3.0

If you're into "productivity porn", then this book is for you.

If you're REALLY into "productivity porn", then maybe this book isn't for you.

Like many of the books I've been reviewing lately, Hyperfocus is by no means bad. In fact, its pretty good: full of practical tips and actionable insights. Hyperfocus is defined as the ability to focus intensely on a single task at a time. Related, but distinct from hyperfocus is "scatterfocus". This is essentially letting your mind wander in order to form new connections between ideas and ultimately aid creativity.

The main problems with this book for me were that, firstly, none of the insights are particularly new if you're familiar with this kind of material. Sure, there are some stand out and maybe novel pieces of information, but for the most part its stuff you'd already know: get good sleep, minimise distractions when you have to focus, schedule your work and leisure time and so on and so forth.

Second, there are just far too many tips and ideas in this book. And look, I'm all for practical action steps to implement ideas, but when so many of them are thrown at you all at once, it can feel overwhelming. The best way to handle this would be to pick and choose what you will try. You could always go back to the book for more tips, in the event of failure. I guess.

Lastly, I feel this could (and should) have been 2 separate books. Introducing the idea of scatterfocus in the second half of the book seemed a bit arbitrary. Like, "hey, I wanted to learn about Hyperfocus, what the heck is this?" And though the ideas are complimentary (I guess), I think the book would have benefitted from having a more extensive treatment of the idea of hyperfocus. In fact, I think Bailey should have included more details of the research and studies that he cites. Saying "research says x" without actually giving us the details of what studies informed the conclusion doesn't exactly make a compelling case.

Overall, a decent read but could have been much much better. That said, lots of useful information if you're trying to be more productive.