Focused mode is used to concentrate on something that’s already tightly connected in your mind because you are familiar and comfortable with the underlying concepts.
The diffuse approach involves a big-picture perspective. useful when you are learning and understanding something new. As long as we are consciously focusing on a problem, we are blocking the diffuse mode. Do something else until your brain is consciously free of any thought of the problem.
You need to use both big-picture, or focused mode, and detail-oriented, or diffuse mode, to get good at math and science.
