How To Focus With ADHD – The Truth About Fixing Your ADHD Brain

Last Updated: November 27th, 2019 

Learning how to focus with ADHD requires a complete mental reset. So, it’s time to drop your limiting beliefs, understand how your ADHD brain truly works, and envision all of the exciting things that your future will hold once you get your ADHD brain in working order again.

This article, which covers the art and science of figuring out how focus while dealing with ADHD, will help you accomplish what you need to achieve in order to live a good life.

Step 1. Know How Your ADHD Brain Actually Works

ADHD brains are inherently different compared to neurotypical brains. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, so don’t let the haters get you down.

This simply means that your brain works differently, so you have to treat it differently.

According to Dr. Thomas E. Brown, there are six standard brain functions (listed below) that work differently in the ADHD brain. Of course, everyone with ADHD has unique brain chemistry, so you may find that you have trouble focusing, while your working memory is perfectly OK.

One of the most common problems with ADHD obviously involves the ability to focus, which is the reason why you’re reading this article in the first place. But, please allow me ask you an important question:

Are you lacking any other cognitive abilities besides just focus?

It’s always important to answer this question, because people who have trouble focusing often have trouble with organization, effort, or some other executive brain function.

There’s a chance that your troubles with focus stem from other cognitive impairments. Your cognitive functions are all interconnected, and you’re rarely dealing with just one issue (like focus) alone.

This means that people with ADHD may need to pinpoint all of their brain’s problem areas if possible.

An excellent ADHD coach or a medical professional who specializes in ADHD treatment is probably in the best position to help you with this.

Or, if you’re interested in using ADHD self-help to fix your problems related to focus, the rest of this article will be of great use.

Step 2. Assess Your Daily Habits

Hopefully, you’ve taken a couple of minutes to look at the brain’s executive functions, and have considered how your ADHD can affect your ability to organize ideas or objects, focus on tasks, manage emotions and more.

The ultimate goal is to optimize all of your brain’s cognitive abilities.

But, the remainder of this article will revolve around improving your ability to focus.

These are the greatest daily habits that you can use to improve your focus with ADHD today:

Visualization

Did you know that people who use visualization techniques tend to manifest their own reality?

If you don’t believe me, you don’t have to. But, you’d be missing out on one of the most powerful tricks that I practice almost daily.

There’s a reason why many of the world’s most successful athletes, entrepreneurs, and artists (plenty of whom have ADHD) all visualize future outcomes.

Take just a few minutes each day to close your eyes, and visualize the reality that you want for your life.

Want a new job? Hope to live in New York City? Want to accomplish a big project by the end of the week? Do you want an amazing partner?

Anything that you want can happen when you visualize (and take action). Try it for yourself, and leave a comment below to tell me if visualization has changed your life.

Meditation

Meditation will help you eliminate ADHD racing thoughts and quiet your mind, which will make it a lot easier for you to focus too.

I’m a huge fan of Transcendetal Meditation, which is the most ADHD-friendly form of meditation there is.

Simply sit down. Close your eyes. And focus on your breathing for 5-10 minutes. That’s all there is to it.

Practicing meditation can help you immensely with finding focus in your life.

Deep Breathing Exercises

There’s a massive connection between how well your breathe, and how well you can focus.

Performing deep breathing exercises will flood your body with oxygen, which will in turn make you feel more clearheaded.

I personally like to use Wim Hof’s breathing exercises, but any breathing exercises will probably do.

Sleep

Getting good sleep is essential for helping your brain function at its fullest.

I’ve already written an article about the importance of using magnesium to sleep well, and I also have a good list of tricks you can use to get high-quality sleep with ADHD.

By getting good sleep, you’ll give yourself a massive advantage when it comes time to focus on getting things accomplished.

Step 3. Get Your Dietary Needs In Check

Your ADHD diet plays a massive role in how well you can focus throughout the day.

These are the three most important areas to keep in mind when it comes to getting your dietary needs in check.

Natural foods

Eating a clean diet is a top priority for people with ADHD.

