How to Get in the Flow Zone for ADD

Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi created the term "flow" to describe the mental state in which a person is fully immersed in an activity, feels energized, focused, fully involved and successful. Individuals with attention deficit disorders (ADD or ADHD) often can't concentrate on ordinary tasks, but can immerse themselves totally in some activities to the exclusion of all else. This hyper-focus may be a coping mechanism that uses the ability to achieve flow to overpower distractions. ADD/ADHD expert George Simon suggests that individuals with attention deficits make the flow experience work for them.

Things You'll Need

• Skills training
• Activity you enjoy
• Equipment or supplies for that activity

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Instructions

• 1

  Select tasks you have a chance of completing. Tasks that are boring or involve too many shifts of attention will overwhelm a subject who has attention deficit disorder. To use the immersion that brings flow, you need to trim the parameters of the task so it can be completed in one pass. Divide large tasks into achievable bites if you need to.

• 2

  Get adequate training and preparation for the task in advance so you feel competent to do the task. Flow happens best when you have practiced a skill enough that performing it becomes natural. Athletes, artists and musicians achieve this when they have practiced a skill to the point that the skill itself becomes ingrained, and they can move past plucking the strings or swinging the bat and think about strategy and nuance. People with jobs that require extensive skills training experience this kind of flow. Artists, firefighters, EMTs, musicians, athletes and soldiers have jobs that engage the senses fully, call upon well-practiced skills and are intense enough to overpower the distractions.

• 3

  Create clear goals for what you want to accomplish. The flow experience is best achieved when the person goes from success to success. Getting lost will stop the flow experience. If you know clearly what each next step will be, you have less chance of getting off track.

• 4

  Design the task so that you receive immediate feedback at each step. This is why video games allow normally distractable people to focus intently for hours, unaware of the passage of time. Flow depends on a sense of control, a sense that what you are doing is making something happen. In games, things blow up or you achieve a new level or find a magic wand. In work or school tasks, learn to salt your project with rewards along the way. Find for yourself the way of working or studying that best provides you the immediate feedback you need to maintain flow.

• 5

  Find a setting that allows you to focus your full attention on the project so that the activity absorbs your total awareness. Worries and frustrations melt away as you tick off your goals effortlessly. Experiment to find what works best for you. Background music may work. A particular place, the droning of a fan or headphones may help you achieve that flow sensation.

• 6

  Allow time to work without distraction. In the flow state, you won't be very aware of the passage of time. If you need to limit your working time, set an alarm or something to alert you when you need to stop, or you'll find yourself suddenly realizing you were supposed to have been somewhere else several hours before. If you're more concerned with accomplishing work, leave your work period open-ended so you can press on to completion. Folks with attention deficit disorders, particularly those in creative fields, are famous for becoming absorbed in something they are doing and working at it for hours and hours.