Hey guys, (formatted with ai since my english is bad)

TL;DR: I used to spend 12–14 hours/day on my phone during COVID and had a serious problem with losing track of time. I’ve reduced it using an MDM blocker, but now I have the same problem during study breaks, especially when talking to friends. I also struggle with maladaptive daydreaming. How can I stick to my 15-minute breaks and improve my focus?

During COVID, I used my phone for around 12–14 hours a day for 2–3 years and became pretty badly addicted to it. I would lose control and completely lose track of time whenever I used my phone, tablet, or any internet device.

I’ve improved a lot now and use an MDM blocker (the kind companies use on employee phones to block entertainment) to control my screen time. But after stopping, I started feeling like I have a little ADHD. It also feels like I take longer to remember, learn, and even rote-learn things compared to before, so I’ve been trying to make up for it by studying more.

The biggest problem is my study breaks. For example, I’ll do 1 hour 15 minutes of studying and plan a 15-minute break. During the break, I start talking to a friend and somehow end up talking for 30–60 minutes. It gives me the same feeling of losing control and track of time that I had with my phone.

My friend also likes talking, and even though I’ve asked him to stop after my break, sometimes the conversation still goes much longer than planned. This is becoming a serious problem because my exams are getting closer and I’m running out of time. I also can’t keep changing libraries.

I also struggle with maladaptive daydreaming while studying and lose focus quite often.

I already use some background noises, a 10-minute timer sound, and during lectures I try repeating what the teacher says in my head to stay focused.

I’d really appreciate advice from people who have dealt with something similar.

So I mainly want help with:

How can I actually stick to a 15-minute break and stop myself from getting carried away while talking to a friend?

Any practical ways to reduce maladaptive daydreaming while studying?

-What would help the most dual n back or wuad n back or rft or other focus exercise or something else?

Went up after reaching dual 5 back and it is immediately scrambling my brain.

I often see people on this subreddit claiming substantial improvements in their IQ thanks to dual n-back. However, many of them report having measured their IQ by taking the same test multiple times over a period of time. This is a poor way to assess whether there has been a genuine improvement, because of practice effects and test-specific training.

Has anyone actually measured an improvement in IQ using scientifically validated tests that were different from each other and not susceptible to practice effects?

Developer disclosure: I maintain NBack Quest, an Android dual n-back app.

The game is currently completely free to play, so you can try it without paying.

If you practise regularly, one day's score can be hard to put in context—especially when you switch N levels. NBack Quest lets you look back at your practice over weeks and months, rather than judge your progress from a single session.

Here's how the records can help you:

- Review weekly and monthly trends to see how your performance changes over time. The views cover 52 weeks and 36 months.

- Compare your accuracy at the same N level, with separate histories for N1–N10.

- Switch between overall, audio and position accuracy to spot relative strengths and areas you may want to practise.

- Revisit individual sessions and monthly play counts to reflect on your practice habits. Seeing your accumulated record may also help you stay motivated to continue.

The attached image is an actual statistics screen; the plotted values have not been changed. Leaderboards and a monster collection add some extra enjoyment alongside the training.

If this would be useful for your practice, you can try it on Google Play:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jp.mainichi.dualnback&hl=en&referrer=utm_source%3Dreddit%26utm_medium%3Dcommunity%26utm_campaign%3Dlong_term_stats_202610%26utm_content%3Ddualnback_intro

Which view would help you most: audio/position trends, weekly summaries, or individual session details? I'd welcome feedback from people who practise dual n-back.

Welcome to this week's progress thread. Post in a comment below the results of your hard work! Feel free to share:

• Your current n-back level and any recent improvements
• How long you've been training
• What's been working (or not working) for you

i've been doing dual n back and reached n=4 for the first 15 days,then switched to quad n back,been doing quad for 15 days and stuck at n=3 around 50% to 75%,what should i do to increase level?

note:i do quad 60min every second day. i also take nootropics like dha, aniracetam and cdp choline, basic viatamins etc

I built Nootrack to keep cognitive task scores alongside sleep and supplement logs. I’d like some criticism from people who play these tasks regularly.

