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

by Chris Bailey

Hyperfocus is about focusing on a single thing.

In scatterfocus mode you do the opposite: you zoom out and connect the constellations of “dots” in your head (a “dot” being any piece of information you hold in your mind).

our brain is a constellation of dot-filled networks—and we’re constantly adding more with every new experience.

Scatterfocus lights up your brain’s default network—the

the network it returns to when you’re not focused on something.*

fishing for novel connections, we connect ideas while we rest and plan for the future.

Uncompleted tasks and projects weigh more heavily on

our wandering minds themselves and the external environment. It’s best to illustrate this with an example.

In fact, odds are that your mind will wander more often than usual—our thoughts drift more often when we’re in the middle of solving a complex problem—which

For his habitual scatterfocus routine, renowned physicist and Nobel laureate Richard Feynman would sip 7UP at a topless bar, where he could “‘watch the entertainment,’ and, if inspiration struck, scribble equations on cocktail napkins.”

1. Scatter your attention in a richer environment. Being mindful of and

controlling your environment is one of the most productive steps you can take.

rich environment is one where you’re constantly encountering new people, ideas, and sights.

While this might feel overwhelming at first, you’ll be able to better organize and prioritize everything on your plate.

Write out the problems you’re trying to crack. I hit a major impasse

Regularly reviewing these problems and the document itself kept the project fresh in my mind.

Frequently entering habitual scatterfocus mode (including one afternoon during which I scanned the tables of contents of about a hundred books to see how they were structured) surrounded me with potential solution cues—I

was scattering my attention in a richer environment. Eventual...

When you capture the tasks, projects, and other commitments on your plate, you’re able to stop thinking about

dreaming is scatterfocus on steroids: while

you’re sleeping, your mind continues to connect dots.

Edison put it memorably when he purportedly urged that you should “never go to sleep without a request to your subconscious.”

“showed enhanced integration of unassociated information,”

review the problems you’re facing, as well as any information you’re trying to encode into memory, before you head to bed. Your

4. Step back. If you followed

intentionally scatter your attention. Research suggests that

This is where scatterfocus trounces hyperfocus—scatterfocus is much better at piecing together solutions to complex, nonlinear problems.

Purposefully delaying creative decisions—as long as you don’t face an impending deadline—lets you continue to make potentially more valuable connections.

The same is true for tasks like deciding between a few potential hires, brainstorming a revamped design for your company’s logo, or

The more abruptly you stop working on a creative task, the more you’ll think about it when you switch to another.

Leaving tasks partly completed helps you keep them front of mind as you encounter

external and internal solution cues.

Consuming new dots exposes a wealth of new information and triggers that you can use to solve complex problems.