Have you got popcorn brain too?

Do you lose yourself scrolling on your phone? Those pesky ‘algorithms’ on platforms like Instagram, YouTube and TikTok specialise in snagging your attention, clocking your preferences, and pushing endless short-form content you’ll probably like. Before you know it, you’ve lost hours doing little.

Coined by Dr David Levy the author of Mindful Tech, Popcorn Brain is a phenomenon where your brain circuitry is over-stimulated due to excessive time online. It gets accustomed to the fast-paced digital stream. This brain-popping pattern can make it harder to steady your attention and feel satisfied in the offline ‘slow world’.

Aside from locking away your phone, there is another time-tested antidote. Mindfulness is a brain-training tool that strengthens the cognitive skills of focus, concentration and filtering out unhelpful stimuli (like more YouTube shorts 😉). Robust research by Amishi Jha’s brain lab (University of Miami) indicates that as little as 12 minutes of mindfulness practice a day can reduce mind-wandering, stabilise attention and improve working memory. Yes please!

Additionally, the evidence confirms that taking a 10+ minute micro-break after focused work is an effective energy recovery strategy that improves concentration, lowers fatigue and enhances well-being. 

In our flagship Elevating Executive Presence program, we encourage leaders to combine the two and punctuate their workday with mindful micro-breaks. They harness the 12+ guided mind performance practices in our Executive Presence digital toolkit. This supports them in building this attention-steadying habit. 

This short video explainer with Sharon Longridge explores the nature of the mind at work.