You have to make sure that your body is taking in natural, unprocessed foods as often as possible.

I know that cooking can be inconvenient. But, you really have to try your best to eat wholesome foods like quinoa, organic chicken, eggs, healthy fats, lean meats, and lots of fruits and vegetables.

When you eat high-quality food, you’ll immediately feel the difference in how well your brain functions.

Hydration

Drinking lots of water plays an important role in how well your brain functions, too.

Hydration is essential, and it’s easy to take care of.

Just grab a Klean Kanteen (Amazon) that you can re-fill throughout the day, and try your best to drink at least 8 cups of water a day. Problem solved!

Supplementation

While it’s best to get most of your vitamins and nutrients from real food, supplementation is still essential for most people, because it’s flat-out hard to get most of your nutrients from natural foods.

I recommend using food-based supplements whenever possible. These are some of the supplements that I personally recommend to help you focus:

Garden of Life Raw Family Multivitamin Supplement (Amazon) (great food-grade multivitamin)

Pure Encapsulations Emotional Wellness (Amazon) (contains vitamin B and GABA – ideal for mental clarity and focus)

Nordic Natural’s Fish Oil (Amazon) (omega-3s are essential for mood and mental clarity)

Jarrow Vitamin D 5,000 IU Capsules (Amazon) (vitamin D can help brain function)

Step 4. Consider ADHD Medication

After taking the time to understand your ADHD brain, assess your daily habits, and ensure that your nutrition is in check, you should find yourself in a much better mental state.

If you’d still like to consider ADHD medication after doing all of the ‘groundwork’ for your brain (as listed above), I fully believe in the power of using a good ADHD medication.

It’s best to speak with a doctor about finding the ADHD medication that works best for you. You’ll likely have to go through a small period of trial and error to find an ADHD medication that works nicely with your unique brain chemistry.

But, once you find the right ADHD medication and the appropriate dosage to go with it, you’ll probably wonder why you didn’t start taking ADHD medication sooner.

Step 5. Have Patience & Execute

Like most things in life, learning how to focus with ADHD is a skill that takes time to execute. Your brain truly is a muscle in that you have to exercise in order to achieve whatever you’d like to get done.

This will take time to get right. You have to have patience, and even force yourself to enjoy the process of focusing in order to get things done.

But, once you realize that you can focus (with some patience and practice), you’ll also figure out that you can execute, too.

Execution is about taking repetitive action in order to get the results that you want.

Life is a grind at times. And that’s the truth.

But, whether you need to focus on work, school, your family, children, or anything else – you’ll need to have patience, and learn to love taking action!

How To Focus With ADHD Conclusion & Final Tips

These are some final tips that can help you focus with ADHD.

I use all of these own tips in my own life, and fully believe they can help you too.

Here they are:

Download a Pomodoro Timer app on your smartphone

Downloading a Pomodoro Timer app on your smartphone is one of the most effective ways to accomplish tasks throughout the day.

Using the Pomodoro Technique involves accomplishing tasks in small ‘chunks’ of time, and taking plenty of short breaks in-between.

It’s an essential tool for people with ADHD.

Write down what works

If something helps you focus, write it down on paper, or even just take a note on your iPhone.

Finding focus with ADHD truly is a process of doing more of what works, and getting rid of what doesn’t work.

It’s best to have this information available to you at all times.

Develop self-discipline

While I’ll always be here to help you, it’s ultimately going to be up to you to hold yourself accountable for your success.

I always tell people to develop self-discipline, because people with ADHD usually like to be independent anyway.

If you can stay disciplined about developing your ability to focus, you can go extremely far in life, regardless of where you currently are.

I don’t care if you’re 18 or 65 years old. Anyone can develop their ability to focus starting today. But, self-discipline will be absolutely crucial along the way.

Overall, I hope that this article helps you find greater focus in your life. My life started to change for the best once I put serious effort into focusing on my life vision.

By using the information in this article, you’ll also be able to change your life in powerful ways.

One last thing. Please feel free to leave your comments below. I’ll make sure to respond to your thoughts and comments.