How we find ourselves in bed bouncing around a loop of the same five smartphone apps, checking for updates again and again until we snap out of our trance. We may fall into a similar mindless loop on the internet- switching between news websites, IM conversations, and social media. How we're unable to stop worrying about certain things until they're resolved or vanish into the ether.
As you read Hyperfocus and learn to focus more deliberately, these lapses will make a lot more sense, and you'll even learn how to prevent them.
THE FOUR TYPES OF TASKS
In many ways, managing your attention is like choosing what to watch on Netflix. When you first launch the website, you're presented with a landing page highlighting just a few of the many shows that are available. The Netflix homepage is like a fork in the road- only instead of two paths forward, there are thousands. Taking some of those paths will leave you feeling happy, some will mindlessly entertain you, and others will teach you something useful.
Deciding where to direct our attention presents a similar fork in the road-only the pathways lead to the innumerable things on which we can choose to focus. Right now you're absorbed in this book. But if you look up from this page or your e-reader, you'll see many alternative objects of attention. Some are more meaningful and productive than others. Focusing on this book is probably more productive than focusing on your smartphone, the wall, or the music in the background. If you're grabbing breakfast with a friend, focusing on him or her is infinitely more rewarding than watching the football highlights playing in the background.
When you tally up all of the potential things on which you could focus in your external environment, there is truly an overwhelming number of options. And that's not even counting the trivia, ideas, and memories in your own head.
This is the problem with managing your attention on autopilot mode. The most urgent and stimulating things in your environment are rarely the most significant. This is why switching off autopilot mode is so critical. Directing your attention toward the most important object of your choosing-and then sustaining that attention-is the most consequential decision we will make throughout the day. We are what we
pay attention to. To make sense of all of the things bidding for our focus, it's helpful to divide our tasks into categories. I'll discuss focus here largely as it pertains to work, but these rules apply just as much to your life at home, as several sections later in the book will explore.
There are two main criteria to consider when categorizing what to focus on: whether
a task is productive (you accomplish a lot by doing it) and whether a task is attractive.
(fun to do) or unattractive (boring, frustrating, difficult, etc.).
