How I went from 40 minutes to 4 hours of Hyperfocus in Starbucks

My work as a tech developer and entrepreneur has always required a lot of concentration and focus, whether it’s actually building stuff, reading new concepts or technical papers, or writing.

Focus has always been the Achilles’ heel of my work. The more I can focus, the less time I actually spend doing things. But you probably already know that.

In the last couple of years, I’ve decided to spend more time on trying to improve this skill more than anything else to achieve more and have more free time.

My ultimate goal was very simple:

Accomplish just ONE thing like development or writing in the morning in a Hyperfocus state for many hours from start to completion.

Up until that moment, I could actually work in a focused state for about max. 40 minutes to 1 hour.

I read a lot of books like "Attention Span" and "Focus" from Daniel Goleman and, but also experimented for many months with many things like food, sport, mediation etc and there is one thing I learned the most:

if I want to achieve hyperfocus, I need to prepare for it, before I even start working.

And this is how I prepare:

#1: Physical Condition

A good physical condition is feeling fresh and energetic. There are probably a thousand things that can contribute to this, including nutrition, social connections, etc. etc.

For me it is very simple: 20-30 minutes of training in the morning. That's it. It does not matter what that workout is, what matters is that I sweat from the workout and give it my full attention. Nothing else matters in that moment.

I also do not eat until I have completed this task. I drink until my first very late breakfast only tea, coffee and water.

#2: Reduce the noise from within

Being in good physical shape is a great start to the day. However, if I do not have a clear goal and focus, I get lost in many things and end up losing the energy I had before. I realised that the main cause of this mental distraction is actually not what is outside, but rather what is 'inside'. And by that I mean things I do that occupy my mind for more than a few minutes (positive or negative).

I observed that most of the actions I usually take in the morning are like this:

• Check my email
• Check my messaging app
• checking my stocks
• etc. etc.

We all know that there are many things that distract us while we are working, so we turn off the phone or whatever device they are coming from. But for me, it turns out that it is not just that:

The real problem was turning them on the first time, because they persist even when I turn my phone off.

The point here is not to avoid everything, but to avoid those things that cause lasting emotional reactions and thoughts.

So if a daily podcast from, say, Bloomberg really does NOT cause a lot of emotional engagement (positive or negative), then I don't mind listening to it and it doesn't affect my focus when i start much.

But if there is an activity like checking my messaging app with some hot discussions that requires a lot of engagement, I would not open it first.

In "Attention Span", the authors state that most interruptions come from within, from thinking. Even if you are in a completely isolated room, you may not be able to concentrate if you have highly engaging thoughts or emotions. This was a real revelation for me.

#3: Visualize the task

One last thing to do before you actually start working on this one task is to be incredibly precise about what you need to achieve, or what it will look like when it is finished.

One way to do this is to visualise the end result.

I tell myself: what should the task at hand (e.g. the article, software or whatever) look like in the end so that I am satisfied?

Focus during Work

After this preparation, I feel energised, motivated and my mind is open to the task at hand that requires my focus (only those ideas that I really care about and need to accomplish right now).

To start working in a hyperfocus state, there are a lot of techniques and there are a lot of great resources out there.

For me, here are my top 3 techniques that have helped me the most (and again, this worked perfectly for me, it may be a little different for you).

1. I sit in a place where there are other people around me who are also working (a quiet coffee shop or university campus is ideal). For example, I like cafes like Starbucks that have a large space with a few quiet seats and are not necessarily in a busy area like the city.
2. I play music on my headset with noise cancellation and non-vocal songs in repeat mode. Ideally with little beat and little or no silence in the songs.
3. I do not open any of the things I have avoided to prepare for this hyperfocus task, such as emails, messaging apps, Facebook, etc. I even try to avoid looking at my watch if it triggers automatic thoughts or emotions (like it’s time to do this or that). Admittedly a bit radical, I know😄
   I know this is not easy if you are used to doing this automatically every day. But if you avoid it for just a few hours, you will be glad you did, and it really does make a difference.

Wrap up

After using these techniques, the preparation in particular helped me a lot to be able to do one thing in the morning (until early afternoon) in a hyperfocused state for more than 4 hours in a row. Before this, I would normally need the whole day to accomplish the same tasks (and compared to my peers, a day for the same was considered normal).

Having achieved this, I have more room to breathe throughout the day and do other things that do not require much attention and focus.