How To Cure “Brain Fog” | 3 Tips for Mental Clarity

How To Cure “Brain Fog” | 3 Tips for Mental Clarity

(relaxed music) – You know, as someone who
wants to taper off caffeine, I’m not doing a very good job. Having an espresso machine
right next to my desk is very dangerous and
probably a stupid idea. So you know what’s pretty crazy? The human brain is pretty crazy. It’s such a fascinating machine, and we barely have scratched the surface of what it’s capable of. But for that very reason, we don’t really understand it fully. Like why is it that some days
it seems like our friend, like we’re full of
confidence, full of energy, witty, sharp as a tack, while other days it feels like our enemy. You know, you feel
lethargic, you feel sluggish. It feels like someone just
poured over a wad of molasses over your brain, and
it’s just slowing down all the gears of your mind. And on these days, it seems
to completely sabotage our ability to focus or
remember in the short term, or even the long term. Basically, it just screws
over our brain completely. This dilapidated state is
often referred to as brain fog, and, according to the internet, is characterized primarily
by a lack of mental clarity, inability to focus and
a decreased function of working memory. But why does this happen
and how can we prevent it? Over the past couple of years, I’ve been trying to answer this question. Because brain fog sucks, especially, if you have an
important meeting or a date, or you’re interacting with
people a lot of the time, or you have to solve a problem. A lot of days you can’t afford to be in this state of brain fog. You’re presenting to the
world like the worst possible version of yourself, and it’s annoying. So in this video, we’re gonna go over three powerful strategies to
clear up that mental bleh. We’re gonna go over three reasons why you probably have brain
fog and how to fix them, how to fix them, how to fix them, how to catch them all. Factor number one is overstimulation. I think it was Tim Ferriss who said that we live in a digital environment where attention is currency. All of these different companies, all these different
websites, these advertisers, they want your attention
because they can monetize it. Whenever you click on
something, somebody gets paid. Whenever you watch something,
somebody gets paid. Even on this channel, I
have ads before my videos, unless you have ad
blocker and turned it off. If that’s the case, that’s fine. I’m not picky about it. I’m making like $6 off
these videos anyways. Moral of the story is
everybody wants your attention. What this means for you is
if you spend a lot of time on the internet and around screens, inevitably your attention is
gonna be completely dispersed in a thousand different directions. And if you spend a long
enough time doing this, you start to get used to having
your attention fragmented. YouTube is a perfect example of this. Clickbait on YouTube is so powerful because of something called
supernormal stimulus. I’ll put a link in the description to my favorite comic on this. I mean, I don’t read comics too often, but there’s actually a
really, really good comic on supernormal stimulus, what it is and how you
can fix it, or not fix it, it’s just a phenomenon. It’s a psychological phenomenon. Improvement Pill has
YouTube channel called the “Dopamine Fast,” or
it’s about a dopamine fast. It talks about having a single day where you drink nothing but water, and, yeah, you don’t
intake any information. You can only output information. This is obviously a very extreme example. And if you don’t live like a Shaolin monk, you probably have errands
to run on a Saturday. So you probably don’t have
time to do nothing all day, like a scheduled day where you do nothing. But it is a really cool concept. And I still think you
should check the video out. But what I think is a lot
more practical of a solution is to practice meditation. I know I talk about
meditation all the time, but it’s so powerful in this day and age because people can’t sit
still with themselves for more than five minutes. And it trains you to collect
this scattered focus of yours and redirect it into doing
something super boring. What’s more boring than
sitting there by yourself, doing nothing? And after you develop this
muscle of being able to do that, you can focus on conversations better. You’ll be able to focus on a math problem. So reducing social media
use, bad screen time and learning how to meditate, or just focusing on doing
something slower pace for an extended period of time, you will train yourself to
stop being so scattered, so foggy, so in your head and really focus in on
what’s in front of you, and it’ll help with your brain fog a lot. So one of the best ways
to clear up that brain fog and become more present, and focused, and dialed in is to
prevent being scattered in the first place. Say, you have to write a paper, and the deadline is one month from now. You have some clear days where
you could work on your paper, but you say to yourself, “Oh,
it’s due a month from now. I can definitely do it
three weeks before.” And then three weeks before
