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+---
+title: "Staring at walls to improve focus and productivity"
+date: 2026-04-27T05:27:30-04:00
+tags: ["Productivity", "Life Optimization"]
+---
+
+![Edited image from Men Who Stare At Goats with George Clooney staring at wall instead of a goat](./cover.webp)
+
+I came across [a video by Simple Lucas](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZD5IFpyDcE&pp=ygUgc3RhcmluZyBhdCB3YWxsIGZvciBwcm9kdWN0aXZpdHk%3D) describing a routine to improve focus and productivity.
+The routine was basically:
+
+1. Don't use any screens/entertainment when trying to focus on work.
+2. When you start to feel mentally drained, sit and stare at a wall for x minutes to recover focus.
+
+I've been trying it, and it's a very effective (but hard) routine.
+
+## The problem
+
+The core problem is that most people by default are in an information overload.
+A paper published in 2012 showed that in 2008 the average person was receiving 34 GB of information daily, with a daily information exposure growth rate of about 5.4% per year [^1].
+Extrapolating that trend, we would be at about 87 GB worth of data today. 
+This calculation includes audio, visual, and text data and incorporates quality into the measurement, i.e. 10 minutes of HD video has more information than 10 minutes of 480p video.
+It's unclear to me exactly how the quality impacts things, but regardless it is obvious that we are all being drowned in a sea of information.
+
+I certainly go through periods of "brain fog" and lack of focus/motivation.
+These periods usually go something like:
+
+1. Get a bad night of sleep (up late for an event, kids keep waking me up).
+2. Wake up very tired so consume large amounts of caffeine.
+3. Have trouble focusing after 2/3 cups so use media while working to dull the pain (music/podcasts) or take more "breaks" (reading hackernews).
+4. Stay up late because I'm wired on caffeine and dopamine from scrolling.
+5. Go back to 2.
+
+I find these cycles very hard to break out of when I'm in them.
+The media consumption constitutes a small dopamine hit.
+Large numbers of small hits puts you in a hole, where you need even more/stronger hits to feel good.
+
+## Disconnecting
+
+The obvious solution is to disconnect from scrolling, but that doesn't overcome the biggest issue.
+When I'm in this "brain fog" cycle (and sometimes outside of it), I will find that around 1/2 pm I hit a wall.
+My head will start hurting, my motivation will be trash, and my productivity significantly degrades.
+My first instinct is to go for more coffee.
+That usually lets me keep working, but at a slow/painful pace.
+While looking for focusing strategies I came across the life-changing solution...
+
+## Stare at a Wall!
+
+After watching Simple Lucas' experience, I decided to try it when I hit my focus wall.
+
+It worked.
+
+In my attempts, I combined wall staring with a few other concepts I had heard about. 
+First was activating the parasympathetic nervous system by staring at the wall "out-of-focus" and using peripheral vision.
+Second was incorporating mind blanking which means trying to think of nothing.
+I tried intervals of 5-10 minutes and when I was done, my focus was back!
+
+What I didn't expect was how difficult it would be.
+Sitting for 5-10 minutes staring at a wall without thinking of anything is hard!
+I relate it somewhat to the feeling I have with working out.
+Often times I want to avoid it because it's hard, but I'm always happy when I push through and complete it.
+It was the exact same experience with the wall staring.
+
+So far I've been feeling significant focus/productivity improvements.
+I've also been using some other strategies to improve focus, which I'll be talking about in a future post.
+I plan to continue this routine and will update to see how much it has impacted productivity/focus.
+Thanks for reading!
+
+[^1]: https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/1566
+