How to Train Your Brain for Deep Work [Science-Backed Guide]
The neuroscience of focus and practical strategies to boost deep work.
I remember working on a critical bug during work from home days in my job. I heard a buzz from my silenced phone. Suddenly — almost reluctantly — I picked up my phone and saw I have received an Instagram reel from one of my colleagues. There were ‘7+ new messages’ in that thread. Within a few minutes, I was sucked down the rabbit hole of Instagram reels.
Dopamine hijacked my focus
We live in an age of distraction, where a simple glance at your phone or even the ‘ding’ of your work Outlook notification sends you into a 50-minute void of lost productivity.
Everything from social media to email and messengers is seemingly designed to get you hooked, unable to get down to the real deep work. After all, the brain’s reward system loves quick hits of pleasure.
Just like everyone else, I was eager to find a solution to this: watching YouTube videos, reading about studies and trying out different techniques. Most of them worked at first, but eventually I was back with the habit of picking up my phone. When I kept failing, I began to wonder: instead of experimenting different methods, shouldn’t I first look into the…
