Good Life Project - Hidden Psychology of To-Do's. How Sight Turns Off Sound.

Episode Date: September 14, 2017

In today's GLP Update, we're talking about a hidden reason why a to-do list may be your savior (even if you hate them), and a cool study that reveals how focusing intensely on visual tasks just might just make you momentarily deaf to certain sounds.Ah, the old to-do list. Some people love them. Others outright hate them. Some refuse anything but a paper to-do list or a planner, others need an app. Love or hate, there are a few hidden reasons why exploring both a to-do list and a "to-done" list might make you not only more productive, but way more upbeat and happy.And, on the science side of things, in today's Good Life Science Update, we're diving into some fascinating research on how the bandwidth needed to see fiercely and listen intently sometimes wars with each other. That leads your brain to sometimes have to choose. How and why, and how it might impact you (and give you an excuse for "not hearing certain things or people, lol) is what we're talking about. And, as always, for those want to go to the source, here's a link to the full study.Rockstar Sponsors: Audible has the best audiobook performances, the largest library, and the most exclusive content. Learn more, start your 30-day trial and get your first Audible book free, go to Audible.com/goodlife.RXBAR Kids is a snack bar made with high-quality, real ingredients designed specifically for kids. It contains 7 grams of protein and has zero added sugar and no gluten, soy or dairy. Find at Target stores OR for 25% off your first order, visit RXBAR.com/goodlife.Are you hiring? Do you know where to post your job to find the best candidates? Unlike other job sites, ZipRecruiter doesn’t depend on candidates finding you; it finds them. And right now, GLP listeners can post jobs on ZipRecruiter for FREE, That’s right. FREE! Just go to ZipRecruiter.com/good. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hey there, it's Jonathan with today's Good Life Project update, where we blend together different ideas and segments to kind of update you on what's spiraling around in my noggin related to living a good life. Today, kind of an interesting focus, actually two of them. We've got a riff and a science update. And today's riff is about to-do lists. Do you keep to-do lists? Do you live and die by them? Do you absolutely hate them and war with them? There are a couple of interesting things that happen in our minds that make to-do lists

a really interesting thing to explore, even if the thought of them makes you, you know, kind of want to hurl. In our science update, we've got an interesting bit of science that shows that concentrating or focusing your attention, your awareness on something highly visual can potentially lead you to be what's called momentarily deaf to sounds around you. So we're going to dive into that research, and it may also explain a little bit of relationship angst along the way, give you something, a little bit of science to point to the next time somebody says, hey, were you listening?

Anyway, I'm Jonathan Fields. This is Good Life Project. The Apple Watch Series 10 is here. It has the biggest display ever. It's also the thinnest Apple Watch ever, making it even more comfortable on your wrist, whether you're running, swimming, or sleeping. And it's the fastest-charging Apple Watch, getting you eight hours of charge in just 15 minutes.

The Apple Watch Series X. Available for the first time in glossy jet black aluminum. Compared to previous generations, iPhone XS or later required, charge time and actual results will vary. Mayday, mayday. We've been compromised. The pilot's a hitman.

I knew you were gonna be fun. On January 24th. Tell me how to fly this thing. Mark Wahlberg. You know what the difference between me and you is? You're going to die. Don't shoot him, we need him. Y'all need a pilot. Flight risk. So in today's riff, I'm talking about something called to-do lists. Now, as I said in the lead up to this, many of us have some sort of pre-existing relationship with the idea of to-do lists or apps or programs. Some of us absolutely love to-do lists. They're a tool that works really beautifully with the way that we organize our minds and our lives. And they give us a sense of accomplishment along the way. Some of us have really strong preferences. You know, we may be like, oh, I am completely a list person, but it has to be on paper.

