Today we are going to talk about an amazing book called Hyperfocus, written by Chris Bailey. If you have focus issue anywhere in life, then this book is perfect for you.
This book will teach you everything about productivity. After reading this summary and applying the learnings given in it, you will be able to get more results by doing less work and you will also be able to manage your time well.
To understand this concept, we have divided this summary into 5 different parts. That is why it is very important to read the summary till the end. So let's start again (Hyperfocus).
Four types of work
In a nutshell, choosing your attention span is like choosing what you want to watch on Netflix. First of all, when you open Netflix, a landing page opens, inside which some shows are highlighted. This page is like a fork in the road. After going on this, you will find not two, but thousands of paths, visiting some of which, you will be entertained, visiting some you will be happy and some paths will teach you something new.
Deciding where to focus your attention also represents the thorns of this type. You have many things to focus on, but which one to focus on is up to you. When you see around you, what are the things on which you can focus, then a huge number comes out. Focusing your attention on the most important thing you choose – and then maintaining that focus – is the most important decision we will make all day.
Here we will talk about four types of work.
essential tasks, unnecessary tasks, distracting tasks, and purposeful tasks.
- Necessary work includes all those works, which are not fun to do, but are needed. Talks about team meeting and your budget, everything comes in this. Mostly we have to push you to do this work.
- Wasteful work includes all those works, which are neither enjoyable nor beneficial. Like keeping the papers lying on your table properly, or managing the files on your computer. By unnecessarily spending time on work, we become busy, but being busy is not beneficial, because we do not get much from it. This busyness is just a kind of laziness.
- We enjoy the work of distraction, but there is no benefit. This is an unproductive job. Social media, news websites and other types of distractions come in this, from which we do not get any benefit. The better you can manage your attention, the less time you will spend on these things.
- Purposeful work includes those tasks, which we are sent on earth to do; These are the works by which we can create the maximum impact. To do this category of work, you also need more brain power and in most of these works we are better than other people. The most fulfilling job an actor can do is to practice and perform. A financial advisor has a purposeful job of investing and interacting with his clients.
The man who is productive, spends most of his time in essential work and purposeful work. Here we give you a tip to improve your productivity. Divide all your works into these four categories. With this simple act, you will know what is important in your work.
The limits of your attention
(a) meet your attentional space
The author has used a term, “attentional space”, which means how much mental capacity we have to focus and process things in a moment. When we decide what we want to focus on right now, that thing goes into our short term memory and the attention space makes sure that thing is active so that we can work with it. .
If our brain is a computer, then our attentional space is like a RAM. This space holds everything that we are aware of right now.
(b) functions that add up well
So now in our attentional space, how many tasks can fit at a time. In our life and in our work, there are 2 types of tasks: The first is habits, which we can do easily and require very less attention space. And the second is complex tasks, which can be done only by giving dedicated focus. Many experts say that we cannot multitask. Which is also correct, if we do those tasks, which need more of our focus.
But this is not true for habits. Rather we can multitask very well with habits. Even though we can't talk with 2 people at the same time, we can take walks, eat chewing gum with him, and listen to audiobooks. And because of this, we can do multitasking very easily (Hyperfocus) without compromising the quality of our action.
(c) attention overload
Have you ever walked into the kitchen or living room and realized you forgot why you were there? If this has happened, then chances are that you may have fallen into the trap of attention overload. At that point, you may have filled your attention space with a lot of things, from the TV show playing in the background to random thoughts and blogs you just read. And because of this, you have no space left for your real intention.
We should work with full intention as much as possible. This becomes even more true when we have a lot of work to do and time is short. Intention In other words, due to intention, we get our work done by giving priority, due to which our attentional space does not overload. Some examples of attentional overload are: when you are walking and chatting, or you put baking powder instead of baking soda because you are watching TV (Hyperfocus).
Now you will ask, how to avoid this problem of attentional overload? You can avoid this if you become more selective about what you allow into your attention space. For example, while cooking, mute the TV so that your attention space does not get overloaded. Because of this, you can spend your time on what's most important. The state of your attention space determines the state of your life (Hyperfocus).
Set intentions more often, make your environment less distracting. Try to remove whatever is distracting you and remove the distraction from your mind as well.
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The Power of Hyperfocus
What is hyperfocus?
Remember the days when you were very productive, the days when you achieved a lot. Chances are, a few things will happen to you that day. Perhaps you were focusing on only one task that day, and that task had tied up your attentional space. And that day probably you were not wasting much time in distraction. As soon as your mind goes somewhere else, you immediately bring it back to your work. On that day your work will neither be easy nor difficult. That day you went into the most productive mode of your brain, which is called hyperfocus.
Hyperfocus is a lot of things at once: you don't get distracted, you focus quickly, and you stay immersed in your work. In hyperfocus, you are less busy, because you are letting go of only a few things in your attention space (hyperfocus).
So now how do we enter hyperfocus mode?
