Your smartphone is robbing you from writing valuable notes.
When you are doing knowledge work, the closer your phone is to your body, the more distracted you are. This negatively impacts your ability to focus and think clearly.
If your thinking is distracted, it takes longer to write and the quality of your notes suffer.
The brain drain hypothesis states that the mere presence of your smartphone can reduce cognitive performance. In other words, your smartphone makes you dumber!
One study in 2017 tested this hypothesis with 844 participants doing various cognitive tasks on the computer, and it found that the closer the smartphone was to the participants, the stronger the cognitive drain.
The scientists say the reason for this is because of the amount of willpower it takes your brain to not check your phone, which costs so much cognitive capacity that it becomes the primary task.
This same brain drain effect occurs with any potential distraction even if it’s not actively distracting us.
I propose another hypothesis to defeat brain drain.
Cal Newport’s Deep Work hypothesis states “the ability to perform deep work is becoming increasingly rare at exactly the same time it is becoming increasingly valuable in our economy. As a consequence, the few who cultivate this skill, and then make it the core of their working life, will thrive.”
I would argue that the skill of note-making is becoming just as increasingly rare because it requires extended focus to think deeply and write without distraction.
When I first started writing digital notes, I found that a startling amount of my notes were unprocessed and incomplete. I would often stop writing in the middle of a note because I got distracted by my phone and it would interrupt my thinking. It then took up more cognitive energy to shift focus back to my note-making than it would to entertain the distraction.
Brain drain is the enemy of note-making. Here’s how to fight it.
- Keep your phone in a separate room on do not disturb or shut off completely. In order to decrease distractibility and increase focus, it’s best to keep your phone out of sight and out of mind. For longer sessions, message people beforehand and let them know you are doing focused work. Emergencies are very rare and you are never missing out on anything in the online world that is more valuable than creative work.
- Clear your physical workspace of any distractions that can pull you away from writing. I like to keep a fidget toy that helps me think but isn’t so distracting that it becomes my focus. Sometimes I will light a candle and play some instrumental focus music to inspire the senses.
- Set a timer. Start out in smaller increments of 15 minutes and work your way up to 2 hour blocks of deep work. I use the Time Timer because I like to a spatial reminder of how much time is left and how much time has passed. Plus, we love our analog tools, don’t we?
- Commit to one task only. This is what is known as monotasking. When we attempt to multitask, we experience similar effects to brain drain. Multitasking is task switching. Every time you switch tasks, you drain cognitive energy on switching focus between tasks.
- Brew your favorite coffee or tea. Some liquid brain fuel provides the kinesthetic benefit of learning and ignites your sense of taste to keep you engaged with your thinking. I am a big time coffee drinker and even just having the smell of a freshly brewed french press shifts my brain into work mode.
By stacking the skills of performing deep work with note-making, your writing outputs will increase in quality and value and take you less time to produce.
Have a fantastic week and stay curious, my friend.