
which will generally support
concentration and focus Alpha GPC there
supplements that can further and more
acutely increase acetylcholine and
indeed I use these myself the most
effective one I've found is Alpha GPC
Alpha GPC consumed at dosages of 300
milligram to 600 milligram prior to a
workout or prior to a workout greatly
increase one's ability to focus and
concentrate at least that's been my experience
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