comes, and you’re like, “I can do it two weeks before.” Every time you do that, you’re not forgetting about this deadline. You’re just giving it to your
subconscious to worry about. And the more things your
subconscious has to worry about, the more scattered you become. Just because it isn’t on the
front lines of your brain and the thing that you’re
actively thinking about all the time, you’re
still thinking about it. Subconsciously, you’re worrying about it. And the more things you
give to your subconscious to worry about, the worst
your brain fog gets. So just get it done so you don’t have to
worry about it anymore and you can just focus
on the task at hand. So tip number one is don’t procrastinate. And tip number two is to
write down your goals, objectives and tasks. Say, you meet a friend on the street that you haven’t seen for
a while and you catch up, you have a great
conversation, and they say, “Hey, let’s meet up Tuesday
afternoon and let’s grab lunch.” And you say, “Yeah, that
sounds like a great idea. I’ll see you then.” And then you depart. You depart, I said that archaically, you depart from each other. Write that down. Schedule it in, set a
reminder on your phone so that you can forget about it. Don’t give it to your subconscious
to have to worry about. You’re just gonna be
thinking, “Tuesday afternoon, I’ve got a dinner, dinner date. Tuesday afternoon I’ve got
a lunch date with Kevin.” And that makes your
attention to everything else for that entire week reduced because you’re just gonna be thinking about this lunch date with
Kevin that you have to remember. This is dumb. Every time that you have a task to do, every time have something scheduled, you agree to something, write it down, set a reminder on your phone so that you can forget about it. It’ll free up mental RAM, and it’ll bring your subconscious
soup you have going on, it’ll reduce the ingredients of that soup, giving you a nice, clear broth that will help your brain operate better. (coughs) It’s so hot in here. I look terrible, holy. Take it from somebody who
has struggled through anxiety his entire life, has
pretty much conquered it. Not having things to worry about completely reduces your anxiety. Not completely. I can’t diagnose you and say like, “Oh yeah, if you schedule your day, your anxiety disorder will go away.” That’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying that you’re doing
yourself a lot of favors if you become more organized, you don’t procrastinate, and you have less things
to worry about in general. So tip number two is all
about being on top of things. Okay, factor number
three is general health. This one’s not gonna be a long one. There’s a million videos on
how to optimize your health. Going to sleep on time,
waking up at a decent hour, getting enough sleep,
all that yada yada yada. I have a million videos about sleep. Actually, I probably
only have two. Whatever. For most people that means
between seven and nine hours of sleep per night, or 7 1/2 and 8 1/2 hours
of sleep per night, stay hydrated, eat good food and exercise. Everybody knows these things, but almost nobody does
all of them correctly. So if you feel like
you’ve tried everything to reduce brain fog, and you haven’t tried
to optimize your health, you’re doing yourself a huge disservice. And the biggest one of
all of these probably, in my experience, is getting exercise. There’s a video from a channel
called “What I’ve Learned” about the cognitive benefits of exercise. And in this video, he talks about how whenever someone talks about
the benefits of exercise, they talk about reduced heart disease and maybe the ability to,
you know, not get a stroke when you’re older, it’s all. Basically, exercise isn’t sold very well. Almost nobody talks about
the cognitive benefits that you receive from exercise. If exercise was sold in a pill, it would be the best-selling pill ever. If exercise was sold in a pill, it would be the closest thing to NZT 48 you could possibly find. I’ve started weightlifting
five days a week over the past couple of weeks, and I’m gonna continue to do so. Mostly because it makes me feel amazing. And I’m not even talking
about my bodily energy. I’m talking about my mental energy. I’m on the ball these days. I don’t know if you could
tell, but I’m just like, I’m sick these days. I attribute a lot of that to exercise. My diet hasn’t changed much, I’ve been heating more protein, and I’ve been staying hydrated. But there’s something
about exerting yourself every single day. It’s almost like your body and mind learn that you’re an energetic person, and it gives you all this energy for free. It’s amazing. So that’s about it, guys. If you take all three of
these factors into account, I guarantee you, unless there’s
something seriously wrong with you and you need to see a doctor, your brain fog will significantly reduce. You’ll become a focused tiger. 10 times more attractive,
five times more focused, three times more productive, and one times more yourself. And probably less friends
’cause they’ll all be jealous. Thanks for watching, and we’ll
catch you in the next video.

Just a video on brain fog, what it is, and how to cure it.

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