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A review by stefanieh
Hyperfocus: How to Be More Productive in a World of Distraction by Chris Bailey
4.0
I'm not generally one for productivity books but this one is a good one. The book is broken up into two parts. The first half is about hyperfocus--how to get rid of all the distractions and really focus on a task. Multitasking is a lie. If you want to truly focus and get something done, it has to be just that thing. Bailey makes all sorts of great suggestions on how to do this based on both his personal experience and research and honest to goodness science. From setting intentions and turning off alerts and notifications on your phone/computer to meditation and the limits of just how long a person can actually focus (90 minutes max).
The second half of the book is on scattterfocus. This is not mindlessness, but intentional unfocused time. This promotes creativity and increases your ability to focus. From daydreaming to journaling to doing a habitual task like going for a walk or washing dishes, these sorts of things allow our minds to rest and mull things over. It is times like these we make connections between all the "dots of information" we have collected which promotes creativity and problem-solving as well as memory formation and the building of expertise in a subject. This part of the book too is based on science.
I have begun putting a few of Bailey's suggestions into practice and they work a little too well at time. I do not recommend hyperfocus or scatterfocus while riding on public transit. While practicing hyperfocus I missed my metro rail stop. While practicing scatterfocus I managed to take the wrong metro rail train and it took me three stops to realize it. So if you are going to read this and begin practicing it, just know there is a right place and right time to employ these stratgies and public transit is not one of them!
The second half of the book is on scattterfocus. This is not mindlessness, but intentional unfocused time. This promotes creativity and increases your ability to focus. From daydreaming to journaling to doing a habitual task like going for a walk or washing dishes, these sorts of things allow our minds to rest and mull things over. It is times like these we make connections between all the "dots of information" we have collected which promotes creativity and problem-solving as well as memory formation and the building of expertise in a subject. This part of the book too is based on science.
I have begun putting a few of Bailey's suggestions into practice and they work a little too well at time. I do not recommend hyperfocus or scatterfocus while riding on public transit. While practicing hyperfocus I missed my metro rail stop. While practicing scatterfocus I managed to take the wrong metro rail train and it took me three stops to realize it. So if you are going to read this and begin practicing it, just know there is a right place and right time to employ these stratgies and public transit is not one of them!