And you'll have your specific journal, you'll have your specific planner or file, whatever it may be. Everyone has their own technique and some people love, love, love paper. Others, on the other hand, don't want anything to do with paper. And it's not just because they're freaked out that if they lose it, they'll lose their lives. It's because their brains work in a way where they kind of work better when they're digital. So I'm one of those people. I run my days, weeks, months, and quarters productivity with sort of hyper organized task lists that are based on projects. And I use an app. I've experimented with many different ones. The platform I use right now is called Asana. And it's really powerful because it allows me to segment what I need to do by topic, by priority, by deadline or due dates, and then kind of bang through it. And what I do is I actually dive in and I identify what are the one or two absolutely critical things that will move the needle forward in a project or initiative that is deeply meaningful to me. And I try and focus on those first. Does it always

work? Not always. But that's certainly my intention when I do it. And here's the interesting thing about any form of task or to-do list. We tend to have love-hate relationships with them based on the way that we're wired. If you are somebody who's highly rebellious, if you are, for example, somebody who is one of, you know, looking at Gretchen Rubin's four tendencies, a rebel, you're probably going to hate them because even if you created the list yourself, you're imposing some sort of order and priority on what you do. And you're just going to kind of feel the need to, hey, just be me and do whatever you feel is important at any given moment or day. If you have a different tendency, you may love, love, love them.

If you're a questioner, which I am, you may look at the different tasks and say, well, I'll only put it on the to-do list and do it if it's on the to-do list, if the reason I put it there made sense to start with, and if the reason that it's still there makes sense as I look at it today. So we tend to have different wiring around expectations and task lists. Regardless of your wiring, though, to-do lists or task lists, they can actually be really important and really effective on two different levels. One is the way that they relate to kind of an oddball wiring that our brains have. It's called the negativity bias. And I've spoken about this in the past. Fundamentally, the negativity bias is something that the spoken about this in the past. Fundamentally, the negativity

bias is something that the vast majority of humans walk around with. And it is a wiring of our brain's default that wires us to go towards the focus to draw attention to and to sometimes not be able to let go of the negative side of life, the stuff that goes wrong. And within that stuff that goes wrong is the stuff that we, quote, should have gotten done but didn't do. We tend to see only the things that are left undone, and we tend to forget about or discredit the things that we actually have accomplished and gotten done. And because of that, that leads us into what researcher Barbara Fredrickson has called a downward spiral. So if we kind of don't do anything to counter the effects of the negativity bias,

which tends to be the organic default state for most of our brains. If we don't do something proactively to counter the effect of that bias, then we start to spin downward into this negative place. And that makes it really hard for us to walk through the day and feel good about ourselves, feel accomplished about ourselves, feel like we're happy, feel like we're content, feel like we are fulfilled with who we are and the lives that we're creating. So keeping a task list is a really interesting way to counter that, but not in the way that you're thinking about. It's this. And it has to do with something that an author, Karen Samuelson, who I've known for years,

says about the difference between to-do lists and what she calls a to-done list. And that is that when you keep a list that not only shows you what you have to do, but then you allow it to become a living searchable record of what you have done, of all of the tasks, small and large, the projects, the to-dos, the accomplishments that you've actually been able to check off, that gives you the ability to then reflect on that and say, huh, that negativity bias that says you suck, you haven't accomplished anything, you're like, you're nothing meaningful is happening. When you actually have a to-do list that allows you to check things off and then to keep a record of them that you can

flip back through and reflect on, it serves as concrete evidence that your negativity bias is wrong. It serves as proof that you are in fact accomplishing stuff. providing, of course, that the stuff on that task list is stuff that's truly meaningful to you. And that's something you really want to focus on. So when you create a task list, you want to do it in a way where you don't just use it as something that tells you what to do, but you are very sort of almost religious about making sure the stuff that really matters is on there and making sure that when you do it, you mark it as done so that you can reflect on it and leverage it as that body of evidence that you actually are accomplishing things, that you are doing things that matter. And that also ties in with the

research of Professor Teresa Amabile, who runs her lab and also is the author of a really interesting book called The Progress Principle. What she showed in her research is that one of the most powerful motivators of anything that we have in work in life. It's not big incentives. It's not rewards. It's not money. It's actually the ability to experience small bits of progress a little bit at a time along the way every day, sometimes every minute, every hour, every week. That is what makes us feel deeply rewarded and fulfilled.

