By Daniel M. Jones aka The Aspie World
Many Autistic people have major issues when it comes down to focus and concentration. This is mainly down to a co-occurring ADHD diagnosis, where there is a conflict between the autism brain and the ADHD brain. With Autism, the brain wants to hyperfocus on a specific topic or task and really get submerged into it. With ADHD, the brain wants to switch from task to task and be distracted constantly.
So how do we achieve actual focus and concentration within Autism and ADHD?
There are many medications that can help with this of course, however I do happen to test different hacks to try and see what works and what doesn’t. I have here the best of the ones I have tried that actually work and I hope this helps you!!
Secondary Distraction
Using a known secondary distraction can help please the need for wondering if ADHD.
Audio - Using a playlist on Spotify or Apple Music play an album or songs that you know super well so as you are working in focus mode with your Autistic brain, when your ADHD brain wonders it sings along but doesn't get too distracted since it is familiar with the songs.
Visual - Similar to the audio example, I found that putting on a movie (for me it was Fight Club), that you know well so you have the same effect as the audio. You have the movie on in the background and when your ADHD brain wonders you are familiar with what it is and go back to the focusing task at hand.
Time Breaks
I have tested this with different outcomes. If you have a set break in the middle of your focus task, you will have a better attempt at pleasing the ADHD wondering brain with your focus break. But if you take smaller breaks more often you end up giving too much to the wandering behavior and it takes over. The key is to implement a 20 - 30 min break in the middle of your task you are focusing on and allow yourself to switch topics; this could be reading or playing music or surfing the web.
Timers
I have found that using a time to set a designated time for a task works incredibly well. This is because you know you have a finite time to get a task done, and even if your ADHD brain wanders around it will notice the timer, and snap you back to the task at hand because it knows that you only have a set time to complete the task. I have found an app called Steaks highly effective for this. The app is about $5 but well worth the money as it is a visual timer for task management.
Cycling
I was once consulting with a parent of an Autistic child who was at home on distance learning through the covid lockdowns. The mother really needed help to have her Autistic and ADHD son focus while on the zoom calls with his class and teacher.
She had tried the fidget sounder but he was getting restless while sitting at the desk. So I suggested using a small under desk cycle machine or even chock up a normal cycle bike and cycle your legs while you are working. This actually worked so well that the mother was super pleased and gave me such nice feedback, that I recommend this to other people now!
Standing Desks
I am a huge fan of this as it allows you to focus when you need to fidget. I am a total fidgeter; I need to get up and walk around every 5 seconds because my ADHD is that bad at times. So it’s a no-brainer that this is a difficulty when I am trying to focus on a task or a piece of work.
Enter the standing desk. If you have a desk raised to a level where you can stand up and work at your computer you are basically moving around slightly while standing up. This sends a really strong pleasure to the ADHD brain that wants you to get up every 5 seconds.
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So what can you learn from this and implement in your own personal life and work life? My honest advice is to try out every single one and see what works best. You could even create a hybrid version of a few of these to see if they would help and make it better and more useful for you. There is no set rule for what will and will not work because everyone's brains work differently.
Bonus Tip!
While working on my course that I offer for my followers, I created the sensory diet where you do muscle activation work every two hours to help with spacial awareness and sensory issues. It would be like having a shower, taking a walk, wall press ups or even picking up a chair and moving it around a room. This activates something called proprioception and can help decrease a large amount of sensory processing issues, as many autistic individuals suffer also from sensory processing disorder or (SPD for short).I found that doing exercise for at least 20 mins a day, helped massively increase my chances of a successful focus on tasks and jobs.I tried this for a solid week and had a very productive week with many tasks completed.
Try adding a bit of the sensory diet to your day to day life and see how it increases your focus.
Another feel good factor that helped gain focus moment for me was visually ticking off tasks on my to do list. Try doing this to improve your mental health and motivation while trying to focus on tasks and to do lists. Keeping to-do lists is a fantastic way to visually see a task that you have to do or are doing. If you can physically see a task on a piece of paper in front of you it gains mass in your physical surroundings and becomes more real. This also works really well as to when you have completed the task you will have the pleasure of ticking it off or cording it out in physical form.This is also a good way to keep a strong and sharp mental health approach to time management and to-do lists. If you are more of a tech / digital person, I would suggest using apps like Trello, and Microsoft To-Do for task management and creating to-do lists.
I would love to know if you have any other hacks, tips or tricks that you use to help overcome and improve your focus as an Autistic individual. I am always open to discussion and conversation on all my social media platforms.You can message or comment to me any time on all social media platforms to @TheAspieWorld