Hyperfocus by Chris Bailey

How to remain highly focused and increase productivity?

Chris Bailey has provided simple yet effective answer to this question in his book, ‘Hyperfocus’.

The book starts with describing attention space which can be compared to RAM in the computers. If it is cluttered with more ideas or information than we can process (on an average 4 items at a time), we feel distracted and exhausted.

I loved the way distraction is defined. It is a way of our mind to switch to low IQ jobs where a little or no focus is required, like scrolling social media, checking status or emails without any reason.

We need to remove distractors (most of the time it is our mobile phone and its shiny apps) to focus on something.

Hyperfocus, which is indeed focusing only on one thing/ object for a given amount of time to achieve the objective associated, can only be achieved if we remove all the distractors.

Hyperfocus is crucial to increase productivity and it can be highly effective if we also increase our attention span (the time duration before we get distracted).

The book also discusses the opposite of hyperfocus & i.e. Scattered Focus which is essentially focusing on nothing. So, in scattered mode, we let out minds wander freely and get new ideas & fresh thoughts which is, in return, very much important for creativity.

So, scattered focus will give you new perspective or idea and hyperfocus will help you to complete or execute that idea. Both are actually complementary to each other.

The author suggests meditation as one of best exercises to increase our attention span. We can start with scattered focus wherein we just need to observe what is going on in our minds. Later, we can focus on our breath and get into hyperfocus.

This book will give you ample thoughts to protect your attention space and get into hyperfocus mode as and when required.

Thanks Chris Bailey for this amazing book.