Exploration: Find focus and drop distraction Part 1

When paying attention can feel impossible

Want to listen to me read this to you? Scroll to the end.

I’ve divided this Exploration into two parts for ease of access. Here in Part 1 we look at why we struggle with focus and are easily distracted AND how we can also get lost in hyper-focus.

In Part 2 we explore different ideas, techniques and strategies to pay attention to what we want or need and reduce the impact of a hyper-focus hangover.

Find focus and drop distraction Part 1

There’s a clue in the name ADHD – attention deficit hyperactivity disorder – that we’re going to struggle with focus. But I’ve yet to hear an ADHDer agree that we have a deficit of attention because the experience is much more of an abundance of attention. There are so many things we want to pay attention to but we struggle with regulating our attention, staying focused and not being distracted.

Until, of course, we enter hyper-focus, where we are so engrossed with our subject of focus that we pay attention to nothing else, including basic needs like eating, drinking, sleeping and going to the loo.

But before we get into hyper-focus let’s look at what’s happening in our brain that makes finding focus and dropping distractions hard.

Paying attention and focusing are executive functions, a set of cognitive processes which also include:

· Planning, organising and prioritising

· Problem-solving

· Self-awareness

· Motivation and completing tasks

· Emotional regulation

· Working memory

A word on working memory – it’s like trying to hold objects (thoughts/ideas/actions) in your hands (mind). There are only so many items you can carry (remember) so some slip out of your hands (you forget). You can use strategies and techniques to improve your working memory so that it’s more like you have a basket in your hands that can hold more items (you remember more things).

When we struggle with one or more executive function it’s known as executive dysfunction. As neurodivergent brains are wired differently struggles with executive dysfunction are extremely common.

What executive dysfunction looks like in practical terms is that ADHDers find it difficult to focus because: