Review - Hyperfocus: How to Work Less to Achieve More

Quick Reference

{
  "title": "Hyperfocus: How to Work Less and Achieve More",
  "author": "Chris Bailey",
  "key_takeaways": [
    "Managing attention is critical",
    "Be more intentional about your work",
    "Hyperfocus enables higher achievement in less time",
    "Scatterfocus facilitates connecting ideas"
  ],
  "action_items/experiments": [
    "Monitor when focus begins to waver",
    "Identify most consequential task",
    "Set hourly awareness chime",
    "Utilize small breaks for scatterfocus"
  ],
  "resource_links/dependencies": [
    "Atomic Habits",
    "Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World",
    "The One Thing",
    "Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less"
  ]
}

Executive Summary

Managing attention well makes you more productive. Intention is critical. You get more done, because you focus on important matters.

There are two attention modes: Hyperfocus and Scatterfocus.

Hyperfocus involves directing complete attention to a single task. It occurs when you fill your entire attentional space with one activity and resembles a flow state. The better your focus, the more productive you become.

Scatterfocus allows your mind to wander and make connections between different concepts.

They play together nicely & complement each other. Match your energy levels to select the appropriate mode. Choose hyperfocus during high-energy periods and target important, challenging tasks. During low-energy periods, choose scatterfocus through meditation, intentional mind wandering, or "sleeping on" problems. While hyperfocus theory and tactics are well-documented, scatterfocus represents a novel concept to me. The interplay between these distinct modes creates valuable synergies.

Core Concept Hierarchy

graph TD
    A[Attention modes] --> B[Hyperfocus]
    A --> C[Scatterfocus]
    B --> D[Attentional space]
    D --> E[Attentional residue]
    D --> F[Multitasking]
    B --> G[Intention]
    B --> H[Tame Distractions]
    C --> I[Three Types]
	C --> J[Collecting dots]
	J --> L[Where to look for]
	C --> K[Connecting dots]
	B --> M[Energy levels]
	C --> M[Energy levels]

Discoveries

⚡ Focusing on the right task is crucial (you control what receives focus). You will:

• accomplish what you intend to much more often

• remember more, because you’ll deeply process what you’re doing
• experience less guilt & doubt, since you choose what you’re working on
• waste less time working on unimportant things
• feel stronger purpose behind your work, since you choose it

Why it matters: When you choose what to do and focus with intention, it’s going to improve your overall well-being. It not only helps to achieve more, but also feel better. I prepare my priorities for a day in the morning (or sometimes in the evening). I put my intentions in writing to have clear focus. It’s even better to schedule time.

⚡ Hyperfocus reminds me flow state. It occupies whole attentional space. You are immersed in the task.

Hyperfocus = deliberate + undistracted + challenging + intentional

Four stages of hyperfocus:

1. Select meaningful and productive tasks
2. Minimize external and internal distractions
3. Focus on the task
4. Redirect attention when distracted

Why it matters: Hyperfocus lets achieve more in shorter time. Focusing on single task gives clarity. But attention goes before attention. First, you need to choose something that’s meaningful to you.

⚡ Implementation intention

Don't settle on setting intention. Prepare a plan. That’s implementation intention. Instead of, saying I’ll hit a gym, make it more concrete. I’ll go to the gym before picking kids from school at 2pm.

What I’m arguing in my research is that goals need plans, ideally plan that include when, where, and which kind of action to move towards the goal. - Gollwiter

Why it matters: Goals without plans often remain wishes. Leverage calendar. Put tasks in time perspective Thinking about when each task is going to happen, shows if I have enough time. Research consistently shows planning's critical role.

⚡️Hyperfocus helps to remember better.

Deliberately managing your attention also leads you to remember more. This is the second way in which regularly practicing hyperfocus helps: the more information you gather and remember when focused, the better you are at constructing ideas and future events in scatterfocus mode. As a recent review in the scientific journal Nature put it, it’s “helpful to think of the brain as fundamentally prospective organ that is designed to use information from the past and the present to generate predictions about the future. Memory can be thought of as a tool used by prospective brain to generate simulations of possible future events”.

Why it matters: Hyperfocus not only lets us finish and crack problems faster, but also remember more. This leads to accumulated solutions for future challenges. Without learning, tackling problems & remembering, it will be hard to make any progress. (And assess any output of LLMs).

⚡️ Connecting dots - how to trigger more creativity

Scatterfocus is “connecting the dots mode”. You need to be in a relaxed state. Several tactics can enhance creativity:

1. Seek richer environments - Visit bookstores, museums, or curate valuable social media feeds. Like capturing ideas while walking through your house, stimulating environments inspire.
2. Write out problem you’re trying to solve. - Writing is thinking. That’s why I decided to learn to write & to spend more time writing than consuming. Writing out problem is hard. Usually you start with blank page. Write down your thoughts. The longer you stay with writing the easier it’s to connect the dots.
3. Sleep on a problem.
4. Step back.
5. Intentionally leave task unfinished. - The Zeigarnik effect in its finest. Keep open loop. Try to get into Habitual mode.
6. Consume more valuable dots. - Recently, I’ve been writing about Empty Buffer: Writer's Block as an Input Problem. There’s no such a thing as reader’s block. It’s possible that you need to gather more pieces to connect the dots.

