How to Focus.

Strategies to Maintaining Hyperfocus in a World of Overstimulation

In a world that is full of distractions, staying focused on a task can feel like an impossible feat. Whether it's checking social media, responding to emails, or simply daydreaming, our attention is constantly pulled in different directions.

But Staying Focused and on task is a life skill that can change the trajectory of your future; For Better or for worse.

Here are some strategies I frequently implement to achieve hyperfocus (almost) always while studying/working

Finding a Work/Break Split that Works for You.

Trying to Focus for more than 5 Hours Straight without giving your brain a break is unrealistic and too often we convince ourselves that the goal of getting focused is to be able to do just that.

The Core Principle with Focused Work is balancing your Focus Time with Your Break time.

While there are hundreds of techniques you can try out, These two seem to be the most well-researched and proven (and effective in my own experience):

Deep Work

A Very Popular Principle of Productivity;

Deep work, proposed by Cal Newport, effectively relies on the research, that it takes 90 Minutes of Focus for before our brain starts drifting off (90 Minutes of Relentless Focus sounds impossible but the Science doesn’t lie.)

For Newcomers, it does take some time to achieve that flow state of productivity where your brain just seems to be on a new level of focus but once you’ve mastered it, you’ll be able to lock in for a full 90 minutes of pure undistracted focus at will.

Utilising this a Day of utilising Deep Work looks a little like this:

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9-10:30 Math

10:30-11 Rest

11-12:30 Biology

12:30-1 Rest

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These 30-minute rest periods are essential between blocks of deep work Because your brain needs time to not only take a breather but also neurologically process what it’s just learnt and form new memory pathways.

Eventually, as You keep repeating this practice you may be able to reduce your break time, e.g from 30 minutes to 20 minutes and even increase the length of your deep work.

Some Professionals report being able to execute deep work sessions of up to 4 Hours.

Pomodoro Technique

This may be a little more familiar to Students, but an effective, well-known method nonetheless

The Pomodoro Technique Simply refers to having:

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25 Minutes of Focus

5 Minutes of Rest

After 4 Focus Sessions, having a longer break of 15 Minutes

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This may seem less ‘hardcore’ than deep work and is a popular method amongst those with shorter attention spans, who enjoy rapid bursts of focus rather than long uninterrupted sessions like those of Deep Work.

Finding Your Balance.

While Both Methods seem starkly opposing, there in actuality isn’t that significant of a difference between the two.

It is therefore up to you to experiment and add your own touches and preferences to achieve Hyperfocus because working in an uninterrupted fashion doesn’t have a one size fits all approach.

For Example, I myself was an avid user of the Pomodoro method until I read Cal Newport’s ‘Deep Work’, upon which I tried his 90-Minute Block Method.

To find my own balance, I experimented with the focus and break durations and eventually arrived at something which worked for me; 45 Minutes of Pure Uninterrupted Focus, after which I take a 5 Minute Break, and after 2 or 3 of those sessions I take a longer break of 15 Minutes.

Optimising Your Dopamine Levels.

95% Of You Reading right now have likely engaged in frequent consumption of ‘cheap dopamine’ sources; Endless Scrolling, Junk Food etc

Now While I’m going to save you the pain of citing multiple research papers depicting this phenomenon and attempting to explain the principles of neurobiology, I can give you the widely accepted pseudoscience explanation.

This is what happens when you consume fast ‘cheap’ dopamine sources

You experience an initial surge of dopamine way beyond the baseline level, after which you experience a crash (which is why engaging in bad habits like these sometimes leaves you in a state of mini-depression or sadness)

The Key thing here is that when your brain anticipates a surge of dopamine like the one above, you feel motivated to act, which is why suppose you see your phone in front of you, your brain recalls that you experienced a surge of dopamine when picking it up, all of a sudden you feel motivated to act; You pick up your phone and start scrolling.

The Issue here is that repeating these loops like the one above often leads to what’s called ‘frying your dopamine receptors’, A Pseudoscience that is commonly noticed in drug addicts as well, wherein the sufferer is unable to find the motivation to carry out any tasks that do not provide the same level of dopamine as their addictions, where your baseline dopamine is associated with the dopamine you receive from bad habits.

Let’s be realistic, If your Brain, for example, was getting 5 Units of Dopamine every day from watching Netflix, why on earth would it be motivating you to ignore that and sit down for 30 Minutes and Study.

It takes time till you ‘feel’ your dopamine levels start to readjust;

Eventually, you’ll be able to distinctively understand if you’re on the right track or not, For Example, I could tell that right after my mocks my dopamine levels were doing extremely well since I was spending a lot of time studying and little time on things like junk food or tv shows (the only risk here is that you risk burnout when you spend a lot of time in this ‘monk’ zone, finding a balance between excessive consumption and a very restrictive disciplined lifestyle is key )

So effectively what you need to do with this information is:

• Judging by how often you chase ‘easy dopamine sources’ and your motivation to study, determine where you ‘are’ on the above Scale

• Work to Cut Down (but not completely cut out) on Your Cheap Dopamine Sources and Increase Positive Ones, like exercise, studying, eating clean, meditation etc

• Or If You’re in a State of Burnout, work to increase your dopamine sources, while decreasing the time spent working (this could mean, you spend more time resting your brain by exercising or meditating, and less time studying) (try to avoid bad dopamine sources in this time).

The Basics: Wellbeing and Distractions

You’ve heard it a thousand times but rarely does anyone implement it:

Eat Clean, Sleep 8+ Hours, Exercise Near Daily, plenty of water, Dont Work too Hard, get sunlight and have frequent interaction with friends and family both.

None of the Above Advice will work effectively enough if you don’t have the basics nailed down; you can’t expect to give a car a Turbo Upgrade if the engine is barely running.

Distractions:

Easy to Say, but again Rarely do people do so;

Put Your Phone In a Different Room, Close unnecessary tabs on your laptop put away all other distraction cues, close your door if need be.

Again, You’ve got no justification to be complaining about a lack of focus if you’re working environment is surrounded by distractors.

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That was quite a Big Dump of Information from my side, But I guarantee you, if you focus on the above 3 principles, that is all you really need to maintain your ability to sit down and work distraction-free, Ignore the Overly-Complex Focus Methods Online, Master the Fundamentals above and you’re set.