Neuroscientist Andrew Huberman recently sat down with Bill Maher on the Club Random Podcast and a practical piece of advice: put your phone in another room.
It sounds almost too simple. But according to Huberman, the research behind that recommendation is surprisingly strong.
He walked Maher through a study that examined people’s ability to focus depending on where their phone was located. Researchers created three different scenarios: one where the phone was turned off and placed face down on the table in front of participants, another where the phone was turned off and stored in a bag underneath or behind their chair, and a third where the phone was placed in a completely separate room.
“The interesting thing is that the ability to focus was essentially the same across those groups,” Huberman explained. “But it took a lot of extra cognitive resource to work and to focus when the phone is on the table or even in a bag underneath or behind your chair.”
Maher then pressed him on how scientists could measure something as abstract as mental effort. Huberman clarified that researchers can track how much energy the brain devotes to maintaining focus versus generating new ideas, problem-solving, and flexible thinking.
The conclusion, he said, was simple: “It takes a lot more work to focus when your phone is in the room.”
From a practical standpoint, removing the phone entirely appears to produce a noticeable boost in performance. But Huberman was careful to frame that idea correctly. In his view, it is not really a boost at all.
“When the phone’s out of the room, you see what looks like a boost in cognitive performance,” he said. “It’s actually just getting people back to baseline.”
That distinction matters. The phone is not only a distraction when you actively check it. Its mere presence quietly drains mental resources, even when it is silent and face down.
Huberman then connected this idea to a point often made by David Goggins. As he put it, modern success is increasingly defined not by what people do, but by what they avoid.
“He said it perfectly,” Huberman noted. “It’s never been easier nowadays to outperform your peers, but it’s mostly a function now of what you don’t do.”
The implication is that the bar for high performance has shifted. It is not necessarily that people have become less capable, but that constant phone exposure has pulled many below their natural baseline. Simply working without that device nearby can be enough to separate someone from the average.
Huberman extended that concern to younger generations in particular. He argued that succeeding today requires a level of restraint that previous generations did not have to practice.
“To succeed now as a young person, it’s much harder unless you’re able to abstain from interactions with short-form video mostly and the phone generally,” he said.
He also emphasized that the issue goes beyond distraction alone. The light emitted from screens, especially late at night, can disrupt cortisol rhythms and interfere with blood glucose regulation, effects that accumulate over time.
In other words, the device can influence your physiology whether you are actively scrolling or simply leaving it on your nightstand.
Getting the phone out of the room does not make you exceptional. It simply allows you to function the way you did before the phone arrived.
