What do you hyperfocus on? And for how long?

[Assumption]

I'm just wondering what kinds of things everyone hyperfocuses on. Specifically, do you always hyperfocus on the same thing? Or is it very unpredictable what you'll hyperfocus on (e.g. one day it's the dishes, the next day it's youtube, the next day you're doing something else?)

Here are the options:

a) I hyperfocus on a small number of special interests. I don't generally hyperfocus on other things. (If you answer this way; a supplementary question: do you ever get distracted from your special interest?)
b) I can hyperfocus on just about anything, and I can generally choose what I hyperfocus on.
c) I can hyperfocus on just about anything, but I have little control over what I hyperfocus on.
d) I don't really hyperfocus.

Second poll (just answer this one with a post). How long do you normally stay "preoccupied" by the object of your hyperfocus? By this I mean, even if your attention is drawn away from it for a time (e.g. because you need to go to work) your thoughts will often return to the thing you've been hyperfocusing about.
a) Years/my whole life.
b) Months (up to 1 year).
c) Weeks (up to 1 month).
d) Days (up to 1 week).
e) Several hours/the rest of the day.
f) An hour or two.
g) I don't really hyperfocus.

I'd be interested in making Q2 into a proper poll but didn't want to spam

I said A) to the poll (and I rarely, if ever get distracted from it) and B) to the second question.

[Assumption]

BTW, I do realize that these items may not enumerate all the possibilities. If you feel I missed anything out, leave a comment

[Drewbacca]

b,c,d,&e

[Assumption]

Originally Posted by Drewbacca

b,c,d,&e

Was that for the second question? Are any of those options more typical?

[fracturedstory]

Let's be clear on hyper focus: it's an intense level of focus on something that stimulates you. It's not planned and it's not terribly important. It's a distraction from doing the task at hand. It comes out of nowhere and lasts for hours, impossible to break and after you're done and exhausted all that mental/physically energy you feel damn awful at having wasted all that time, or you think 'well, at least I could focus on something today.'
Some people think it's a good thing but it's born out of focusing on other things instead of doing an important constructive task.

When you focus on something important that needs to be done, that's called finally able to focus on what you're supposed to.

I'm in a bad mood.

I plan everything I do and hyper focus ruins my plans.

[Assumption]

Originally Posted by fracturedstory

Let's be clear on hyper focus: it's an intense level of focus on something that stimulates you. It's not planned and it's not terribly important. It's a distraction from doing the task at hand. It comes out of nowhere and lasts for hours, impossible to break and after you're done and exhausted all that mental/physically energy you feel damn awful at having wasted all that time, or you think 'well, at least I could focus on something today.'
Some people think it's a good thing but it's born out of focusing on other things instead of doing an important constructive task.

When you focus on something important that needs to be done, that's called finally able to focus on what you're supposed to.

I'm in a bad mood.

I plan everything I do and hyper focus ruins my plans.

I intended to avoid pinning down exactly what hyperfocus means and just use people's own understandings of what it means - because there probably isn't a consensus. E.g. Barkley denies that hyperfocus exists in ADHD and that it's just perseverance, while others disagree. Happy to talk about it here though

I also anticipated that few people will choose option B) in that initial poll, because as you said, if you can control your hyperfocus, and focus on things you should be focusing on, then that's just normal focus. I just included it for completeness.

I quite like your definition of it though. Often when I've spent a day working on the objects of my hyperfocus, I think "damn, I got nothing done today." Personally, I rarely, if ever think "at least I got something done today." For me, it's pretty much always an option to focus completely and utterly on the thing I've been obsessing over. So I don't really consider it a "little victory" at all, personally. Fun though!

I would say that for me, it often lasts more than hours. For instance, often I'll go to sleep thinking about the object of my hyperfocus and wake up thinking about it. Sometimes I'll even dream about it (I don't normally remember my dreams so don't know how often this happens - all I know is that when the September 4 2010 earthquakes hit I was dreaming about my Starcraft 2 micro, and so I woke up going "GO GO GO GO GO !!!!").

You might personally define what I define as being several consecutive hyperfocus events (maybe I just experience it every day for several months, but each day is a new bout of hyperfocus). For my purposes, I'd consider a case like that to be good enough for a "months" answer to the second question. :P

[Drewbacca]

Originally Posted by Assumption

Was that for the second question? Are any of those options more typical?

2nd... yes.
Part one was c) I can hyperfocus on just about anything, but I have little control over what I hyperfocus on.

It really varies case by case... although, I'd say that true hyperfocus tends to only last from the time of initiation to the time I eventually pass out.
When it carries over into days/weeks/years, I think of it more as a series of hyperfocus events but NTs may call it passion?

I generally think of hyperfocus as getting lost in a subject to the neglect of everything else. In which, I totally loose control of my conscious mind and whimsically jump from one thing to another (things which, may or may not be related to a linear-minded individual). Defined as such, I don't believe that it is really possible to give up control for more than perhaps half a day... so e/f are probably the most accurate answer to the 2nd question imho.

[Drewbacca]

Originally Posted by fracturedstory

Some people think it's a good thing but it's born out of focusing on other things instead of doing an important constructive task.

I plan everything I do and hyper focus ruins my plans.

It is bad because of the lack of control over it. On rare occasions, I find it helpful. If I could find an on/off switch for it, I'd be a professor at MIT by now.

I think that it very much can be a good thing, but rarely is.

Almost everything that I know about life has come to me from a hyperfocus event. When I am distracted, it is a distraction set in a library (usually) and not a distraction in front of a tv screen with game-controller in hand. Sometimes, to my detriment, it is a marathon of anime or BSG... but more often than not, I hyperfocus on textbooks and academic websites. One need look no further than some of my contributions to the sci.&academic discussions to see how/where I tend to lose time.
The problem with hyperfocus, for me, is that I have learned enough information to hold ten degrees by this point, but I can't even finish a single degree before getting kicked out of another college for lack of completing assigned tasks.

