Executive Functioning and the Limits of Hyperfocus

The more time your brain spends striving to achieve and overcome and solve problems, the less time you have left over for imagining, creating, and simply enjoying the life you’re living.

The second way that our attention is limited is that after focusing on something, we can hold only a small amount of information in our short-term memory.

your ability to hyperfocus depends on a few factors, all of which affect the quality of your attention: • How frequently you seek out new and novel objects of attention. (This is often why we initially resist a hyperfocus ritual.) • How often you habitually overload your attentional space. • How frequently your attention is derailed by interruption

Every minute we spend trying to mentally juggle all the stuff we have to do leaves less time for more meaningful pursuits like cooking, self-care, hobbies, resting, and spending time with loved ones.

Third, hyperfocus becomes possible when we focus on our chosen object of attention for a predetermined amount of time. This involves hunkering down for a set period that is both comfortable and feasible.

The concept of hyperfocus can be summed up in a single tranquil sentence: keep one important, complex object of attention in your awareness as you work.