book covers hyperfocus

A 5 Minute Overview Of

Hyperfocus

How to Be More Productive in a World of Distraction

About the Author


Chris Bailey is a productivity and performance expert. His first book The Productivity Project was translated into eleven languages. In addition to his blog (alifeofproductivity.com), Chris Bailey has written articles which have been published in the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, New York magazine and Harvard Business Review. He is a graduate of Carleton University.

The Main Idea


Hyperfocus is your brain's most productive mode. You enter the hyperfocus state by expanding one task or project until it fills your attentional space to the exclusion of all other competing thoughts. You make a single task or project the sole focus of your attention. With so many things competing for your attention all the time, hyperfocus might feel like an elusive luxury but the reality is you can enter this thinking mode at any time. All you have to do is deliberately and purposefully manage your attention and systematically eliminate any and all distractions.

Hyperfocus is incredibly energizing. When you immerse your thoughts into what's most important, you'll always feel more relaxed, more engaged and much more productive. One hour of hyperfocus can generate more results than an eight hour work day filled with distractions, interruptions and sidetracks.

Hyperfocus means you’re less busy, because you’re permitting fewer objects into your attentional space. Picking which tasks to work on ahead of time lets you focus on what’s actually important in the moment. This has never been more crucial than in our knowledge-work environments, where not all tasks are created equal. This is counterintuitive but absolutely essential advice: the more demands made on your time, the more essential it becomes to choose what—and how many—things you pay attention to. You’re never too busy to hyperfocus.
Chris Bailey
It’s not that I’m so smart; it’s just that I stay with problems longer.
Albert Einstein

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