I can build a mountain on a whim; I can't build a sand-castle if I'm required to. It's not laziness, because I'll work endlessly and to the breaking point if passion/emotion is involved. When there is no emotional motivation, nothing happens. Sound familiar? *sigh*

[Assumption]

Hmm, so what do you call it if you're sitting at your desk at work, and trying unsuccessfully to think about your work, because every few seconds your mind drifts back to the thing that you've been hyperfocusing over? What would you call that? Not hyperfocus but something else?

For me, I'm generally either letting myself hyperfocus on the one thing I've obsessing over, or I'm trying (and usually failing) to focus on something else and NOT on the thing I've been obsessing over. But generally my obsession, whatever it is, is both the thing that I hyperfocus about when I get the chance (or simply give in), AND the thing that draws my attention away from what I should be focusing on. I rarely hyperfocus about anything else, though I am easily distracted by just about anything.

[Drewbacca]

Originally Posted by Assumption

Hmm, so what do you call it if you're sitting at your desk at work, and trying unsuccessfully to think about your work, because every few seconds your mind drifts back to the thing that you've been hyperfocusing over? What would you call that? Not hyperfocus but something else?

Honestly, I'm not sure where to draw the dividing line. Generally, I consider what you wrote above as distraction and not hyper-focus.
But then, have you ever really stopped thinking about the thing in which you are distracted over? I'm not sure which category that fits into better. If you are still able to do work at the same time, I'd lean towards calling it distraction. When trapped in hyperfocus I'll tend to miss work, forget to eat, not bother to sleep for an entire night. Hyperfocus, as a rule is debilitating relative to the responsibilities of life.

Above, I was just stating that sometimes the benefit of hyperfocusing can outweigh the negatives... but as fracturedstory stated, more often than not is just ruins plans/structure/routine.

[Assumption]

Hmm, the more that I think about it though, the more I start to wonder if I'm 80% a) and 20% C). I mean, I mostly hyperfocus about (and get distracted about) what I think of as my special interests, but there probably has been the rare occasion where I'll hyperfocus over something else (e.g. I get stuck wikipedia-surfing for several hours).

If I could change the polls, I'd make the first one be about what you mostly do, i.e. is there a specific thing that is the target of a vast majority of your hyperfocusing? And then I'd make the second one clearer about what it means to "hyperfocus" for months on end (i.e. if you hyperfocus about the same thing, every day, for a month, then we'll define that as hyperfocusing for a month, even though yes, you slept, so technically you weren't hyperfocusing the whole time )

[Assumption]

Originally Posted by Drewbacca

Honestly, I'm not sure where to draw the dividing line. Generally, I consider what you wrote above as distraction and not hyper-focus.
But then, have you ever really stopped thinking about the thing in which you are distracted over? I'm not sure which category that fits into better. If you are still able to do work at the same time, I'd lean towards calling it distraction. When trapped in hyperfocus I'll tend to miss work, forget to eat, not bother to sleep for an entire night. Hyperfocus, as a rule is debilitating relative to the responsibilities of life.

Above, I was just stating that sometimes the benefit of hyperfocusing can outweigh the negatives... but as fracturedstory stated, more often than not is just ruins plans/structure/routine.

Often I'll show up to work (late) but then get no work done. It really depends on the job. As a PhD student, I can get away with doing that without getting fired. At some other jobs, I would get fired, so I don't (and I am therefore much more productive and end the day feeling extremely restless, BUT pleased with the progress I've made as well )

[Drewbacca]

Originally Posted by Assumption

I'll hyperfocus over something else (e.g. I get stuck wikipedia-surfing for several hours).

hyperfocus or procrastination?

[fracturedstory]

I guess I should have said 'in my personal opinion' as I always would, but, I didn't.

I see special interests as separated from hyperfocus. They're specific.

I lay in bed for hours thinking over the next part of my story to write, but it's pre-arranged. Sometimes ideas come to me while I'm supposed to be following a movie, brushing my teeth or hanging out laundry. I'd call those distracting thoughts. My special interests are always on my mind but I don't tend to think getting lost in one's thoughts as hyperfocus.

I kind of associate it as being just an ADHD thing. I've not seen much of people with ADHD being so absorbed in an interest that it becomes them. Or maybe they're a little bit better about keeping it to themselves.

I just don't like how focus in ADHD has to be this superior gift when it's just focus. Hyerfocus feels different. A drug. Excitement. Almost like a manic high and you can't slow down to focus better on the details, nor can you stop before it's completely wasted you.

Sometimes it has helped me pack my stuff in boxes when I was preparing to move after I kept putting it off, and it does have a knack for making me turn into a conspiracy theorist nutter for about 4 hours.

It also makes me late for making dinner, but fortunately people bring me food so I can avoid a hypoglycaemic reaction. That's probably another reason why I don't like hyperfocus. The tingling, the weakness, the bright sudden light, the world spinning, the blackness.

[Assumption]

I declare my poll officially broken! Haha. I was thinking of special interests as counting, too.

Pretty much what I was wondering about (and trying to explore with the poll), is whether people with ADHD ever get sucked into one obsessive, single-minded pursuit, for weeks/months at a time, or whether that's quite rare for ADHD unless there's also some Aspie-style special-interestness going on too. My wife was initially skeptical of the idea of me having ADHD, because, paraphrasing her, "your problem isn't that you can't maintain focus; it's that you have TOO MUCH focus on the WRONG THINGS. You get obsessed over one thing and neglect every other aspect of your life." I'm pretty sure that it's consistent with ADHD, but also wonder if it's an AS thing.