That's what keeps us motivated and alive. It's what keeps us doing something that doesn't wrap up in the blink of to the world and the lives of those around you. So when you think about it, when you think about how you may feel about a to-do or task list, think about the fact that our brains are wired to organically default into a negative spiral, which ignores the stuff that we've done and devalues the stuff that we have accomplished. Add to that the fact that one of the most rewarding and fulfilling things that we can do is have a way to recognize and validate progress on a regular basis along the way. And make sure that you're keeping your task or to-do list in a way where you are recording everything meaningful and having a way to check it off, validating, noting, and keeping a record of all the stuff that you actually have accomplished. When you add all those together, even if you're somebody that doesn't sort of naturally default to being comfortable with the

idea of keeping these types of lists or project accomplishment lists, task lists, or to-do lists, when you look at sort of what it can actually do to and for you, there becomes a really powerful argument for keeping these in your quest to do really good work and to live a really good life. So that's kind of what I'm thinking about today. And maybe that's this week's invitation. What would happen if you chose whatever your, you know, preferred medium is? Paper, notebook, back of an envelope, something that, you know, task-oriented, and it can be technology, application, something that allows you to not just write down the important things that you want to get done,

but also check them off and keep a record of those things that you can refer back to as a body of evidence of all of the good things that you can refer back to as a body of evidence of all of the good things that you have accomplished. Check it out, try it out for the next week or so, and then see how it feels. See if it moves the needle in your state of mind and in your life. And as always, share the experiments with me. You can find me all over the place on social media, pretty much at Jonathan Fields or at Good Life Project all over the place. Be sure to stay tuned because after the break, we're coming back with some really fascinating research on how paying attention to stuff that you see can sometimes war with your ability to also

hear what's going on around you. And that includes hearing what people might be saying or asking around you. Back with you after the break. It's also the thinnest Apple Watch ever, making it even more comfortable on your wrist, whether you're running, swimming, or sleeping. And it's the fastest-charging Apple Watch, getting you 8 hours of charge in just 15 minutes. The Apple Watch Series X, available for the first time in glossy jet black aluminum. Compared to previous generations, iPhone XS or later required, charge time and actual results will vary. Mayday, mayday.

We've been compromised. The pilot's a hitman. I knew you were going to be fun. On January 24th. Tell me how to fly this thing. Mark Wahlberg. You know what the difference between me and you is? You're going to die.

Don't shoot him, we need him. Y'all need a pilot. Flight risk. And we're back with a really interesting study on something called uh inattentional deafness what in the world is that you you very likely have experienced this um in fact we've all experienced this i know i certainly have it's funny i am uh'm a creator. I love to make stuff. And when I'm writing or when I'm looking at stuff, when I'm painting or making art, I have learned over the years that my world tends to vanish away. If I'm deeply engaged in seeing something, like if you actually gave me a picture and said, okay, here's a picture,

and I want you to find these five things in the picture. And then you spoke with me while I was searching for those five things. I not only would likely ignore you, but what I've noticed over the years is I literally don't hear you. And I've always wondered about that. I've always wondered, am I just filtering you out? I hear you, but I'm always wondered about that. I've always wondered, am I just filtering you out? I hear you, but I'm not paying attention. Or is there something about the way that the brain is wired, that our brains are wired, that actually kind of force you to alternate between senses, because you just don't have the processing speed, the bandwidth, the sort of multitask between hearing, feeling, and seeing. Well, it turns out that that in fact is exactly the case in a study that was published in the Journal

of Neuroscience. And as always, we will include a link to the actual study report in the show notes for fellow science geeks like me who want to go deeper into the actual modality of what happened. This was actually done by Dr. Maria Shade. I hope I'm pronouncing the name right at the UCL Ear Institute. The study looked at this phenomenon, and they looked at it in a really interesting and different way. So we've known about this phenomenon for a long time, but there's never been a real understanding of what is happening in the brain during inattentional deafness, which is what this is called. The experience or the phenomenon where when you're concentrating on something visual, you become momentarily deaf to many sounds.

So what's this all about? And the question was the same question that I had. Is it that your brain works in a way where you just become hyper-focused and it automatically filters out all of the other people or sounds? Or does your brain actually not even hear it? In order to figure this out, a number of volunteers came in and they were asked to then participate in a hyper visual task. And then they were sort of exposed to different sounds while they were doing this. While this was all happening, these people were also hooked up to brain scans that were able to show what was happening in different parts of the brain. Now, this was not the sort of typical fMRI that we often hear about.

There's something called an MEG or magnetoencephalography. And what it effectively does is it monitors the brain and the different centers of the brain so they can tell you what's going on. And here's what happened. According to Dr. Chait, in quotes, the brain scans showed that people were not only ignoring or filtering out the sounds, they were not actually hearing them in the first place, end quote. So really interesting.

