Balancing the 3 Modes of Mental Activity

I’d like to close the loop this week on our introductory series on the art of self-learning. If you’d like a little refresh, you can check out our first two articles in the series, “The Age of the Autodidact,” which explains why the future belongs to self-learners and “How to Be an Autodidact,” which covers some of the practical know-how of the art. 

Thus far, we’ve discussed the idea of getting real with your curiosity and explored the secret power of day architecture in learning, creative endeavor, and all self-improvement plans. Today’s article is going to close the loop.

To be an autodidact, the last thing you need to know is how to balance the 3 modes of mental activity—focus mode, diffuse mode, and creative mode.

Let me briefly describe these 3 modes in the context of trying to learn something new:

Focus mode is when you are taking in new information. Think: reading, listening to podcasts and lectures, trying new things with your hands/body…etc. Here you are actively, proactively trying to use your brain.

Diffuse mode is when you aren’t actively/consciously trying to think about anything at all. Think: exercise, sports, long walks, showering, playing video games…etc. Here, your brain is still working obviously, you just aren’t being deliberate about it.

Creative mode is what happens when you try to make something new happen in the real world. Think: writing, art, sales, presenting, performance, interacting with others…etc. Here you are almost doing the opposite of focus mode. If focus mode is about taking things from the outside world and trying to put them in your mind, creative mode is about doing the reverse—taking things inside of you and trying to make them appear in the real world.

When people think of learning, they think mostly of focus mode. They imagine activities like reading, studying, flash cards, paying attention in class, taking tests…etc. In truth though, learning is a much more complex process and requires a balance of all 3 modes.

One of the great tragedies of modern life is how much we overemphasize the value of focus mode. We treat “grinding” as a badge of honor and celebrate the ability to sit for long hours in front of a screen. To be sure, a good work ethic is important and invaluable, but diffuse mode is an essential part of the process of learning and peak performance as is creative mode. 

I’ve found that there’s a natural limit to focus mode anyway. Unless you have an exceptional capacity for learning, you can only take in new information for about 2-3 hours a day. After that, the mind gets a kind of saturated feeling, and you just cannot effectively take in anything new. Obviously, people have different capacities for this, but undoubtedly everyone needs a break.

This is where diffuse mode comes in. We’ve been blessed with a mind that has an incredible capacity to operate on its own, often to our chagrin. When it comes to learning though, something akin to magic can happen when you deliberately schedule time not to think about anything. In diffuse mode, not only does your mind somehow consolidate and organize what you’ve taken in during focus mode, it also produces new connections, memories, and occasionally even profound insights. 

Ever had an “aha moment” in the shower or a flash of insight while on a long run? That’s diffuse mode doing its magic. Because of the natural limits of the mind, I think most people naturally figure out the need to balance focus and diffuse mode. There’s only so much time in the day, the demands of life are plenty, and even if you love a good binge session, eventually you run out of steam. 

What they don’t really teach you in school though is that it’s creativity, not grinding, that is the secret key to supercharging your learning. While we tend to think of learning as this one-way outside-in process, it’s actually more of a dialogue with life, a back-and-forth where the inside-out part plays the crucial role. 

This is something I discovered far too late in life, by the way. For decades, I was a prolific reader and notetaker, but it wasn’t until I started seriously experimenting with writing that I realized what was missing in my process. It’s not like you cannot learn anything just alternating back and forth between focus and diffuse mode, it’s just that you don’t learn as much or as quickly as you can if you incorporate some creative effort in your process. 

“You don’t know what you know until you try to write it down or explain it to someone else” could not be a truer statement! 

I’ve found that even with very diligent learning in focus mode, unless and until I try to create something, my knowledge of the topic remains insecure. Yeah, I might have some decent ideas, but they exist only in a loosely formed state. Only in trying to put pen to paper and articulate something coherent do I really discover what I know and think.

While what’s really happening in these moments remains opaque to me, the best way I can describe the feeling is this. In focus and diffuse mode, the mind does a decent job of absorbing information and grouping things together. But something remains undone. It’s like there’s a bunch of separate and distinct thought bubbles floating around in there but there’s no structure. Creativity somehow works to connect these floating thought bubbles into something coherent.

Ok, where does this leave us? Understanding the need to balance the 3 mental modes is crucial to crafting your ideal day architecture. Here are some things to keep in mind: 

• Make sure you schedule a healthy balance of focus, creative, and diffuse time. 

I’m not sure what the right ratio is but it’s something like 2 to 3 hours of diffuse time for every hour of focus/creative time. There’s a great book series by Mason Currey that explores the daily routines and day architectures of the world’s most fascinating people and while the routines vary widely, everyone seems to settle on a ratio roughly like this.

• Creative mode is absolutely essential.

This doesn’t mean, by the way, that you have to become a writer or an artist! But if you want to juice your learning you do have to sit down every day and create. Whether it’s writing, performing, crafting, or even just talking out loud to yourself, make an effort to see what you really know. 

• Experiment with high-intensity diffuse mode activities.

In recent years, I’ve discovered what I think is another secret to learning and creativity. As you all know, I have a very disciplined fitness routine that involves 6am Crossfit classes. Ever since starting the newsletter, I’ve had the most curious experiences, especially on days where we do particularly long and intense workouts—where my heart rate is above 170 bpm for extended periods of time. I will go into the workout not knowing what I want to write about for the week and will emerge from the fog of these workouts with a perfectly formed idea for an article or essay, sometimes even down to the paragraph or sentence. I have no idea what’s going on here but it’s so invigorating, I’ve started experimenting with adding a second intense workout of the day—e.g. a tennis match or some sparring—to stimulate even more creative output. I’d love to know if any of you have had similar experiences! 

PS. If you are really interested in this stuff, I recommend checking out the phenomenal work of Barbara Oakley or reading this book.

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