Adult ADHD and Inattention

Sitting in class, I drift sometimes. There are days when attention is just not something that I can find in the recesses of my brain. I look and look, but it eludes me. I need to know the content being presented in lectures, though, so what do I do? I multi-task.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I feed the hyperactivity monster list-weasels and friend-weasels when I get super hyper. I handle my inattention in a very similar way - I don't try to ignore it, I get myself down and dirty in it.

Today, I couldn't focus in class, so what did I do? I added tasks in. I find that if I can do something that's fun, then other things can become fun. I also know that I need to find the sweet spot of difficulty for my brain. When I'm bored, it's often because things are too simple. My brain really needs a challenge to get going and doing 2 things is often much harder than doing one.

Finding the sweet spot of attention will be different from person to person and, possibly, from minute to minute. When the inattention monster rears its ugly head, he can attack on a very regular basis - every minute, every ten minutes. It's good to keep things switched up. Do a little of this, do a little of that. For me, I like to online shop when I'm bored. I don't usually buy anything, but that's not the point. It's keeping a superficial part of my brain busy and allows me to pay attention if I'm studying, for example. I can't do this in class, of course.

So, what do I do in class? Sometimes, I do math problems. It's ridiculous, I know, and I'm a super dork. Math is something that I find relaxing and easy enough to keep my brain happy. I'll make myself some algebra problems, solve them, and then head back to focusing.

What about y'all? What do you do when you can't focus?