Hyperfocus: How to Work Less to Achieve More

Becoming aware of what you’re thinking about is one of the best practices for managing your attention.

You’re most likely to procrastinate on tasks that you consider boring, frustrating, difficult, ambiguous, or unstructured, or that you don’t find rewarding or meaningful.

One study found that when we continually switch between tasks, our work takes 50 percent longer, compared with doing one task from start to completion. If you’re working on a pressure- or deadline-free project, consider taking a break before starting something else so more of that attentional residue can dissipate. As far as your productivity is co

When you practice being with your breath, you practice being with your life.

goals need plans, ideally plans that include when, where, and which kind of action to move towards the goal.”

Notice when you “don’t have time” for something. You always have time—you just spend it on other things.

As well as helping you plan for the future, recharge, and connect ideas, research suggests that scatterfocus mode also leads you to • become more self-aware; • incubate ideas more deeply; • remember and process ideas and meaningful experiences more effectively; • reflect on the meaning of your experiences; • show greater empathy (scatterfocus gives

while habits like these may require some level of conscious initiation, once we begin the behavior, the rest of the process takes care of itself.

hyperfocus is your brain’s most productive mode, scatterfocus is its most creative.