One of the biggest distractions for people with ADHD & anxiety, or people in general, is temptations.

Temptations can come in the form of things that bring us enjoyment. The problem with temptations when we’re trying to focus on certain tasks, is that we get tempted by those things that distract us. This takes us off course.

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One of the biggest distractions for people with ADHD & anxiety, or people in general, is temptations.

Temptations can come in the form of things that bring us enjoyment. The problem with temptations is that when we’re trying to focus on certain tasks, we get tempted by those things that distract us. This takes us off course.

In a way, distractions and temptations are the same thing, but people don’t tend to notice temptations as much, because they involve something they’re interested in. The problem with those of us affected by anxiety and ADHD, is that we can become hyper focussed on the things we really enjoy and, in the process, not even notice that were being distracted.

Those things that distract you, take you away from what you’re doing might also cause a level of frustration at the physiological level. I’m not referring to this in any mystical way. I’m just saying your body picks up on this sort of discrepancy in your attention, between the distractions and the things you’re really trying to accomplish.

You may start to get very frustrated, because you’re trying to accomplish certain tasks within a timeframe, yet you’re battling with your own temptations. This tension can register in the form of headaches, and maybe an uneasy feeling in your gut, etc. The physiological stress in your body can trigger anxious thoughts. This can create that fight or flight response that many of you have come to know. To obtain more information about the physiological symptoms of stress and anxiety, you can check out this page on our website.

What can you do about this challenge?

The basic idea is to use something in which you track your daily activities. This doesn’t have to be as detailed as a journal or a logbook requiring you to log things in detail. This can be something very simple (partly why it can be so helpful), where you simply track the task you are working on right now. This can be as simple as a piece of paper in front of you, where you note the time of day and activity you are working on.

And the best thing to do is to learn to refer to this information very regularly. Get in the habit of bringing your mind back to that list throughout the day.

Another tip when you get a distraction in the form of temptation, is to:

1) Refer back to your list and you realize you’re being distracted.
2) Then write down the distracting though or idea and put it on the back of the same piece of paper. This is sort of a parking lot of ideas. You can then return to this information later, when you want to break.

One of the reasons why this is so powerful is because you can become way more efficient and reduce the items demanding your attention, every time you slow down, just like slowing down your computer when you’re overloaded with too much, you take up too much RAM and it can’t work.

But the problem is not just that you’re slowing down when distracted by temptation, you’re actually taking your attention completely off of that activity.

We all have multiple things that distract us each day and we don’t realize how many times it occurs. So our attention can be constantly vacillating between the temptations and what they’re supposed to be focusing on. But if you break this pattern, you will become way more efficient and feel better.