By: Camden Baucke MS LLP
In recent years, American society has increasingly honed their attention to inattention.
With ADHD becoming more prevalent for a number of reasons, many are taking on this neurological diagnosis as an explanation for their difficulty staying focused. By doing so, many have received the diagnosis they needed to validate their experiences and get the help they needed.
While this has been helpful, there are plenty of issues that have accompanied it. First, inattention is a symptom of several other psychiatric diagnoses. While attention might be addressed, depression, anxiety, or traumatic responses may go on unnoticed and untreated.
The second issue is less about the nature of ADHD and more about how people are treating it. Yes, ADHD is a neurological condition and it can be partially treated with medications. Partially because it often needs to be accompanied by psychotherapy. Your behavior, habits, and regimen all matter when maintaining your attention. However, this is the less appetizing part of treating ADHD. The part where you address your own participation in your attention.
This could be potentially triggering. Possibly bringing back memories of struggling with ADHD and being told that you weren’t “trying hard enough” or lacked “character”. This article is not saying either of these. It’s a gentle reminder that you have an active part to play in your own attention, which could accompany medications and other treatment.
You could have ADHD or just feel easily distracted, either way this article is for you. It’s to cover what attention is and steps to take to control it.
What is Attention?
According to psychologists, attention is awareness of specific information.
This is true when it comes to both your vision and your cognition. Each includes some information at a time, while excluding a variety of others. Think of it as a Where’s Waldo puzzle where you have an entire scene occurring with hundreds of people and things, but you must find the one little guy in red and white.
Awareness is limited, which makes attention much harder. There is always going to be information you must exclude to focus on the information you want to include. That means that effort often determines what information is pointed out, and what stays unnoticed.
We often blame ourselves for not having enough willpower. We might think, “If only I were more disciplined, I’d get more done.” But you can’t brute force attention.
Our mind and eyes are wired to prioritize two types of information: novelty and threats. This means that stress, anxiety, phone notifications, and flickering screens will be harder to ignore. What makes it harder is that the technology businesses of the world have made a living off of distraction. So many apps and advertisements are designed to grab and hold your attention for their benefit. So if you feel like you’re always distracted, it’s not because you’re weak. It’s because your attention is susceptible to influence.
How Does Inattention Happen?
Inattention is when you are suddenly taking in mental or visual information you didn’t plan on taking in.
This commonly happens during sustained attention, which is when you try and keep a certain information on mind and in sight. Naturally, around 30 minutes is the peak for attention, which then you would benefit from taking in other information. Taking a 5-10 minute break is important to sustaining your attention.
Two common examples of inattention are in school and when driving.
School is notorious for distraction. You get assigned big projects or study for big exams. Either way, school directly connects focus to outcomes. If you can’t focus, you can’t study or write, then you earn a poor grade. More often than not, there is some emotion behind the threat of failing. As a result, your body goes into a low grade survival mode (fight, flight, or freeze) and your brain seeks relief. If you dread studying, you can always hop on your phone or doom scroll. Sustained attention can be drastically impacted by emotions, expectations, and outcomes.
As for driving, distraction comes with a cost. More often I’ll hear “people aren’t worse at driving, they’re just more distracted than ever”. Driving is a sustained effort that requires constant attention. Texting or phone use while driving is illegal for a reason. The moment you check your phone, you are dividing mental resources between two different tasks. Your brain splits half of its effort driving, and uses that to multitask on whatever else. Accidents happen when people use half their brainpower to drive a vehicle.
Inattention is a derailed focus on information outside of what is pertinent. You can purposefully use it for a break from your sustained effort. You can experience inattention while working on something big, and anxiety can pull attention due to it’s threatening nature. Losing control of your attention isn’t just annoying, it takes a toll on your mental health. When your mind is constantly pulled in different directions, you feel scattered and overwhelmed. Tasks pile up and you continue to feel worse.
Can I Control My Attention?
Yes you can. Environments and neurological predispositions do make it more difficult, but that’s understandable. Attention is like a muscle. You can train it, strengthen it, and learn to guide it where you want it to go. This doesn’t mean you’ll never get distracted again. Distraction is part of being human, but you can reduce how often you get pulled away, and you can bring yourself back more easily when you do.
Think of it like breathing. Breathing is a involuntary, meaning we don’t have to think about it to breathe. Our body just does it for us. However, you can decide to take deep breaths, and suddenly you can have some control over your lungs. Breathing can be impacted simply by your thoughts, where an involuntary process becomes slightly voluntary. Focus is similar.
You don’t have to think about your attention to pay attention. It will go on, but you can choose to focus on something. Even reading this article, you are taking active control of your attention. Attention, like breathing, does respond to your effort. There are plenty of methods to start focusing on focus.
Methods to Control Your Focus
1. Notice What’s Distracting
The first step to focus is awareness. Spend some time paying attention and document what distracts you most. It could be your phone, your laptop, social media, email pings, or just random thoughts. Keep notes of what breaks your focus and when it happens. Over time, this can help you find patterns and eventually make a change.
2. Find Focus-Friendly Places
If you are within arms reach of distraction, the more likely it will happen. If your phone is next to you buzzing every minute, you’ll probably pick it up. If you work in a cluttered space, your mind has more reasons to wander. Make small changes to your environment when you’re trying to focus. Keep your phone in a different room, clean your desk, or even put on noise-canceling headphones if you can afford them. Set the scene for your attention.
3. Practice Mindful Attention
Train your mind to focus on one thing at a time. If you’re going to do something, be all there and notice when your mind tries to drift to elsewhere. When it does, gently bring it back. Practice this when you’re washing the dishes, listening to a loved one talk, or working on a task. Allow yourself to be doing one thing, and planning nothing else. When your mind wanders, which I bet it will, just notice it. Don’t bash yourself with judgment, identify what you feel, what you need, and try to return to your work. Building a habit of mindfulness doesn’t happen overnight, but it’s important to learn how to catch yourself before you go down a mental rabbit hole.
4. Be Kind to a Distracted Mind
When you notice you’re distracted, the last thing you want is to be self-critical. beating yourself up only creates more distress, which needs more distraction to feel better. Guilt and shame drain mental energy and make your mind want to escape even more. Your self-talk should resemble how you would speak to a friend. “It’s okay. I got distracted. Now I’m back.” That simple self-compassion can make a huge difference.
5. Remind Yourself that Attention is Freedom
There’s power in realizing focus is voluntary. When you control your attention, you can get your time back. You’re able to choose what really matters. You can try to focus on time with loved ones, creative work, hobbies that make you feel alive, or just enjoying your day. In a technological world trying to pull you away from the present, taking charge of your attention is an act of self-respect.
Final Thoughts
Staying focused isn’t easy. Attentiveness feels like something you just have or you don’t. You can have ADHD, and you can struggle with inattention, but there is something you can do about it beyond just medications.
Attention is all about awareness of information. It can be driven by fear, distress, and lead to self-criticism, which just makes it harder. Be kind to yourself, take breaks, try mindfulness, pick your environment wisely, and track the patterns of your inattention. You don’t have to fix your attention overnight. Small steps add up. These moments of mindful attention add up to a life that feels more intentional and more yours.
You can control your attention. And you deserve to.
Reflections 
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