Blog Short #243: How to Increase Your Focus if You Have ADHD (and Even if You Don’t!)
Photo by AntonioGuillem
Let’s start today’s article with a question: Is ADHD a real thing?
Some people think it’s just a description for people who have a hard time managing their lives, but there’s not really anything wrong with them that should prevent them from getting it together.
Others, especially those who have ADHD, know it’s more than that.
The scientific answer to the question is that it’s very real. There are distinctive brain differences for people with ADHD that significantly affect their executive functioning.
Executive functions include things such as attending, making decisions, planning, focusing, and executing tasks. They’re seated in the prefrontal cortex in the front part of your brain, and are associated with the ability to be objective, think critically, be rational, and practice self-observation.
People with ADHD aren’t able to access their executive functions efficiently, and when they do, it’s in tandem with constant intruding stimulation that easily pulls them away from attending.
Today, I’ll provide a brief overview of strategies that someone with ADHD can use to help manage distractions and also review some of the brain processes that get in the way.
If you don’t have ADHD, you may still take advantage of these strategies to help you focus at will.
The Two Brain Networks
Last week, I discussed two modes of mental operation that we use when thinking. These are the task-positive network and the default mode network.
To quickly summarize, the TPN (task-positive network) is in operation when you are focused and engaged in doing a task. You’re in control.
The DMN (default mode network) is in operation when your mind is wandering. It’s more like free-floating, where thoughts and emotions arise without volition. This is the mode where imagination, creative thinking, and ruminating are in operation.
Normally, when someone is operating in the TPN (doing a task), their DMN shuts off. There’s no interference. You can attend, focus, and immerse yourself deeply in your work until you decide to stop.
For the person with ADHD, the DMN never shuts off. Even when they get into the TPN, they have constant competing thoughts coming in from the DMN. It’s like trying to work with static in the background. Often, noisy static.
This is why someone starts a task, gets sidetracked by something that pops into their mind, and loses focus altogether, only to realize later that they have been distracted from the task they had set out to do and are now totally immersed in something else.
It reminds me of kids going through the check-out line at the grocery store with their moms. They know they’re supposed to be quiet and still while the groceries are bagged and Mom pays.
However, as they walk through the aisle, there’s a whole stand of candy and snacks at eye level, and they become completely distracted by it. A kid with ADHD will likely start picking things up, and some may open them. It’s simply too much stimulation to bypass.
The DMN is like the candy stand.
This phenomenon of constant distraction via the DMN has been validated through the use of MRIs, which show the differences in neuron firing in the brains of people with ADHD and those without it. It’s real.
The second thing to note about the TPN and DMN is that usually, we can toggle back and forth between them. And, when in the DMN, we can toggle easily between the past and the future.
However, the person with ADHD has a faulty switch, and toggling doesn’t occur smoothly. Instead of an easy back and forth between past and future, and controlled movement from TPN to DMN, everything becomes jumbled together.
No wonder it’s hard to focus!
Hyperfocusing
A second problem to mention is the tendency of people with ADHD to hyperfocus. This ability is what confuses people about ADHD.
If you have children with ADHD, you know they can spend hours in front of a video game while the house is on fire without noticing it. That’s because when the stimulation is potent and fast, they can become so focused that they don’t hear or see anything else.
It’s not the same as being in a state of flow. It’s a heightened kind of tension and intensity. Being in a state of flow is a relaxed state. Hyperfocus is not. It’s more like cocaine.
Video games, in particular, are designed to provide a steady stream of novelty and stimulation, producing ever-increasing hits of dopamine. That’s why they’re so appealing to someone with ADHD.
The issue for a person with ADHD is not a lack of attention. It’s that they have a racecar brain with faulty brakes.
Think of a car out of control as opposed to one operating smoothly between the gas pedal and brakes.
There’s a lot more to know about ADHD, and I recommend the book ADHD 2.0 by Edward Hallowell and John Ratey for further reading. It’s fascinating! And the research is both compelling and thorough.