Don’t try too hard. Your mind has to freely move between concepts & ideas.

Why it matters: That’s where “magic” happens. It’s often said that ideas are everywhere & only execution matters. But you still need to generate ideas. Some will be better, some worse. Often concepts from one domain will apply in the other. And that could be a game-changer. (Take a look at my previous article Why I Learn a New Programming Language Each Year: Insights After 15+ Languages )

⚡️ Collecting dots

… the most valuable dots are both useful and entertaining - like a TED talk. Useful dots stay relevant for a long time and are also practical.

We often consume information on autopilot. That's how social media works: many highly intelligent people work to keep you scrolling. Reflect on what you consume on autopilot. Similar to The Hourly Awareness Chime, try to notice what are you consuming. Try to add few valuable sources. Few titles that come to my mind:

• “Think Like a Rocket Scientist”
• “Zero To One”
• “The Almanack of Naval Ravikant”

Before diving into long-form content, check references. You don’t want to waste few hours.

Why it matters: You need to collect dots to connect them. You can’t pour from an empty cup.

Code Comments

# TODO: Implementation Ideas

• Take a break, before tackling hard problem. Let your mind tidy attentional residues.
• Implement The Rule of 3 - at the beginning of a day choose 3 task you want to achieve by the end of day
• Identify The Most Consequential Task - think about second-order effects; which task has the most impact on the future
• Establish The Hourly Awareness Chime - on the hourly basis ask yourself what are you currently focusing on
• Buy distraction device - keep separate device only for games, social apps, streaming apps; or rather keep your working device pure of distraction apps;
  • That’s one of the best things I experienced when I got laptop from company. I don’t install anything apart from development tools. I don’t watch YouTube, surf weba, visit social media sites, nothing. That’s only for working. And oh boy what a difference it is.
• Put your phone out of sight.
• Create a distraction list.
• Create personal distraction-free or reduced-distraction mode. Play with environment, tools, music, and office design.
• Start noticing when you focus begin wavering.

# FIXME: Areas needs clarification

• Habitual scatterfocus. That’s the most mysterious. You need find engaging activity that you like but it doesn’t occupy much attention. For now, I can only thing about walking and drinking coffee as pleasure and low requiring activities. I wish doing laundry, dishes, or ironing were pleasurable for me. 😂

# NOTE: Important insights

• Key metrics to follow while practicing hyperfocus:
  • How much of time do you spend intentionally? In my case that’s number of pomodoros I complete every day.
  • How long can you hold focus in one sitting?
  • How long your mind wanders before you catch it?
• Pomodoro is a great way to practice hyperfocus. 25 minutes. Focus. Refocus. Refocus. Until timer goes off.
• Make distinction between investing into happiness & thinking positively. Positive thinking does not make you more happy or productive. Research shows that it can be counterproductive. Positive thinking lets us feel more happy / productive in the moment. It often comes at the price of making and executing a plan. Then there’s no difference between positive thinking and wishful thinking.
• Be where you are. If you attend meeting, then focus on the meeting. It blows my mind when I hear about devs who attend meetings and code simultaneously. What’s the point of attending the meeting then?

# HACK: Creative solutions & application

• Get things to bid for your attention - I rarely check references or opinions about books. I usually buy them instantly after someone recommends them. I need to spend more time on verification.
• Find small breaks during day to practice scatterfocus
  • Notice when you finish task, take small break and wander a bit
  • Go for a morning walk
  • As a challenge, leave your phone at home for an entire day
  • Take an extra-long shower
  • Make yourself bored for 5 minutes & wait to see what thoughts are coming
  • Work out without music or podcast
  • Cook with music only
• Use 5 sentences rule. - Keep you emails and messages up to 5 sentences. Long messages are not only costly to write. They also require time to read and answer.
• Setup time to check emails. Close email client by default.
• Prune distracting apps from phone - I recently removed all social apps from phone. It turns out that’s not that easy. I moved back my messenger apps, but I keep notifications disabled, so that I can choose when to check phone.
• Remove all(?) notifications - I only keep phone calls & messages active. Everything else is disabled.

Quotes:

We’re what we pay attention to.

Simply noticing what is occupying our attentional space has been shown to make us more productive.

One of the best ways to get more done - and done faster - is by preventing yourself from focusing on things that aren’t important.

It’s not that I’m so smart; it’s just that I stay with problems longer. - Albert Einstein