Item: Hyperfocus
Rating: 5.00
Author: wordrevel

by Chris Bailey

'The most productive man you'd ever hope to meet' - TED

Hyperfocus by Chris Bailey is a practical guide to managing your attention - the most powerful resource you have to become more creative, get stuff done, and live a more meaningful life.

In Hyperfocus, you will learn:
- How working fewer hours can increase our productivity
- How we get more done by making our work harder, not easier
- How we do our best creative work when we're the most tired

Our attention has never been as overwhelmed as it is today and we've never been so busy while accomplishing so little.

In Hyperfocus, Chris Bailey provides profound insights into how we can best manage our attention. He reveals how the brain switches between two mental modes - hyperfocus, our deep concentration mode, and scatterfocus, our creative, reflective mode - and how the surest path to being our most creative and efficient selves at work is to combine them both.

'The best productivity plans call for strategy, not just hacks or tactics - and Hyperfocus gives you strategy in spades. When you read this book, get ready to do your most important work!' - Chris Guillebeau, author of Side Hustle.

Initial thoughts: Great book to start the year with. Bailey clearly spent a lot of time researching this subject and experimenting, and it shows. We've all heard that multitasking is bad for you, that we're just rapidly switching between tasks, that we should keep our smartphones away if we are working on something important, etc. Bailey takes it one step further and details the impact on our minds. He outlines why we struggle to focus and explains exactly how we can overcome distractions to truly maximise our time on what matters to us.

Interestingly, he also dedicated a few chapters on scatterfocus as the antithesis to hyperfocus and how we can make use of both. While I do struggle with focussing and am a seasoned procrastinator (uni course mates used me a yardstick of when was the absolute latest to start assignments and still submit them on time for a decent to good grade), it turns out that scatterfocus really is what has gotten me through a multitude of projects. I mull over problems in my downtime and tend to connect dots between seemingly unrelated topics, in order to solve problems. Knowing this now, I hope to apply what I've learnt to be fully productive during fewer hours, so I can reclaim a proper, healthy sleep cycle.

Hyperfocus

by Chris Bailey

Reviewed by Joséphine on Jan 10, 2019

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