Fight brainrot in 10 minutes a day

You've probably come across the word "brainrot" before, haven't you?

You've probably already noticed that you're spending more and more time scrolling through social media, watching useless content, struggling to read long-form content?

If you're a developer, you may have already noticed how much less you use your brain for daily work: AI does everything for you.

Brainrot is a real danger that will become increasingly prevalent around us, and it's up to us to make the effort to fight it, without going to extremes.

You've probably already read plenty of advice:

• Uninstall social media from your phone
• Use the Pomodoro technique
• Don't use AI to make decisions for you
• etc.

In this article, I'm not going to give you yet another mainstream tip. I'm going to tell you about an experience I'm living personally, and which has had such an incredible effect on so many areas that I wanted to write an article about it.

I don't want to sell you a miracle product, nor do I want to tell you to buy a service, wake up at 5 a.m., or eat carrots, or whatever.

I want to ask you to do nothing.

Doing Nothing

I promise, I'm not (yet) crazy 😅.

Since september 2025, I've been trying something new, a form of meditation: every morning (almost), when I start my workday, I sit down and do nothing for 10 minutes.

I don't particularly try to think about nothing or about something specific: I let my mind wander. Originally, the goal was to relearn how to calm my mind, to work on my patience.

But this practice has had so many beneficial side effects that I'll try to explain here.

During the first few weeks, I thought almost ONLY about what I was going to do during my day. I mentally organized my tasks, reviewed my ideas etc, until my thoughts drifted on their own to other subjects, sometimes completely random:

"Oh look, a sparrow! What a beautiful animal. Oh wait, my dog, I mustn't forget to take him for his vaccine this week! Speaking of which, what's happening with COVID vaccination now? and that's when I think about grabbing my phone"

All my sessions looked a lot like that 😂! And even though it sounds ridiculous, it was SO DAMN HARD!!! Try holding on for 10 minutes doing nothing, you'll see it's almost impossible when you're not trained.

But the positive effects showed up very quickly.

The more I did it, the more I started my day with much more clarity: I knew exactly which tasks I was going to work on, why and how. That alone is a game changer, and it should be enough to convince you to try 😛.

But over time, the positive effects spread to many other areas! A few examples:

• 🧘🏻‍♂️ I stay much calmer when I argue with someone or when I debate
• 🧟 I notice much more quickly when I "lose myself" or when my mind goes in circles: when I scroll social media, when I work on something useless, basically when I procrastinate. And it's also much easier to stop! Often, I take 30 seconds to do absolutely nothing and think a bit, then I move on to something else
• 🍽️ It might sound weird to say, but I'm much more aware of what I eat, which makes it easier to say "no" to alcohol, sugar, and other stuff that's not great for your health.
• 😍 I'm much more satisfied with the work I accomplish every day, because I'm aware of what I'm doing. This has a huge impact on my mood.

Give It a Try!

Be careful though: it's not as simple as you might think 😅. There's a very good chance you won't be able to hold on for 10 minutes, and that's completely normal. Start with one minute for a week just to build the habit: if you can do that, it's already huge. Then move to 3 minutes, then 5, then 10. Take it gradually.

Trust me, these will be the best-invested 10 minutes of your day.

Thomas