And what that suggests is that visual processing and auditory processing, they both kind of share overlap in processing centers in the brain. And that this inattentional deafness that comes when you're doing something which is highly visual, is not just you filtering out is not just you actually, quote, hearing sounds, but filtering them out. It's the fact that your brain actually doesn't hear them at all. It's not that you're, you know, somebody's trying to get your attention, and you're just ignoring them because you're so focused on what you want to do. You quite literally may not hear them. Your brain, it will be as if it's silent around you, which is kind of a fascinating thing that I've always wondered about. Because

when I'm working in different environments, I know that the more absorbed I become in something visual, it's been my experience that the less it matters how much ambient sound is around me and also the less I hear anything or anyone around me. Really interesting in the context of doing creative work, of doing especially work that is immersive and hyper-visual. But... The Apple Watch Series 10 is here. It has the biggest display ever. It's also the thinnest Apple Watch ever,

making it even more comfortable on your wrist, whether you're running, swimming, or sleeping. And it's the fastest-charging Apple Watch, getting you eight hours of charge in just 15 minutes. The Apple Watch Series 10, available for the first time in glossy jet black aluminum. Compared to previous generations, iPhone XS or later required. Charge time and actual results will vary. It's also interesting in the context of how we are living our lives, because where are most people's eyes

in an increasing percentage of the day these days? Their heads down, eyes looking at a phone, right? And what are you doing on your phone? It's not even that you're just scanning for updates. We're defaulting to highly visually sensory apps like Snapchat and Instagram, where instead of just reading or instead of trying to consume information, it's highly visual. You're constantly scanning images and visuals. And that means that if you're doing this when you're sort of out and about in the world, you will literally not be hearing what's going on around you. And that has implications both for your safety when you're walking around on the street and for the depth and quality of relationships with people around you who are not just annoyed by the fact that you're listening to your phone. But then when they start to say,

can you just put your phone down for a minute so we can have a real conversation? You may not actually even hear that, which is going to lead to a cascade of even more anger and frustration. So something to think about as you move through your day, that we tend to have to move between visual and auditory. And when we're doing something that is highly visual, our brain works in a way that it creates this experience of what is called inattentional deafness, where we stop hearing much of the world around us. That can be good when you need to really focus

on one particular thing, but it also has some real risks and downsides as you try and do your good work in the world and create great relationships in the world. So I hope you found that interesting. As always, as mentioned, we'll include a full report on that in the show notes for those who are interested.

We'll be back next week with some more fun stuff. And as we wrap up, I want to give a final shout out to our awesome sponsors and supporters. RX Bar for kids. Chocolate chip, apple, cinnamon, raisin, and berry blast. Find them at Target stores or for 25% off your first order. Visit rxbar.com and enter the promo goodlife at checkout. Audible is my go-to place to find audiobooks. As a Good Life Project listener, you can now get a free audiobook with a 30-day trial at audible.com slash goodlife.

Right now, you can post a job on ZipRecruiter for free. That's right, for free. Just go to ziprecruiter.com slash good. Thanks so much for listening to today's episode. If the stories and ideas in any way moved you, I would so appreciate if you would take just a few extra seconds for two quick things. One, if it's touched you in some way,

if there's some idea or moment in the story or in the conversation that you really feel like you would share with somebody else, that it would make a difference in somebody else's life, take a moment and whatever app you're using, just share this episode with somebody who you think it'll make a difference for. Email it if that's the easiest thing,

whatever is easiest for you. And then of course, if you're compelled, subscribe so that you can stay a part of this continuing experience. My greatest hope with this podcast is not just to produce moments and share stories and ideas that impact one person listening, but to let it create a conversation, to let it serve as a Thank you so much as always for your intention, for your attention, for your heart. And I wish you only the best. I'm Jonathan Fields, signing off for Good Life Project. The Apple Watch Series 10 is here. It has the biggest display ever. It's also the thinnest Apple Watch ever, making it even more comfortable on your wrist,

whether you're running, swimming, or sleeping. And it's the fastest-charging Apple Watch, getting you eight hours of charge in just 15 minutes. The Apple Watch Series X. Available for the first time in glossy jet black aluminum. Compared to previous generations, iPhone XS or later required. Charge time and actual results will vary.