Welcome, everyone. I'm your host, Greg McEwan, and I am here with you on this journey

to learn. Do you ever feel like there's something in the modern world that fries your brain?

That leaves you in red brain, where you're just so pulled in a million directions all the

time that it's hard to actually give attention to what's essential. Well, in part two of my

conversation with Dr. Gloria Mark, we get into some specific questions you can ask yourself to be

able to assess how you're doing, and what you can do to increase and then protect your peak

attention hours. Let's get to it.

Remember that if you want to get more out of each episode, take a moment to share something that

you have learned that has impacted you with someone else within the next 24 to 48 hours.

Dr. Mark, let's carry on from where we were before. If you had to take all the data that you've gathered

over these years and give us the peer-reviewed actionable habits that we can establish to be able to

thrive in this new reality, what would your number one suggestion be?

I would say be aware of your level of mental resources and take significant breaks to make sure

that you have a full tank of resources. Start your day with a full tank of resources,

getting sufficient sleep. We know that when people accumulate what's called sleep debt,

that their attention spans decline, sleep debt means that if I need eight hours of sleep

a night and I'm only getting six, for every night I'm getting six, I'm accumulating a debt

in my sleep. And the greater that debt, we see a correlation with shorter attention spans.

So start your day with full tank of well-rested good attentional resources and then throughout the

day, be aware of when your resources are starting to wane and take a significant break.

How long should that break be?

You know, we know from research that a 20-minute walk in nature can help people significantly

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