Hyperfocus

By Engr. Carlos V. Cornejo

Based on a study the mind wanders 47% of the time.  Imagine if you can make that 47% wandering into a 100% focus, your life would be more productive and enjoyable.  And what if you can give a person 100% of your attention during a conversation, which is listening without thinking what you are going to say next, that person will feel heard, and loved.  Or if you give a project 100% of your attention and not let your mind wander to other things, you will complete more in one hour than your officemate or classmate who is easily distracted could do in a whole day of work.  You could achieve all these if you apply the ideas in this book, “Hyperfocus:  How to Be More Productive in a World of Distraction” by Chris Bailey.  There are three main sources of distraction namely External Distractors, Internal Distractors and Overstimulation.  Here’s how the author deals with these from the book.

External Distractors

Every object in your surrounding environment you are tempted to use, is like a villain in the Hyperfocus arcade game you are playing to make your mind get focus on what you are doing.  The mere presence of your phone, app icons on your computer, or the mess on the floor you feel compelled to clean will tug at your attention. Banish these villains and regain control of your attention by getting out of tempting environments or putting as many distracting items as possible out of sight or out of reach.

Internal Distractors

Even if you went to the extreme and work in an all‐white room with absolutely nothing else except a desk and a chair, you still might find it hard to focus if you have too many open loops in your mind. If you’re worried about forgetting a task you need to do, a person you need to follow up with, or an issue you need to address, you won’t be able to settle your attention on an intention. Worrying of a task you still have to do or a person you need to follow up means you need to put order in your life through time management.  And if you still have other worries try reading the book of Dale Carnegie on “How to Stop Worrying and Start Living”, which is actually a whole day seminar I would give.

Overstimulation

The final factor that may increase the time it takes you to concentrate on what you are doing is how stimulated your mind is before a Hyperfocus session. If you’ve just finished scrolling through social media or a series of news headlines, your mind will be primed for creativity and resist focusing on any one thing the instant it’s bored. Bring yourself down from an overstimulated state to a state of peak attentional control by performing the following pre‐focus exercise the author would recommend for at least one minute:

Direct all your attention to a tiny point on the wall, computer screen, body, or in your body. The smaller the point, the better. The author Chris Bailey focuses on the tip of his nose. Research reveals that focusing on a point one inch behind your forehead is an effective pre‐focus point. As you focus your attention on something tiny, your mind will wander. Every time it wanders, bring it back to the tiny point.

You’ll find this process annoying and believe the exercise is a waste of time. But, if you stick with it for at least a minute, you will find that focusing on your intention afterward is relatively easy.

Take Breaks

The author recommends breaks after every 90-minute focus on anything you are doing.  For me this is too long.  I would prefer the pomodoro technique of 5 minutes to 7 minutes break every after 25 minutes working.  During those breaks let your mind wander and let your subconscious do the thinking.  If you are trying to solve a math problem or any other situation that needs to be solved, the subconscious mind wandering would aid your conscious mind once you get back into the problem.