On Hyperfocus

You might be wondering why it’s been ten months since the last blog post. I fully intended to keep the posts coming all year. So what stopped me?

Hyperfocus!

Hyperfocus is a mental state where you are completely “locked on” to one particular task. Almost nothing can distract you or stop you from completing it. I envision it like flying through hyperspace in the Star Wars universe: I’m zooming through a tunnel with nothing around me but the streaks of passing stars and nothing ahead of me but my destination.

This past year, that destination was completing my dissertation. Although hyperfocus typically lasts hours or occasionally days, I spent the majority of the year completely focused on data collection, analysis, writing, and defending. And it worked! I completed my dissertation in one year and accomplished my enormous goal of earning my PhD.

In my mind, I felt like a superhero. No matter what obstacles arose, I worked day and night to defeat them. Writing 300 pages felt exhilarating!

However, there was a cost. I couldn’t pull myself away from my work to do household tasks, leaving my partner to pick up my slack. I lost hobbies and stopped focusing on my physical health. I stopped writing blog posts.

But Why?

Hyperfocus is linked to both ADHD and autism. Some theorists consider it to be a consequence of task-switching difficulties that the low dopamine levels of ADHD can cause (See Hyperfocus: The ADHD Phenomenon of Hyper Fixation https://www.additudemag.com/understanding-adhd-hyperfocus/).

Others consider it to be a type of flow state and a manifestation of monotropism, a cognitive style characteristic of autism (See Flow by the Stimpunks Foundation https://stimpunks.org/glossary/flow/).

My favorite metaphorical explanation is E is for Erin’s Tendril Theory (and not just because we share a name). Check out the comic at https://eisforerin.com/2015/08/10/tendril-theory/.

What if my student is in hyperfocus?

You may have neurodivergent students who experience hyperfocus during music class. That’s a fantastic thing! That means that you created an environment and provided the conditions that make their brain feel safe, comfortable, and excited enough to lock onto something that interests them!

If that something is a music learning activity, all the better! They are likely learning far more at that moment than any other student in the room. Their brain is soaking it in like a sponge. Let them keep going as long as you can!

But what if that something is unrelated to the topic at hand and preventing them from accessing the information that they need to learn? You could try to help them channel that focus into music learning, to gently bend their tunnel vision so that the information enters their perceptual window.

For example, if you’re demonstrating a glockenspiel skill and they’re focused on the visual patterns of their light-up shoe, you could try placing the instrument on the floor right next to their foot and striking a bar each time their shoe lights up. Their attention tunnel might widen just enough to incorporate adding the glockenspiel sounds to their exploration of patterns.

Or if they’re so focused on beating a level of their video game that they come to their violin lesson wanting to discuss gaming strategy and unable to shift to practicing their scales, you could try listening to the game’s music score together and working on playing one of its themes by ear. It might be all you do that lesson, or it could open the gateway that enables them to access other repertoire.

What if I have to break their hyperfocus?

Breaking hyperfocus can be extremely disregulating and even painful. If you forcefully break a student’s hyperfocus, they may respond with resistance or anger, feel disoriented, and be unable to re-engage with learning for a while. But sometimes it has to be done. The bell is about to ring, or the class is ready to move on and materials need to be put away, or the thing that the student is hyperfocused on is distracting others in a way that they can’t ignore.

The key is to make the transition as gentle as possible. To borrow E is for Erin’s Tendril Theory metaphor, enable the student’s tendrils to gradually retract rather than yanking them out abruptly. The most helpful way to do this is multimodal foreshadowing– giving advanced warning in as many ways as possible.

Some examples of ways to foreshadow:

• Inform the student(s) of the schedule for the lesson, including the order of activities and the times they will end, both verbally and as a visual schedule.

• Use visual countdown timers for activities such as a Time Timer (https://www.timetimer.com), Time Tracker (https://www.learningresources.com/item-time-trackerr-2-0-classroom-timer), or Google’s built-in timer (search “Google timer”).

• Give 10-minute, 5-minute, 1-minute, and 30-second warnings before the end of an activity. Model and practice how the the student should alter what they’re doing at each of these time points (e.g. at 10 minutes assess your progress and distance from the goal; at 5 minutes determine if the goal is achievable in this session or if an intermediary goal should be today’s stopping point; at 1 minute do one or two final run-throughs or put on the finishing touches; at 30 seconds start putting things away).

• Practice using a signal word or sound combined with a hand sign to cue students to shift their attention in cases when you need their immediate attention.

But maybe it’s ok!

Even though breaking hyperfocus is something that they’ll need to learn how to do, it can be extremely difficult and take years of practice, and will likely never be a pleasant experience. For some, it can take a lot of energy and just the right conditions to be able to get into a hyperfocus state in the first place, and that may be the only way for them to maintain focus on one thing.

So think carefully about whether it truly needs to be broken at that moment! Maybe it’s ok for the student to continue practicing that skill or piece of music out in the hallway, in a practice room, or quietly at their seat while the class moves on. Maybe it’s ok for them to have a few extra minutes in your room to allow them to gently retract their focus tendrils before walking back to class.

And maybe it’s ok to allow yourself to use hyperfocus or flow states to help you accomplish tasks and enjoy yourself. That thing your brain wants to focus on is definitely way more important and gratifying than washing the dishes anyway.