Focus Toolkit: Tools to Improve Your Focus & Concentration

**Andrew Huberman** (0:00)
Welcome to the Huberman Lab podcast, where we discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life.
I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. Today, we are discussing focus and concentration and tools for improving your focus and concentration. This is a topic that I've covered previously on the Huberman Lab podcast, but in different contexts. For instance, we had a very popular episode on ADHD, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, which of course relates to the topic of focus and how to improve focus. We've also talked a lot about dopamine motivation and drive. In fact, that's the title of your previous also quite popular episode of this podcast. But never before have we had a single episode solely devoted to the tools to improve focus and concentration. The rationale for recording this episode is to provide people one location where they can go and quickly access the specific tools for increasing focus and concentration that are known to be the most powerful tools and the most up-to-date tools. In fact, today's episode is going to include description of several peer-reviewed studies and the tools that emerge from those scientific peer-reviewed studies that point to new and fortunately even briefer protocols than I've described before. So what I'm basically describing here is tools that in a very short amount of time will allow you to significantly increase your focus and concentration abilities. Those tools will include behavioral tools, nutrition-based tools, supplement-based tools, brain machine interface-based tools, and for those of you that are working with physician, prescription drug tools. Today's episode ought to benefit anybody, young or old, or anything in between, whether or not you have ADHD or not. Today's episode is going to give you tools that you can apply in your daily life. Most all of them are completely zero cost, and those tools will allow you to tap into the neurochemistry and the neural circuits within your brain and body that peer-reviewed science has reliably shown can significantly improve your focus and concentration abilities. Just to give you a little teaser of the kinds of tools that I'm going to provide you on today's episode, a previous guest on the Huberman Lab podcast was Dr. Wendy Suzuki. Dr. Suzuki is a professor of psychology and neuroscience at New York University, or NYU, as it's commonly referred to. She's also the Dean of Arts and Sciences at NYU. Her laboratory made a very important discovery, which was that a very brief, just 12, actually 13 if you really count the intro, but 13-minute daily meditation performed for a period of about eight weeks, significantly increased people's focus and concentration abilities. And the great news is you didn't need all eight weeks. It was just, that's how long that you ran the study. So during today's episode, I will describe that protocol in detail. I'll also provide you an even briefer alternative to that protocol that you can use if, for instance, you find yourself with only three minutes or four minutes or five minutes a day to meditate. The great news is there's quality peer-reviewed science to support that form of meditation for improving focus and concentration. And that falls under the bin of these zero-cost tools that you can really use to tap into the neurochemistry and neural circuits that really allow you to take control of your cognitive abilities and improve them over time. I'll also provide you important details about that protocol and other protocols. For instance, contrary to popular belief, it is not, I repeat, it is not a good idea to do a focused-based meditation within the four hours before bedtime. Many people, including some of the subjects in that study performed by the Suzuki Lab, found that when they did a focusing meditation protocol, even if it was very calming, it led to difficulties in falling and staying asleep. So that runs counter to a lot of what we've heard about meditation being great for sleep. It turns out meditation might be great for sleep. It certainly is great for improving focus capacity. But I highly recommend that if you're going to apply a focused meditation tool in order to improve your focus and concentration, that you make sure that that's performed not within four hours prior to bedtime. So that's just a brief example of the sorts of tools and protocols and details about the tools and protocols that I'll provide on today's episode. I should mention that we have provided links in the show note captions so that you can quickly go to the studies that we described, as well as some of the behavioral tools and other tools that we'll cover. Things like the use of binaural beats, supplements, et cetera. Our goal here again is to provide you the maximum number of tools for focus and concentration that you can pick from and choose from and apply in your life and try and eliminate as much of the legwork required to seek out and apply those tools. Before we begin, I'd like to emphasize that this podcast is separate from my teaching and research roles at Stanford. It is however part of my desire and effort to bring zero cost to consumer information about science and science related tools to the general public. In keeping with that theme, I'd like to thank the sponsors of today's podcast. Our first sponsor is Element. Element is an electrolyte drink with everything you need and nothing you don't. That means plenty of salt, magnesium and potassium, the so-called electrolytes and no sugar. Now, salt, magnesium and potassium are critical to the function of all the cells in your body, in particular to the function of your nerve cells, also called neurons. In fact, in order for your neurons to function properly, all three electrolytes need to be present in the proper ratios. And we now know that even slight reductions in electrolyte concentrations or dehydration of the body can lead to deficits in cognitive and physical performance. Element contains a science-backed electrolyte ratio of 1,000 milligrams, that's one gram of sodium, 200 milligrams of potassium and 60 milligrams of magnesium. I typically drink Element first thing in the morning when I wake up in order to hydrate my body and make sure I have enough electrolytes. And while I do any kind of physical training and after physical training as well, especially if I've been sweating a lot, if you'd like to try Element, you can go to drink element. That's lmnt.com/huberman to claim a free element sample pack with your purchase. Again, that's drink element lmnt.com/huberman.