ADHD Symptom Spotlight is a series that dives deep into a hallmark or overlooked symptom of ADHD each week.This series is written by experts who also share tips on managing these symptoms based on experience and research-backed insights.
Lack of focus is among the most common symptoms of ADHD (attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder). Someone with ADHD can struggle to stay on a boring task for more than a few minutes. Yet, this lack of focus doesn't occur when the project or activity interests them; in fact, a person with ADHD can become hyperfocused on a more interesting task to the exclusion of everything else. Recent research points to physical brain differences as major causal factors for ADHD and its hallmark lack of focus.
How Dopamine Influences Your Mental Health
ADHD and Lack of Focus
A large and growing body of research supports the hypothesis that structural differences in certain areas of the ADHD brain are among the major contributing factors in ADHD. Specifically, the frontal cortex, basal ganglia, and parts of the cerebellum are typically smaller—and these three regions play important roles in focus and attention.
Low dopamine levels and disruptions in dopamine transport may also play a part in ADHD, but research is inconclusive. Dopamine is part of the brain's reward system; It's a "feel good" brain chemical that affects motivation, drive, and focus.
If motivation is already in short supply and the brain regions that push a person through undesirable tasks are smaller than in someone without ADHD, boring tasks can be all but impossible for someone with ADHD.
Functioning With a Lack of Focus
Generally, the hardest kinds of tasks for a person with ADHD to focus on include:
- Slow tasks (such as reading a book or doing long homework assignments)
- Tasks with a delayed reward (such as learning a new skill or preparing for an event far in the future)
- Repetitive or predictable tasks (such as math worksheets and household chores)
ADHD can involve executive function disorder, meaning the person has a lack of control over what they focus on. The ADHD brain is always buzzing, always thinking about something. The problem is motivating it to focus on the things they must do now, not more interesting tasks.
This lack of control over focus manifests in three key ways:
- Trying to start a task but being unable to engage fully enough to complete it
- Starting a task but then fighting a wandering mind and endless thoughts
- Getting hyperfocused on the wrong task, sometimes not even realizing it for hours
Overstimulation in ADHD
What a Lack of Focus Looks Like
A lack of focus can affect day-to-day life in innumerable ways, such as:
- Overlooking details or instructions
- Failing to complete a project
- Making careless mistakes
- Difficulty with brain fog (or difficulty thinking clearly)
- Challenges with listening to someone during a conversation
- Need to re-read sentences or paragraphs because of difficulty absorbing them
A Personal Perspective
These problems can create conflict and problems in everyday life. For example, when I was younger, I often got in trouble with teachers because I regularly failed to turn in homework but always got As and Bs on tests and essays.
The problem, I felt, was that the homework was usually tedious and repetitive: Doing 30 versions of the same kind of math problem or identifying the same three parts of speech in 30 different sentences on a grammar worksheet. Essays, though, involved more creativity and freedom, which I enjoyed. Tests usually had enough variety in question types to interest me. Plus, the adrenaline rush of the time limit made tests much easier to stay focused on.
From the teacher’s perspective, though, I was a frustrating mystery: smart enough to do well on tests and essays but “inexplicably” stubborn in my refusal to do homework. In reality, I tried desperately to make myself sit down and do homework, I just wasn’t able to most of the time.
Dissociation in ADHD
How to Stay Focused When You Have ADHD
Few people work under perfect conditions for staying focused, and it's even worse for those with ADHD. However, a few key strategies can help.
Minimize External Distractions
External distractions aren’t the only source of distraction if you have ADHD. However, they can provide offramps for a hungry brain trying to escape a boring or difficult task. Getting rid of those triggers leaves the brain little choice but to focus on the task at hand. Here are a few ways to cut distraction in your environment:
- Put the phone on silent (and face down), with exceptions for calls from important people and in emergencies.
- Remove unrelated items from view. When it’s time to work, close your browser and put away anything your brain could latch onto instead of what you must do.
- Use noise-canceling headphones. Block out as many sounds from your environment as possible.
- Listen to music. It's not a cure-all, but a recent meta-analysis confirms that music improves the ability to sustain focus in people with ADHD. Choose instrumental music (no lyrics to compete for attention) and play it at a low background volume.
How to Focus With ADHD
Write Thoughts Down
Quiet off-topic or sidetrack thoughts by writing them down instead of worrying you’ll forget them. This can help with tasks, dates, and whatever details you must remember but fear you won't.
This can also work for distracting thoughts such as, “I wonder what kind of tree that is” or “I should memorize what all the kinds of trees are right now so I can instantly identify any tree I pass.” Instead, snap a picture of the tree and write a note to memorize every species of tree. Your brain might be more willing to let the impulse go when you reread your note later.
Whether you follow through later on your notes is up to you. Either way, writing it down now clears it off your mental desktop and can help coax your brain back to the task at hand.
Use Distraction Time Wisely
When you're unable to focus, take a short break to do something that will quiet the noise in your mind. You might set a timer and work on a creative or fun project or do that chore your brain is so fixated on.
If you're physically restless go for a walk, dance, or do some jumping jacks. Exercise releases dopamine—which your ADHD brain desperately needs—and can help strengthen impulse control and improve executive functioning.
Make a Plan
If you can't even start the task, make a plan for it. Break it down into shorter, less intimidating tasks. This will help you regain a sense of control over your time.
Map out the steps of what you must get done. Then, figure out an effective order in which to do them or rank them in order of steps you’re most interested in or are easiest. Start tackling it step by step instead of thinking about the whole project at once.
Learn Your Own Rhythms
Your brain will oscillate between hyperfocus and fog. Rather than forcing a foggy brain to sustain focus, try to be more aware of the shifts, including what times of day you’re more or less focused and what factors might be triggering each state.
Break up your to-do list into “hyperfocus tasks” (things that require sustained focus) and “fog tasks” (things you can still do while your mind more or less wanders off where it wants). As you switch between states, switch between tasks.
Of course, you’re not always going to have enough of each task type on any given day to match your rhythm. Follow your rhythm as much as you realistically can, and use other management techniques when you must go against it.
A Word From Verywell
The lack of focus that is so common in people with ADHD can make daily life challenging at both work and home. Recent research points to physical differences in the brain along with other possible factors such as low dopamine levels as the culprit. If your lack of focus is interfering with daily life, you might benefit from professional help.
How Is ADHD Treated for Children and Adults?
