Focused relaxation

Elon Musk and Joe Rogan's relaxation method

There is a lot of chatter about focus at work. Books have been written on it. Podcasts discuss it. People have made careers out of preaching its importance.

However, few talk about the importance of focus while relaxing. I called it focused relaxation. In fact, focused relaxation is key to engaging in deep focus at work.

The following is a snip of Joe Rogan and Elon Musk talking about the importance of focused relaxation (term coined by me!)

Video snip from 0:52 to ~3:04 (~2 mins)

Joe Rogan: “We were talking about something that I think is really good because people always think that video games are frivolous but what you were saying I think that’s really important is that it’s so difficult that it requires you to only think about that and it can relieve stress.

Elon Musk: “It can take out the rest of the world cause it’s so hard you can only think about that. If I play a video game on extreme difficulty, then I have to concentrate fully on the game and it has a calming effect, so it chills me down. I think you mentioned that many people like you if you play martial arts or you play pool, something that forces you to concentrate fully, it actually has a calming effect, it’s sort of like you’re mentally restoring.

Joe Rogan: Yeah, jiu-jitsu is like that, archery is like that as well. When you’re shooting a bow, there are so many moving things, you have to think only of it, and it cleans the mind.”

Musk is engaging in focused relaxation when playing video games and Rogan is doing the same while doing jiu jitsu or shooting a bow.

For most of us, relaxation means the opposite of focus. We feel tired and just want to give the brain a break. So, we relax by watching TV, scrolling social media, or engaging in frivolous conversations.

I argue that in order to truly relax, we need to focus our brains on a different activity outside work. The key is that the brain needs to be focused to relax. Focused relaxation is the only way to give your brain complete rest from thinking about work.

The conventional way of relaxation

Traditional ways of relaxation such as watching TV don’t fully engage the power of the brain and don’t require our full attention. Hence, during these activities, a part of our mind is engaged in low-level chatter, where thoughts about work keep flooding it. As a result, our brain doesn’t fully disengage from work and get an opportunity to relax.

Focused relaxation

Focused relaxation, on the other hand, gives our brains an opportunity to fully disengage from work. It involves utilizing our brain’s focusing power on an activity outside of work. These are typically activities like playing a sport or a game, cooking, reading, running intensely, engaging in deep focused conversations with people or playing with your kids. Any activity that gives your brain a chance to be fully engaged and blocks out the constant low-level work chatter that floods it, will enable focused relaxation.

By fully engaging in a different activity outside work, we give our brains proper rest.

Rave it out

I believe Silicon Valley has a culture of rave parties. Because of the sensory stimulation at rave, your mind is completely in the moment, taking it away from work thoughts, and enabling focused relaxation. Bars don’t offer the same level of stimulation, making it harder to stop the low-level chatter.

Focused relaxation = Deep focus at work

Focused relaxation allows one to come back to work with a deeper level of focus because we give the brain proper rest. Contrast this with traditional relaxation where no matter how much TV we watch to “relax” our brains, it has the counterintuitive effect of leaving us more tired. In fact, without focused relaxation, it is hard to be fully engaged at work given the brain doesn’t get proper rest. This can potentially disrupt the quality of our decisions.

Focused relaxation = Happiness

There is some literature to show that our brains are happiest when focused and fully engaged in a task. At least anecdotally, most of us recognize the feeling of gloat and joy after a bout of focused work or play.

Does focused relaxation play a large role in success?

There is a large group of professionally successful people who are not just excellent at their work, but also high achievers in at least another hobby such as running. People attribute this to their high achiever tendency – the fact that they can’t help but strive in all areas of their lives. Some of it could be attributed to their innate nature, however, I think some of it has to do with the fact that these people engage in focused relaxation through their hobby. By striving hard at their hobby, they have to take their mind off work in order to focus on the hobby. This way, they give their minds complete rest away from work and come back to work with a fresher mind and better decisions. And in the age of knowledge work, the quality of your decisions determines your success.

The activity outside work does not have to be a hobby. For some, it’s running 2-3 businesses at the same time. So, when one is focused on one business, they can take their mind completely off the other business, such that each time you make decisions about one business, your mind has been fully rested from thinking about it. For example, when Joe Rogan is engaging in comedy or MMA commentary, he is fully focused on those activities, and his mind gets rest from thinking of podcasting. Or when Elon Musk is focused at SpaceX, he gives thoughts about Tesla a break.

Intense focus in all areas does not mean that your brain won’t have the ability to wander and generate new ideas. Our brains are great at wandering so this will happen naturally. In fact, with focused relaxation, you will often approach your work with new ideas that seem to pop out of nowhere.

Capacity to Focus + Reality has no scripts

There are also limits to how much your brain can focus and on what task. Sometimes the best way to relax is to take a nap or go for a walk or do something that doesn’t require deep focus, but nonetheless can shut off your brain. The capacity to focus varies throughout the day, so matching your activity to your focus capacity is important. For example, if writing for me takes up a lot of focus, and I try doing it in the evening after a focused day at work, I won’t be able to given my focus capacity has diminished. So, match your activity to your focus capacity, and this includes your relaxation activity.

Ultimately, reality does not follow scripts. Which means that relaxation too does not have to follow scripts. It’s possible that some days the best way for one to relax might be to just watch TV or binge on ice-cream. However, doing this regularly is not true relaxation. The best relaxation is focused relaxation.