Hyperfocus: How to Manage Your Attention in a World of Distraction

by Chris Bailey

Setting specific intentions can double or triple your odds of success. With that in mind, let’s quickly turn my three vague intentions into implementation intentions: “Go to the gym” becomes “Schedule and go to the gym on my lunch break.” “Quit working when I get home” is reframed as “Put my work phone on airplane mode and my work laptop in another room, and stay disconnected for the evening.” “Get to bed by a reasonable time” becomes “Set a bedtime alarm for 10:00 p.m., and when it goes off, start winding down.” Implementation intentions are powerful in much the same way as habits. When you begin a habit, your brain carries out the rest of the sequence largely on autopilot. Once you have a game plan for an implementation intention, when you encounter the environmental cue to initiate it—your lunch break rolls around, you get home after a stressful day at work, or your bedtime alarm goes off—you subconsciously get the ball rolling to accomplish your goals. Your intentions take almost no effort to initiate. As