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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.

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3 practices
Your sense of time remove filterADHD skills remove filterIn a change remove filterClear all
Theme · Your sense of time
Systems for daily life 15What ADHD actually is 13Getting assessed and diagnosed 4Your sense of time 3Bringing the future closer 3Treatment and medication 2Self-compassion 2Medication and how it works 1Feelings and focus 1Remembering to do it 1Structure and routine 1Get started 1Shame and stigma 1Use your strengths 1
How long you have
A minute 1Five minutes 1Longer 1
When · In a change
Any ordinary day 58After a row 3In a change 3Under stress 2

Instead of one warning, give several: half an hour, fifteen minutes, five, one. The child then has time to arrive at the ending rather than having it dropped on them.

A single warning asks a child to track the gap on their own, which is the thing they cannot do. A ladder of prompts turns a stretch of time into a…

A minuteYour sense of timeADHD skillsQur’an 36:39

Look back over your own history for the times you were knocked down and started something anyway. That pattern is common with ADHD, and it is easy to miss while you are busy counting the failures.

It may be a side effect of not weighting the future heavily. The past does not press down quite as hard either. People who have been sacked, dropped…

Five minutesYour sense of timeADHD skillsQur’an 25:47

Walking away from a course or a job that was never going to fit can be the sensible move rather than a failure of nerve. It is also frightening, particularly when other people are paying for it.

Fit does more work here than effort does. The person who cannot survive a rigid nine to five in an open plan office may be excellent somewhere with…

LongerYour sense of timeADHD skillsQur’an 62:10