Focus Techniques

Introduction

There are times where I find focusing extremely challenging. Roughly 1-2 days a week which suffer from a complete lack of concentration. I want to have a better idea of what I need to do to be able to focus once again. As well as have a better understanding of how to take care of myself when I cannot seem to get things done.

Techniques:

Music: Depending on the task, music makes a big difference on my focus. Physical tasks favor music with lyrics. Mental tasks require instrumentals, or just white noise.

FURTHER RESEARCH: How does different types of music affect me personally with different tasks? I've assumed that lyrical songs are not helpful when writing, yet I have not tested this assumption.

SomaFM seems to be a good source for focus.

White Noise also seems to help.
Remove Distractions: Some tasks require higher levels of concentration than others. For high concentration tasks even having my phone in my pocket is distracting. I find that powering it off and putting it in another room, along with my smart watch, makes a subtle improvement. (I check my phone during every break, which acts as a little reward as well)
Focus Meditation: I've been experimenting with a focus meditation before I work. So far, taking 5 minutes to breathe deeply and set an intention for my work session has made me feel more focused than days without the meditation.
Breaks: I find that going on frequent walks, stretching, and getting water throughout the day greatly increases my ability to focus.
Create A Thought Dump: Don't act on the ideas or tasks that pop into your head. Instead, write them down. [1]
Walk Away: Sometimes, stepping away from an unfinished task will create a fixation that helps regain focus.[1]
Regain Clarity: It's easy to get lost when working on a lot of things at once. Start by figuring out what the larger goal is that you are trying to accomplish. Then figure out what the next step is.[1]
Break Tasks Down: Tasks can be overwhelming. Chunk larger tasks down into roughly 15 minute increments. Only focus on the next 3 increments, you can think about the rest later. This gives you roughly 45 minutes of work.

Sometimes, it's better to break it down into 5 minute tasks, in which case you can write down the next 5 increments.
Clean Workspace: Tidying my workspace makes me feel organized.[1]
Mindfulness Meditation: A 5 to 10 minute guided meditation can do wonders for my focus. When my focus fractures, it feels as if my mind forgets about my body. Concentrating on my breath brings my mind back to the present moment. [2]
Exercise: The intensity of exercise depends on your environment and availability. Sometimes a 5-10 minute causal walk is enough. Sometimes I need a good 25 minute strength training session. Especially if I'm hitting my afternoon slump (1pm - 4pm).
Body-Doubling: Having someone in the room working while your working helps keep you accountable. [2]

Further Research: Different CBT techniques that could help here.

ADHD Research

Executive Functioning Neuroanatomy

Knowing Yet Unable To Do:

This is not a knowledge disorder, it never was. It's a problem with using what you know and no sheet of paper corrects for performance disorder. You have to design the point of performance around the individual.
~ Dr Russel Barkley [3]

This has been something that I've noticed more and more. It came up in my research and thoughts on micro-procrastination, where: "You know exactly what to do but doing it would be uncomfortable". A wall of sorts.

I tend to think of it as the energy required to get a ball rolling, similar to Activation Energy in physics. You need a certain amount of energy or focus just to get started on the task. I find that the amount of available energy ebbs and flows over time. Some days, the walls are smaller, other days even the techniques, and ladders cannot cross it.

Part of my journey, and intrigue with this topic is collecting enough tools to be able to cross nearly every wall. Which of course, starts with the understanding of what makes the wall in the first place.

Delayed Consequences:

In this theory, the most important thing is not the consequences. It was the delay to the consequence. What hurts people with ADHD is that most natural consequences of any importance are delayed and the longer they're delayed the more disabled you become. So the way to deal with ADHD is not to dismiss consequences, that would make it worse. It is to tighten up the accountability to bring those consequences closer in time. More frequent, more immediate, more serious accountability over time.
~ Dr Russel Barkley [3]

This is an interesting concept. From the tone and context, I think that 'consequence' can be either positive or negative reinforcement. I did not get the impression that consequence had a solely negative connotation from the presentation. I think there is still a great deal that I need to research and understand between the different types of motivation. I remember that there gamification classifies motivators into 'white hat' and 'black hat', or things that are more holistic compared to motivators that are more detrimental or addictive.

