Dr. Sahar Yousef, a UC Berkeley-trained cognitive neuroplasticity researcher who runs the Becoming Superhuman Lab, talks with Steven Bartlett about why distracting environments, not missing tools, hold back productivity. She cites 47 seconds as the average time a knowledge worker stays on one screen and argues phone, email and Slack defaults are built for engagement, not output.
She maps the food industry's playbook (more stimulation, less friction, less satiation) onto apps. Her lab found three weeks of grayscale cut phone use by about an hour daily. Fixes include a VIP-only notification list and parking the phone out of reach. Her five-step focus sprint covers a calendar block, specific output goals, cutting distractions, a countdown timer and a break; a 2024 Nature paper found nature was the best break and scrolling the worst. A live writing test showed Bartlett slowing about 60% when switching tasks. She also covers chronotypes, and warns AI could create a small 'thinking class'.