The Strategies
But for now, let’s go through some strategies you can try.
1. Interrupt the DMN
When you catch yourself off on some tangent instead of doing the task you set out to do, get up. Do something physical that interrupts your wandering mind.
Thinking about it won’t help. You can do jumping jacks, take a short walk, clean something up, put a load of clothes in the washer, take a shower, or step into another room.
Do something that physically distracts you back into observing yourself so you can access your prefrontal cortex again and get back to task.
By the way, exercising of any kind helps increase dopamine, which helps you attend and focus.
Studies have shown that kids who exercise on a treadmill for 30 minutes in the morning before math class have significantly higher scores on standardized math tests than those who don’t exercise first (Ratey). A friend of mine used to jump rope for 30 minutes before taking exams in college and got much better grades as a result.
2. Make a Task Stack
Instead of a long list of all the things you have to do, create a stack of index cards – or pieces of paper – and on each one, write one single task.
When you have about five of them or less, stack them in the order you want to do them. Take the top one, do the task, tear it up, and toss it. Now take the next one. Only look at the one task you’re working on. That’s key.
You can make a bigger stack and go at it over the day, but be careful not to insert too much time between tasks because if you have ADHD, you won’t come back to the stack. Better to make several stacks and tackle one at a time.
You can use this strategy even if you’re not struggling with ADHD.
It’s a good way to reduce anxiety and overwhelm and stay single-minded while completing a task.
You can still keep that big list somewhere so you don’t forget anything. But use the stacks for doing the work.
3. Balance Exercises
Balance is a function of the cerebellum, which consists of two small lobes located at the back and base of the brain. It‘s responsible for your physical balance and spatial perception.
However, research has demonstrated that it also impacts your emotional equilibrium.
“It helps to preserve emotional and cognitive stability by sending out small signals that do not rise to the level of consciousness” (Hallowell).
MRI studies have shown that the central strip down the midline of the cerebellum, which is called the vermis, is slightly smaller for people with ADHD.
However, because the cerebellum is highly plastic, exercising it can enhance its functioning.
As such, you can improve your ADHD symptoms by engaging in balancing exercises like practicing Yoga, Tai Chi, or martial arts. You can also do simple things like:
- Standing on one leg until you feel like you’re going to fall over
- Standing on a wobble board for as long as you can
- Sitting on an exercise ball with your feet off the floor
- Doing a plank and holding for up to three minutes
- Try to put your socks on standing up
(Note: Dr. Hallowell used these exercises with a young boy who had severe ADHD and successfully improved his symptoms as a result.)
4. Play to Strengths
People with ADHD are more sensitive to criticism.
Partly this is due to having received negative feedback repeatedly over time because of difficulties with executive functioning.
They tend to be distractible, lose track of time, impulsive, hyperactive, and struggle to focus on tasks. And they get in trouble for it.
At the same time, they’re often very creative, imaginative, innovative, enthusiastic, empathetic, and can think outside the box.
It’s essential to approach yourself (if you have ADHD) by playing to your strengths while developing strategies to enhance your executive functions.
Shaming is the worst strategy because it not only ignores the reality of what someone with ADHD struggles with, but it will sink them and lead to depression and self-deprecation.
- Play to your strengths.
- Stay connected with people who love and care about you.
- Educate yourself on the best methods for enhancing your braking ability while maximizing your racecar performance.
You have a lot to offer. Don’t forget that.
Just a note: Medication is another strategy I didn’t address today, but it can be beneficial in some cases. If you want to read more about that, see Chapter 8 in ADHD 2.0.
That’s all for today.
Have a great week!
All my best,
Barbara
FOOTNOTES
Hallowell, E. M. & Ratey, J. J. (2021). ADHD 2.0: New Science and Essential Strategies for Surviving with Distraction – – from Childhood through Adulthood. Ballantine Books.
Ratey, J. J. & Hagerman, E. (2008). Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain. Little, Brown and Company.