There is a very tricky balance of properly motivating yourself. Fear and punishment as a motivator can be effective, yet easily lead to burnout and act as a long term discouragement. If you constantly frame responsibilities as things that you have to do in order to prevent bad things from happening, then at some point there may be a snapping point. A point where the stress and anxiety isn't worth the consequence. Or, a point where you recognize that the stress is essentially made up in order to influence your behavior, where it can lose its power.

One of the things I've noticed is that I have a limited amount of consequences in both my education, and job. Given the remote position of each, and the low stakes things that I work with. I don't have other people dependent on my output, and if there are people dependent, then they are far from the point where I act.

I think that I can make better use of this advice in my life. I used to have a tool that would keep track of the hours I was working, and show an updated amount that I earned. So every 15 minutes, or $5, a little money gif would play. Which was a very rewarding way to feel like I was being rewarded for what I was doing now, rather than the reality, which is that I would be paid once a month, a month later.

Externalize Your Working Memory:

If you can't hold things in mind, put them outside of you. You need to externalize key pieces of information at these crucial point in life. This is where sticky notes, charts, lists, cards, reminders, PDA's, computers, anything you can think about. The issue here is not what you do its why you have to do it. ADHD has destroyed the working memory system. You can't hold things in mind, so don't. Write them down.
~ Dr Russel Barkley [3]

Big fan of this concept. I find it helpful to frame everything I do as if I were to forget it 5 minutes after hearing it. I would pretend my short term memory was so bad, that I would either make a note, or the idea, or task, would be lost to time.

One of the most effective things an adult with ADHD can do is carry a journal that is chained to your body if necessary. And in it you will write what you agree to do and what others tell you to do. And that is your working memory. You are going to use an external resource to compensate for an internal working memory problem.
~ Dr Russel Barkley [3]

I've gone through a number of task and project management systems. I'm currently using a little notebook for tasks, with a to-do list for each day. As well as a physical koan board with a 'backlog', 'WIP', and 'Done'.

This seems to be working right now, yet I can tell that I'm itching to change it.

The more externally represented the information is the more compelling it is and the more likely it is to elicit the action you need to do. You need to be using external prompts and cues.
~ Dr Russel Barkley [3]

I try to do this in all sorts of ways. Recently, I've been using a slip of paper with a daily checklist for the things I need to do in order to take care of myself. That seems to be working so far. Yet I am already falling off of the wagon, and finding it difficult to maintain.

You also need to use manual problem-solving. So if you have things that need to get done, instead of just doing them in your head try to do them with your hands as much as you can as well. Instead of trying to do it in your head, try doing it with physical things. You're going to need some external means of representing and manipulating the problem. So however best you are able to do that, try to do so.
~ Dr Russel Barkley [3]

This is something that I could start doing with a piece of paper, in order to walk through my thought process as I approach a problem. Yet, sometimes I find that it aids in overthinking, when that time could be spent working directly on the problem.

Time Is An Illusion You Lack:

You have no internal clock that you can reliably call upon. You have a distortion in the internal sense of time. So you're going to need external temporal references. [...] You're going to need to use external temporal guidance devices. Things like week-at-a-glance calendars, PDA's, and other means of organizing your life. but Time must be represented externally.
~ Dr Russel Barkley [3]

I don't feel like I have as much difficulty with understanding the future, and bringing it into the present. I have a retirement fund, I invest and save on the scale of months, I plan trips a few months in advance. This is something I will keep in mind however.

You cannot anticipate that future and deal with it across time, so the best thing to do is to break the future into pieces and do a piece a day. And other people can help you do this. So take the long term goals, break them into their baby steps. [...] and do a step a day, a sequence a day and then you can have baby steps across time and when the future gets here, you're ready.
~ Dr Russel Barkley [3]

This is something I am a huge believer in. I think I can attribute the books I've read, book I've written, and nearly every other project or goal I've accomplished back to the simple philosophy of doing a little bit each day.

The Goal Bar is built on the concept of focusing on what you contribute today. And how much more you need to contribute to today in order to reach your goal. If you read 5 more pages today, you very well might finish your book 2 days sooner.

