ADHD Is Your Superpower, Here’s How to Harness It
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the most common chronic illnesses today. Those who suffer from it can be absent-minded, have trouble focusing, and have short attention spans.
People with ADHD will often seek out medication, therapy, or a mixture of both to manage their symptoms. With the right strategies in place, they can figure out ways to stay in the zone when they need to be focused.
But here, we are going to talk about the potential benefits of allowing your attention to free float and jump around. And there is another feature of ADHD that many aren’t aware of — it’s called hyperfocus. It’s a state where someone is deeply absorbed in a task. That can be used to your advantage, too.
By combining these two features, you can use your ADHD like a superpower.
Why Switching Attention Can Be Good
For those without ADHD, it might be hard to imagine what it’s like. For some people, it is easy to sit down to a task and, once you get going, get all the way to the end — or at least to a good stopping point. With ADHD, this can be a challenge.
Yes, this can be frustrating when you need to do your taxes or any other unstimulating activity that nevertheless must be done.
But the ability to sit down and concentrate if you have to does have one major drawback: it can be easy to slide into a life filled with these kinds of tasks.
The big open secret to life is that you can do it in an almost infinite number of ways. And being able to follow the way things are “normally” done rarely brings about the best results. When your attention hops around, you are more likely to discover things that make better use of your skills and interests.
Getting Into Hyperfocus
The one problem most people have with hyperfocus is not being able to use it on command. You end up getting sucked into your morning crossword so much you can’t make simple conversation at the breakfast table. But when it’s time to go to work and sit through an important meeting, the birds outside the window are all you can think about.
Here’s the trick: hyperfocus kicks in when we find something interesting.
If you want to pursue life goals, you need to find the kind of projects that are both interesting and rewarding.
Since your attention is already hopping around, you have more opportunities to discover the topics and activities that grab your interest — and many, many more that simply don’t.
Whenever you go into hyperfocus, take note of what it was you were doing. Over time, looking through these notes is like a map of what you love to do. Some of these things you’ll want to avoid, but other hyperfocus triggers will be things that you can create art out of, build a career, or help your community with.
