Welcome back to your ADHD toolbox. Today’s ADHD study strategy will turn your phone from a distraction into a focus tool.
ADHD Study Strategy: How to Tap Into Timelapse
In this blog post, I’m introducing a new ADHD life hack to help you tap into your focus without the typical distractions from your phone.
How often do you bring your phone, a major distraction object, into a focus space? Only for it to do the absolute expected and distract you to no end? If your phone is within reach, and you are addicted to it, which most of us are, you’ll find yourself reaching for it when you’re trying your hardest to focus.
I used to use the hack I’m about to share every time I cleaned my room growing up, from middle school on, and I didn’t even know I had ADHD at the time; it just worked really, really well. So it’s about time I stopped gatekeeping and shared it with you.
How to Use a Time-Lapse to Focus With ADHD
What is it?
Put your phone in time-lapse mode out of arm’s reach, with yourself as the center of the camera’s attention. Prop up your phone and record yourself on the time-lapse doing whatever task you want to tackle.
How do you do this?
Set up your phone against something stable, with the screen facing away from you and your activity and the camera facing towards it. Make sure your activity will be within the camera shot, and click the time-lapse video button on your phone’s camera.
Don’t look back! Get straight to work. You’ll find that every time you reach for your phone, it won’t be in a convenient space, and you’ll remember that you aren’t allowed to open it because that would ruin the time lapse
Why does this work?
Two reasons.
- You won’t be able to reach your phone and access the usual distractions your brain is searching for.
- You’re under the impression that someone, your future self, is watching you. This is a huge step for the ADHD brain to tap into hyperfocus without slipping into any of the usual temptations that approach during a typical start-to-focus time. You’ll receive dopamine from performing your task under a watchful eye.
When do I time-lapse myself?
During anything! I mentioned I discovered this hack by time-lapsing myself cleaning my room, but that’s just where my journey started. I have countless videos of myself cleaning over the years, and they are super sweet to look back on.
Great times to tap into time-lapse:
- Studying
- Doing a workout
- Cleaning a space
- Paperwork
- Doing chores
- Journaling
- Take home exams
- Reading
- Any task you’ve been putting off… and the list goes on!
Share your finished time-lapse video with a friend to share your feat! If you have no one to send your masterpiece to, send it to me in my DMs or share it to your story and tag me! I love seeing how you all try out these tips out in the real world.
Leave a comment if you’ve tried this and it worked for you or if you’re looking forward to trying it!