(There is an interesting point where the returns of reading 1 more page per day don't effect the total days it takes to read a book, which is a fun phenomena called 'diminishing returns.')

External Motivation:

All of that will be for nothing if you don't have some external means of motivating you to do these things. So you need to arrange for consequences around you for getting things done. One of the best ways to do that is to make yourself accountable to others because social consequences can be very motivating. But you may also need to arrange other privileges, other rewards, that you find interesting, valuable, in order for you to get your goals done. And these things need to be soon, immediate, don't tell yourself that if I work for a month I'm going to allow myself to go out and to buy some new clothes. This needs to be something within the day, not outside the day. The nearer you bring the consequence the more motivating it will be.
~ Dr Russel Barkley [3]

Something I need to work on. I don't have a strong sense of social accountability. Most of the things I do are mostly out of personal interest. I don't really care about my college grades, because I focus on building up my portfolio and work ethic. etc. etc.

It is something that I would like to have, yet social accountability, for me, requires having someone who can be consistent and remind me of what I said I would do. So far, between friends and family members, they forget I wanted the accountability as soon as I fail to send an update about something.

Getting Over 'The Wall of Awful'

When we do a simple task, we're not just dealing with that task. We're also dealing with the 'Wall of Awful' in front of it. We can't see this wall because it's not a physical barrier. It's an emotional one. But it's just as real, and it's just as in our way.
~ Brendan Mahan [4]

Approaches To The Wall:

There are 5 approaches to getting over the wall of awful: 3 Which don't work or aren't healthy:

Staring At The Wall -> Freeze

Going Around The Wall -> Flight

'Hulk Smash' The Wall (other people, ourselves) -> Fight

2 Which do work:

Climb The Wall (Gearing Up)

Modify The Wall (Add A Door, Add Handholds)

~ How To ADHD [4] [5]

Staring or Climbing?

How can I tell if I'm climbing the wall or if I'm just staring at it?

Know that you have a wall of awful about the thing[task] before you start.

Reframe this time to build up the motivation for the task in a positive light: "Sitting with the dread" vs. "I'm climbing the wall"

~ How To ADHD [4]

Dopamine Based Techniques:

Putting a door in the Wall of Awful is really about changing your emotional state, because the Wall of Awful is made of emotions. So if we can get past all of those emotions by just chaning the emotions inside of us, we can get to the task at hand.
~ Brendan Mahan [5]

We can use music to change our emotional state, and be more motivated. [...] A lot of the things that provide us with dopamine also help us put a door in the wall. So A time limit or novel experiences can help us put a door in the wall. [...] Exercise is a great way to put a door in the wall.
~ Brendan Mahan [5]

Putting a door in the wall[using dopamine based techniques] is going to help you get past the wall right now, but it's not necessarily going to make it easier long term.
~ Brendan Mahan [5]

ADHD-Friendly Strategies:

What [putting handholds into our wall of awful] looks like is developing some ADHD-friendly strategies to make it easier to get started.

Developing time wisdom. [...] Becasue we ADHD people conflate emotions and time, the more you put something off, the bigger it feels. [Knowing how long it actually takes] makes it easier for me to start.

Planning what you're going do to before you do it. Setting more attainable and probably fewer goals.

Defining 'Done'. We have to know what 'done' looks like if we're gonna do the thing that we want to do.

Allowing time for transition. [Thinking about what you have to do at work before you can actually do it.] So we ride out that inital burst of anxiety and we settle in to what we actually need to do.

Reflecting on how things have gone. "Did it go as well as I wanted it to?", "Did it not quite go that well, but I still succeeded?", and then: "Why?" That kind of reflection is important because it gives us strategies for next time.

~ Brendan Mahan [5]

How to Stop Building Walls of Awful:

Is there a way that you can prevent adding more bricks to your wall?
Forgiveness and Understanding. What really puts bricks in our walls is judgement. So if we can approach our challeneges from a place of non-judgement, and a place of compassion, and forgiveness and empathy, then we can avoid more bricks than we otherwise would.
~ How To ADHD [5]

30 Essentail Ideas On ADHD:

Watch the lectures: [6]

TLDR:

Know The Disorder