Science says, when we focus, we have to go through 4 stages. So to hyperfocus you have to:
1. Choose a productive or meaningful thing to focus your attention on.
2. Eliminate distractions as much as possible.
3. Focus your attention on the object you have chosen (Hyperfocus).
4. And as soon as your mind is distracted, immediately bring it back to the same object.
Step 1. Setting the intention on what you will focus on is the most important step, the more productive and meaningful a task is, the more meaningful your actions should be.
Step 2. To reach hyperfocus is to remove as many internal and external distractions as possible. Do you know why you get distracted while working? Because at that time, whatever important work we are doing, distractions are more attractive. That's why before starting work, all distractions should be removed, otherwise if they come at the time of work, it will be impossible to win over them (Hyperfocus).
Step 3. The third step is, hyperfocus is possible when we focus on our chosen object for a predetermined amount of time. That is, for whatever we have to focus on, we should set a time in advance that from this time till this time today, I will pay attention to this thing.
Step 4. Small, as soon as inside hyperfocus, your mind goes somewhere else, then bring it back immediately.
How can we choose what we have to focus on? We mean, how do you set your intentions so that you go into hyperfocus mode.
So for this, here we have shared 3 methods, so that you can set good and powerful intentions (Hyperfocus).
(1) Rule of three
The rule of three means that at the beginning of the day, choose 3 things that you want to see completed before the end of the day. Within this list, the most important tasks of the day should come.
(2) Your most productive work
If you have a habit of making a to-do list, make another habit along with it, which is to write down the results of your to-do list tasks. That is, doing that work, what difference will it make in the world or in your life (Hyperfocus).
(3) Hourly alert chime
Setting 3 intentions for your day and tracking the outcome of your work is a good habit to get into and work intentionally every day. But how do you know if you are hyperfocusing? To do this, you will need to set an hour timer on your phone or smartwatch. As that hourly timer strikes, ask yourself these questions:
- Was your mind lost in thoughts when this alarm rang?
- Are you doing any productive task? If yes, for how long were you doing it?
- How full is your attentional space? I mean, in addition to working, what else are you doing?
Now we have seen how to set intentions. Now let's see how to fight the distractions that come when hyperfocusing.
Control distractions
Earlier we saw that there are 4 types of work tasks: Productive tasks, which are either necessary or purposeful. and unproductive tasks that are either unnecessary or distracting. So now we are going to look at the distraction task here. We can divide these on the basis of 2 criteria: the first is that we do not have control over those distractions and the second is that those distractions seem annoying or pleasant to us.
Most distractions fall into the category that we can control, such as surfing the internet. To hyperfocus, you have to go into a distraction free mode. In a distraction-free manner, you are already able to eliminate almost every controllable distraction, so that you can hyperfocus on your most important tasks.
So now here we are giving you some tips, using which you will be able to create a distraction free environment (Hyperfocus):
- Put your phone on “do not disturb” mode, put it in another room, so you can't check it. After a study, it has been found that when a distraction is at a distance of 20 seconds from us, then it creates a distraction and we are able to control our impulse.
- Pay attention to the interval. Resist the urge to reach for the phone whenever you're at the coffee shop or grocery store. Use it as small breaks, in which you can think about what you are doing in your life, how you can improve your life (Hyperfocus).
- Use Airplane mode. While doing any important work, or having coffee with someone, put your phone on airplane mode.
- Create a “mindless” folder, put all the distracting apps in your mobile in one folder, and name that folder as “mindless”. As soon as you run one of those apps, this folder name will remind you that you are about to distract yourself.
- Increasing the size of your attentional space.
It is determined by the size of your attentional space, a measure called working memory capacity. This refers to the amount of information you can hold in your mind at one time. The higher your working memory capacity, the more information you can hold in your mind at a time, and the faster you can process complex tasks. A large attentional space has many advantages. Because of a larger attentional space, you'll be able to get back on track fairly quickly even after getting distracted. So how can we increase the size of our attentional space?
There is one very simple practice that has been proven in every study to increase the size of our attentional space: meditation. Meditation is a very simple technique. In Breathing Meditation, we focus on our breath, from which end it is going and from which end it is coming and many more. Focusing on the breath doesn't consume your entire attentional space and your mind gets lost in other thoughts, and that's the point. Every time you bring your wandering mind back to your breath, you increase your control over your attention.
Meditation is a very simple technique. Sit anywhere with your eyes closed and focus on your breath. But meditation is not the only tool that can increase your attention span. There is another technique that can increase your attention span and it is called mindfulness. Mindfulness means being aware of what is going on in your mind.
Here's a statement that may sound a little strange to you: You've never bathed. You stand under the water, but your attention is always somewhere else, sometimes in the office and sometimes somewhere else. You do mindfulness by choosing a daily task that doesn't take up all of your attention, and you consciously stay 1-2 minutes with the experience of that task.
By following all these habits you can achieve heights in your life.