{"id":16871,"date":"2023-06-11T17:19:43","date_gmt":"2023-06-11T17:19:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marlacummins.com\/stage2026\/?p=16871"},"modified":"2025-06-09T08:00:41","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T12:00:41","slug":"tips-adhd-better-focus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marlacummins.com\/stage2026\/tips-adhd-better-focus\/","title":{"rendered":"The Top 10 Tips ADHD Adults Need To Have Better Focus Every Day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sometimes I know the challenge for you may be starting. Then there are other times when you start, sort of. But just can’t seem to find the traction you need to focus and attend the way you want<\/strong>. There are all sorts of ways your ADHD may be contributing to this challenge. Knowing how your ADHD symptoms affect your ability to focus and attend will help you choose the right strategies to follow through with what’s important to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s Your ADHD Brain Wiring<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One of the first keys to unraveling this conundrum is to understand your unique brain wiring.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I like to think of the ADHD brain as a stimulus-seeking heat missile. In fact, attention deficit is a misnomer. Because, it’s not that you have a deficit of attention. Rather, it’s that you pay attention to everything! So, even when you want to listen to a conversation or tend to a task, you may easily get distracted by the conversation outside your door, the air conditioner whirring and, oh right, suddenly remembering you need to call the doctor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aside from distractions, your ADHD brain is fickle when it comes to getting in gear. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, again, even when you want to focus, you can’t always depend on your brain to fire on all cylinders when you need it to. It can even feel sometimes like the gears in your brain are just all gummed up and stuck, right? You may have got it out of first gear to start. But then it just does not rev up enough so you can keep going. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trick is to figure out how you, not your ADHD brain, can be in charg<\/strong>e.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#1 Have Compassion For Yourself <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The first step is to have self-compassion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But right now, when you have a hard time persisting, your default might be to get down on yourself, even shame yourself. Remember, when you shame yourself, you believe you have a character defect. If this were true, there’s just no solution. As a result, you may avoid certain tasks because it feels like a lost cause to try. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whereas, if you can treat yourself with self-compassion<\/a> when you have a hard time persisting, you will be in a better place to figure out what you can do next to get in gear. You might say to yourself, \u201cMy brain just isn’t cooperating today. What do I need right now?<\/strong>\u201d When you do this you’re both giving yourself the compassion you need and <\/strong>being curious. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And this curiosity can help you be creative in figuring out what strategy might help you get going<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#2 Make Sure It Is Meaningful to You<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It’s also important to remember your ADHD nervous system <\/strong>is interest-based<\/strong>, as opposed importance-based. This means you may find it hard to engage with a task even when it is important to you, but not intrinsically interesting. Yet, you can engender some of this motivation when you have a visceral connection to the meaning and purpose of what you are doing. Even when it doesn’t immediately light up your brain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The example<\/strong> I like to use is of a former client, a professor, who regularly neglected his administrative duties, such as reviewing articles, emailing, writing recommendations, etc. He would start and then get easily distracted by something, yes, more interesting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, since he wanted to be seen by his colleagues as a professional, it was important to him to do these administrative tasks. So he put \u201cbe a pro\u201d (for professional) in his calendar<\/strong> with his administrative time. And, much to his surprise, he started following through. Because every time he saw \u201cbe a pro\u201d he connected to the meaning and purpose<\/strong> of doing these tasks \u2014 being seen as a professional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that helped him persist<\/strong> through the 2 weekly 45-minute blocks of admin time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

#3 Do Just Enough Planning<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To focus and attend you also need to know what you are trying to accomplish<\/strong> \u2014 your objective \u2014 and how to accomplish that objective<\/strong>. Otherwise, without this clarity you may give up. That makes sense, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example<\/strong>, I often see people get tripped up writing emails<\/strong> because they lack clarity on what they are trying to say \u2014 the objective of the email \u2014 and\/or do not have all the information they need to write the email. Consequently, because writing the email feels too hard, they default to doing something else that is easier or more interesting. And tell themselves they\u2019ll come back to it later. Right, later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know creating a plan to write an email may seem like a lot to do. And you don’t want to do too much planning. For example, when writing an email, you might ask yourself:<\/p>\n\n\n\n