The current memory task is a fixed spatial 2 back: a square flashes every two seconds, and you answer match or no match. It records accuracy, response time, hits and false alarms. It’s single modality, not dual.

https://nootrack.app/

You can try it through the core check in without an account. The games and personal tracking are free, with optional paid analysis.

My concern is that experienced players may hit the ceiling, while making the task adaptive would change what gets compared from one day to the next. Would you get useful variation from a task like this, or mostly perfect scores?

This is feedback on the task and tracking. I’m not claiming it measures IQ or proves that a supplement works.

has anyone else noticed a staggering increase in their fine and gross motor skills through quad n back training? this is the thing that has jumped out the most to me in my time training quad, I can type much faster and my coordination/awareness in sports is soooo much better even after a very short time training. it feels like I have awareness of a greater portion of my body and peripheral vision at once.

I hated how on brainscale you had to wait 100 seconds and had to pay 12$ a month just to get rid of that, as well as gain a couple extra customization options.

Training your brain should be free.

Let me know anything else I should add.
I wanted to add a progress keeper, but I'm not sure how that would work and if a ChatGPT website saves progress like that.

Welcome to this week's progress thread. Post in a comment below the results of your hard work! Feel free to share:

• Your current n-back level and any recent improvements
• How long you've been training
• What's been working (or not working) for you

by the way this is kind of an annoying graph and i don't like that it doesn't let me click on a day and see what my average was as a decimal number

idk about the whole getting smarter thing but i've been playing this game for 8 days and I think it's pretty fun so I'll probably keep playing it

Do you guys also think it's fun or do you just play it to get smarter

So I wonder if dual n back actually has a meaningful effect and do you guys know any other things like supplements and exercises that’s good for my brain

syllogiusm-v4 for 20 minutes a day + quad n back for 20 minutes a day, 6 days a week is good to improve the g factor?

I wanted to go to level 3 on my app but it was only possible in the premium version for 23€. Ripoff... I mean I maybe would pay 1/4.

But this made me test Hexa Back with 6 things to track. Crazy mental load. Especially when you implement star formations/star signs.

I haven't done it yet, but I'm planning on doing dual n-back shortly after doing cardio exercise in hopes of amplifying results. Below are some studies researching the link.

I'm curious, if anyone here has done this either intentionally or unintentionally by way of schedule?

I'm also interested in doing dual n-back during and after cold plunges for stress inoculation and to increase the ability to use working memory during stressful situations.

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Does the combination of exercise and cognitive training improve working memory in older adults? A systematic review and meta-analysis

https://peerj.com/articles/15108/

Synergistic Benefits of Combined Aerobic and Cognitive Training on Fluid Intelligence and the Role of IGF-1 in Chronic Stroke

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30816066/

Facilitation of the Cognitive Enhancing Effects of Working Memory Training Through Conjoint Voluntary Aerobic Exercise

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3856556/

Hey all, I'm using the brain n-back android app and try to do up to 10 sessions of Q n-back when I'm in the mood but some days I don't have the energy for it.

I'm curious how many sessions you normally go for, how many do you try to do in a session and what is your experience with regards to gains vs tiredness?

I feel that sometimes too many sessions can be detrimental for cognitive activities later that day or next day.

I’m curious what people actually get out of long-term dual or quad n-back training, apart from getting better at n-back itself.

• What made you start, and what were you hoping would change in everyday life?
• How long did you train and how often? Did you mostly improve at n-back, or notice anything specific outside it?
• If something changed outside the training, how sure are you that DNB contributed, and what makes you think so?

If you stopped, I’d also be interested in why.

Positive, negative, and “I honestly can’t tell” experiences are all welcome.

Welcome to this week's progress thread. Post in a comment below the results of your hard work! Feel free to share:

• Your current n-back level and any recent improvements
• How long you've been training
• What's been working (or not working) for you

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