Have you have ever concentrated on something so completely that you lost track of everything else around you? If so, you have likely experienced hyperfocus.

According to WebMD, hyperfocus is highly focused attention that lasts a long time. Whereas anyone can get engrossed in a project and lose track of what is happening around them, people with ADHD experience hyperfocus more regularly, despite it not being an official symptom.

Today, I want to dive a little deeper into why we experience hyperfocus, how we can use this in business to be successful entrepreneurs and achieve our goals, and what we need to be wary of.

Why do we experience hyperfocus?

Hyperfocus is a lesser-known symptom of ADHD; while many people are aware of how people with ADHD can struggle to focus on tasks and become easily distracted, many are unaware that we also get intensely absorbed in and fixated on activities too.

For people with ADHD, tasks we are completely absorbed in are always the ones that we love and enjoy doing, so much so that we disconnect from everything else around us. These activities trigger changes in the part of our brain that deals with reward called the frontal lobe, which causes us to become hyperfocused. The activities we love and feel a sense of reward for completing create such strong signals in the frontal lobe that we find it hard to break away from the activity that has gained our attention.

What are the benefits of hyperfocus?

As a child with ADHD, hyperfocus can be a bad thing. Our ADHD can mean we cannot focus on monotonous or boring tasks, which is often the category that schoolwork falls under, but we can spend hours engulfed in activities that bring us joy, such as video games and social media.

However, in the world of business, hyperfocus is exceedingly useful when long periods of highly focused attention are put towards work projects. As an adult, if we can learn to harness our hyperfocus, especially towards tasks that we do not find as interesting, we can see a huge wealth of benefits.

• Meet deadlines: If hyperfocused on a specific project, you will work on the task tirelessly and will have no effort pushing aside other lower priority tasks to focus on meeting the deadline.

• Enjoy work: As you get hyperfocused on activities you love doing, becoming completely absorbed in work projects means the time you spend there is enjoyable.

• Great reputation: If you can turn on your hyperfocus at work, you will also be viewed by your manager or colleagues as a talented member of staff that is highly dedicated and gets the job done. This is great in terms of promotion and furthering your career prospects.

• Work efficiently: You’ll also find that when hyperfocused, you will work extremely efficiently. Without any distractions from the real world clouding your thoughts, you can produce high-quality work at a much quicker rate.

• Think up new ideas: Periods of hyperfocus are often where great new ideas are thought up, such as successful new business plans, inventions, or discoveries. We need these long periods of intense focus to hit a new lightbulb moment.

Ultimately, channelling your hyperfocus towards work projects can give you the push you need to excel in a project you’re completing or in your career as a whole.

What are the disadvantages of hyperfocus?

While directing your hyperfocus towards important work projects is a great way to boost productivity, you also need to be aware of when you are in this highly focused state. Otherwise, you may start to experience some disadvantages.

• Miss deadlines: If you are too absorbed in a project, you may disregard some projects completely and miss other crucial deadlines. Less enjoyable tasks will often get forgotten as you are so focused on the ones you love.

• Miss meetings: By losing track of time and your surroundings, you could also miss important meetings or be continually late for appointments, which could negatively affect your working relationships.

To use your hyperfocus in the best way possible, always set a timer for how long you want to spend on a task, especially if you have big meetings booked for that same day. This will ensure that your highly efficient hyperfocused state won’t have any negative consequences. You can also set priorities for daily tasks, which will help ensure that no less-enjoyable tasks remain forgotten about, sat at the bottom of your to-do list.

Harnessing your hyperfocus and using it to its best ability means you can reap the rewards without suffering from any disadvantages. This is how many successful entrepreneurs, artists, or writers with ADHD have reached such high levels of achievement. By learning how to turn on your hyperfocus and what to be wary of, you too can reach the same levels of success.