Hyperfocus: How to Be More Productive in a World of Distraction

Hyperfocus is an excellent read with a lot to unpack. Broken up into two parts, Hyperfocus and Scatter focus, the book is almost two topics in one. But the author was right to not only put them together in this format, but title the book only on the first part.On the topic of hyper focusing, this book does a great job of hitting the who, what where and when quickly and deep diving into the how. How to hyperfocus is why anyone would pick up the book. It would be easy to just rely on benefits, history, and science, yet the author does a good job. He not only explaining how, but he does also so in multiple ways to help get through to multiple readers bases and to reinforce it. Simple analogies, diagrams and example await the reader to help get the message across.After an intense, but easy read about hyper focusing, the author switches gears into scatter focusing. He quickly justifies the need and defines that is more then just day dreaming. He used a great analogy close to my hear of using to “defrag” you hard drive (brain). I have often used this practice ion the past but needed the coaching and push to feel like it was a productive practice.This book is a good “easy” read. I say “easy” because this could be a very deep, academic subject that gets bogged down in the weeds. The author cleverly understood that a reader should no need to already have hyperfocus in order to read and improve themselves with it. This book draws you in in order to keep your attention while teaching you how to strengthen that muscle.I highly recommend this book to anyone who needs to figure out how to get more out of your day. At first you might find some of the suggestions counter intuitive, but that is the point. You mind is current wrapped up in the wrong ideas of productivity. It like someone showing you that you can make three trips from the car to carry in groceries in less time than trying to carry them all at once. Think how slow you move and ricks you take of dropping or crushing something.

In Hyperfocus, we learn about how to become more productive without becoming too stressed or burying ourselves in work (unless you want to do that, I suppose). Hyperfocus is simply a deliberate, intentional focus on one specific task for a specified amount of time in an area as free of distraction as possible. Whenever you find your mind wandering, you gently return it to the task at hand.If that above description of hyperfocus has you snorting and rolling your eyes, saying, "well, duh, that's how you focus", you're either already great at focusing or you're missing what the actual experience of hyperfocus is. Try this: pick a small, but important task at work or school, set a 30 minute timer, and go at that task as hard as you can. During this time, redirect any mind-wandering back to the task at hand. No checking your phone, or the timer itself. No email, no TV, no music except maybe something soft that doesn't distract you. No briefly flicking from one task to another.Not as easy as it sounds, right? But you'll probably get more done than you expect.A lot of this book talks about being deliberate and intentional with what we allow to fill our "attentional space". In doing so, we become more productive. We get more done in less time and with less frantic stress. We remember more, learn better, and develop more meaningful relationships with other people. Hyperfocus also stresses that we should be mindful of the "dots"--bits of information--we consume, because those dots become disparate connections that allow us to be more intuitive and creative.If this review hasn't already made it obvious, I *loved* Hyperfocus. There's multiple exercises you can take from this book to help you practice.Hyperfocus also gave me a lot of hope. I have ADHD, which means my attention tends to rove all over the place. But when I followed the instructions for a hyperfocus session, my ADHD quieted down a lot. A task that usually would take 3 days took me 1 day. Even better, doing more of these sessions, plus practicing mindful meditation makes your attentional space bigger, meaning that the more I do this, the more I'll be able to quiet my ADHD when needed.The latter half of Hyperfocus talks about scatterfocus. This is just a rebranded way of talking about the subconscious and unconscious mind and how we can harness it to solve complex problems.For example, ever struggled with a math problem, stepped away for a bit, and had a "eureka" moment while doing your chores? That's an example of scatterfocus. I think trying to rebrand this aspect of mind and attention weakened the book considerably. Luckily, we don't spend too long on scatterfocus specifically.Hyperfocus is a phenomenal productivity book and an almost must-read for people with ADHD. It's a great addition to Indistractible, if you've read it already (if you haven't, I recommend it). There's nothing overly corporate about the book--in fact, I like how it stresses that hyperfocus helps us live more meaningful lives in general instead of just how to make our corporate masters more money.

It was difficult to go into this book but effort brings interesting insights which I did not expect. It takes time to get used to it. Dynamic writing style which I highly appreciate.

The book has a lot of content value, I really recommend it. And in my opinion, it's a must if u like the self-development.

There is so much to learn from this short and engaging book. I love the insights I have gained, particularly the hourly chime on my phone for metacognition and also on the evidence for meditation and happiness in our lives. As a doctor, I am thrilled that evidence based recommendations are part of this book. And the concept of scatterfocus is so cool. I have so many takeaways. Thank you Chris Bailey.

This book is very well written and I like how it feels like a conversation. My only complaint is the author beats around the bush quite a lot and the book could be much shorter if he just got to the point. Otherwise it really is a great read.

This is, without a doubt, one of the best books I’ve ever read on focus. Chris Bailey is tremendously well-informed, he’s got a great sense of humor, and he knows how to delineate facts in such a way that is both entertaining and insightful. It was a lot of fun to read this book, and I could hardly put it down each time I read it. I highlighted so many things that it would be quicker to tell you what I didn’t highlight! I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in increasing their productivity and focus.

Good book, but the book didn't look new due to the way the corners and pages looked.

This should be in the Olympus of productivity books along with “Flow” and “Atomic Habits”.Worth every hour spend on reading that book.

"Hyperfocus", "Mindfulness", "Flow". Different words for the same meaning. Dozens of books saying just the same thing. Yes, there are some interesting tips for productivity, but two chapters would be completely enough to resume them.

Very good book on productivity.

Enjoy reading a well written book that make sense about financial situations also dealing on a personal level. You feel like the author is talking to you an a one to one. Highly recommend reading material.

This book gave me some simple and actionable insights I can start using almost immediately. I have seen good results.