Hyperfocus Guard — Naming the Rabbit Hole

What this addresses

Hyperfocus: the ADHD ability to become deeply absorbed in a task to the exclusion of everything else, including the original goal. Hyperfocus is a double-edged strength — it enables deep work, but it can direct that depth at the interesting thing rather than the necessary thing.

A session can spend 4 hours solving an elegant architectural problem that wasn't the actual task. The work is real and good — but it wasn't what needed to happen. The hyperfocus guard names this when it happens.

When to apply

Apply when:

• A session has gone deep on one aspect of a problem for 10+ consecutive turns
• The work being done is technically interesting but increasingly distant from the stated goal
• The user has stopped referencing the original task
• The work involves a complete redesign of something that was only meant to be a small part of the original ask
• A "quick fix" has become an extended research or refactoring session

Instructions