> I don’t even think that a better class of distraction necessarily means high-brow, or educational. > > For me it’s much more about it being something that g

> I don’t even think that a better class of distraction necessarily means high-brow, or educational. > > For me it’s much more about it being something that genuinely fixes your full attention. This is quite similar to what I'm currently learning in my training/coaching on how to deal with my AD(H)D. ADHD is for a large part an inability to consciously direct attention to where it "should" go. Both hyperfocus and distraction (aka impulsiveness) are two sides of that same coin. My training is a lot about becoming aware of when this attention switching happens¹. And then about choosing to act on it and direct it. Which is often not the hard problem with ADHD. It's more the "going on sidequests without knowing you go on them". So my therapist also teaches me to allow "good" sidequests. E.g. cleaning the bathroom (when I should be making breakfast) is fine: as long as my agenda allows it, I then have a clean bathroom. And to be aware that some sidequests are luring exactly because they stimulate me more. So to seek that stimulation in other tasks as well. --- ¹ e.g. I didn't notice that I opened HN, read a random article, jumped in the thread to talk about it. When I was actually proofreading a boring report. Now that I think of it, I was also updating some software in another window, also not the work I "want" to do. Some hacks I use to become aware are "leechblock (firefox)" and "digital wellbeing (android)". Just timers and blockers that show me "you went on a sidequest again..."