Outsmart Your Brain: 7 Mental Biases That Kill Your Focus Every Day

When was the last time you tried to estimate a task?

It will take one hour, you thought. But then, three hours passed by, and you were still there. That’s the planning fallacy.

I learned to deal with it last year, when I became a team leader. I had to plan many tasks, but I didn’t want to look like I was wasting time, so my estimations were short. And after a few weeks, I had to work overtime to recover.

Our intrinsic optimism is the problem (I never thought I would blame optimism one day, but I have to). Your brain always imagines the best-case scenario and ignores all possible delays. It ignores all the problems that might occur because you hope they won’t, or you don’t have enough expertise with that task. So, when it happens, the project collapses.

• Add 50% to your time estimate by default.
• Track how long common tasks take.
• Adjust based on data, not optimism.

Pick 3 tasks this week. Write your time estimate. Then, track the real time and compare it.

Unfinished tasks never disappear — they hover.

Sometimes, they stay there for a night. You were too tired and delayed them to the next day. But in the morning, you finished them as soon as possible. And that’s great.

But sometimes, they stay there forever. You were too busy the night before, but also the morning after and afternoon. You didn’t want to do those tasks, but you had to. And now, you're searching for anything else to do to look busy.

Yet, those tasks keep part of your mind always lingering. They are like a background app draining your mental RAM. And your brain hates open loops.

• Do a brain dump every evening.
• Write every open task, big or small.
• Externalize the loop — your brain relaxes once it’s on paper.

Do a daily brain dumb. Keep a notepad nearby your bed and write everything you haven’t finished before going to bed.

You seek what you already believe — it’s not a bug in your head.

• You follow people who agree with you.
• And you dismiss opinions that challenge you.

We try to keep balance in our lives, and the confirmation bias is our greatest ally. But what happens when life always agrees with you? You don’t learn how to manage failures, and you never change.

When you’re younger, you hate people who disagree with you. You think you’ll always be right and keep out whatever might break that balance. But as you grow up, you find value in other points of view, and that’s how you grow.

• Ask yourself, “What if I’m wrong?”
• Seek arguments that are the opposite of your belief.
• Use contradiction as a growth tool.

Pick one assumption you’ve made this week and research the counterargument.

I love having many options because it makes me think I can choose what I want to do. But that’s only an illusion — you will always do the same things most of the time.

Let’s say you have to buy a new T-shirt. You either:

• Buy the first thing you like. You will find what you want in the first 10 minutes but keep searching. Then, you will go back.
• Don’t buy anything. You probably didn’t want that t-shirt but needed an excuse to have a boost of dopamine.

In both cases, you lost a lot of time. Your brain burned out from constant decision-making until it had had enough of it.

• Limit your choices.
• Use fixed routines.
• Always do your top 3 priorities first.

List your three most important tasks the night before. Only do those until they're done.

There’s a diabolical trade you make every day that ruins your future, and you don’t even know it exists. You always trade delayed gratification for instant rewards.

Now is always better than later. And you can’t stop rewarding yourself.

You should read that book, but YouTube feels easier. You should write that email, but scrolling Instagram feels better. You need that dopamine boost. But that’s distracting you from your goals.

Immediate rewards will always feel better than long-term ones. Otherwise, everybody will achieve their goals.

• Link small rewards to long-term goals.
• Schedule temptation time.
• Use short bursts of effort.

Pick one long-term habit you want to build. Add a reward right after doing it.

I’ve already spent hours on it. I can’t quit now!

How many times have you thought something like that? But it’s all in your brain. Of course, you can quit if you want. Sometimes, it’s even necessary to remain healthy. Yet, for some reason, we get hooked on everything that took us time.

It’s like a long TV show you don’t want to end. It’s like a dream project — if you can’t make it work, you must let it go.

Your brain wants past effort to feel justified. But sometimes, letting go saves more time than justifying your hopes and aspirations. And it hurts less.

• Think about a project that took a lot ot fime. Would you start it again today?
• Focus on future value, not past cost.
• Cut losses early.

Think of one project dragging you down. Would you begin it today? If not, let it go.

You had a bad day, and you feel like a failure now. Is it fair?

No, it’s not. I know it. You know it. But when we have to bring that knowledge into our lives, we fail miserably.

The problem is that one bad moment outweighs ten good ones in our memory. That’s the availability heuristic. However, we forget bad memories faster than good ones. So, how can you use this knowledge to improve your life?

• Use the bad days as a baseline you don’t want to face again.
• And praise the good days as events you wish to replicate.

• Track your progress weekly.
• Use data, not memory.
• Separate feeling unproductive from being unproductive.

Write a quick log at the end of each day: What did you do? What went well?

Our brain is our greatest power. Yet, sometimes it works against us. It tricks us with motivation and confidence. But then, when we need discipline, it chickens out.

Your brain is human — it hasn’t been designed for productivity. So, you have to outsmart the traps built into it to reach your goals.

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