ANTISCROLL: four things that inspired us this week #6

Hello, reader!

It's Wednesday again, and we're back with the sixth edition of ANTISCROLL to bring a little inspiration to the middle of your week. After a weekend spent bar-hopping in cat ears or devil horns, we're guessing you haven't had much time for the more thoughtful corners of the internet. That's where we come in. This week's four finds are worth putting the endless scroll on hold for, whether you have five minutes, ten or a little longer to yourself. We're talking focus, the habits that help or hinder us, and our need to be understood by the people around us. So, if you've caught up with everyone's Halloween party photos, here's what else deserves your attention.

You pick up your phone to check something. Half an hour later, you've forgotten what it was. Sound familiar? In this episode of The Diary of a CEO, Steven Bartlett talks to cognitive neuroscientist Dr Sahar Yousef about digital distractions and how we can improve our focus.

You'll hear why multitasking isn't always as productive

as it seems, and how a few changes to everyday habits might help. There are also some interesting suggestions for your phone settings that are worth trying.

How often have you put something off because you didn't feel ready to begin? In this essay, the writer describes returning to writing after a long break, from the front seat of a parked car, with nothing more than a notebook and twenty spare minutes before work. Her story opens up a discussion of neuroplasticity: the brain's capacity to change through experience and repetition. The essay considers why small actions might get us further than waiting for the right moment, and how our habits gradually shape the way we see ourselves.

We all want to be understood. But how realistic is it to expect someone to know every thought, fear and experience we've ever had?

This essay explores our need for other people's approval, our fear of showing vulnerability

and the difference between someone understanding us and agreeing with us. The writer also draws on Simone de Beauvoir and Carl Gustav Jung to examine how we relate to ourselves and to other people. The section on the expectations we place on those closest to us is particularly interesting, especially when we haven't actually told them what we need.

We came across a short Instagram video that compares friendship to people gathering around a campfire. Some stay for a few minutes, others settle in for longer, and some leave much sooner than we'd expected. The metaphor gives the video a way to talk about friendships changing over time, and why people drift apart.

ANTISCROLL: the things that inspired us this week #5

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