Areas › Focus, starting, and ADHD
Focus, starting, and ADHD
Most advice about focus is written for a brain that starts easily. This area is not. It covers what ADHD actually is, how to make a start when starting is the hard part, how to bring a future consequence close enough to feel, and how to stop paying for it in shame.
What works for this
Implementation intentions
Putting things off is mood repair rather than laziness: delay removes the bad feeling straight away and the cost lands later. So the move is not more willpower, it is a plan specific enough to run without a decision.
One move, today
Write one sentence: when it is [time] and I am at [place], I will [the first small action]. Naming when and where is the part the evidence supports.
What matches
2 practicesWorking towards something you want will carry you further than working away from something you dread. Before you start, name in your own words what the finished thing gets you.
Fear only switches on when the threat is close, which is exactly how you end up doing a week's work at midnight. It also floods the job with anxiety…
If you are helping someone get moving, start with the thing they mind about, even when you can see something else that needs it more. A goal a person picked for themselves is the only kind they will chase when you are not in the room.
Keep that first target small and specific enough to finish: one drawer, one email, the bag by the door on Tuesday. The thing you can see needs…