If you’re looking for how to focus better, the answer might be smaller than you think. Alison’s tip, from a recent conversation with Dr Noni, is to move your phone out of reach. Not face down. Not on silent. Properly out of arm’s reach, or with an app blocker switched on.
The reasoning is simple. The moment a task feels slightly difficult, slightly boring, slightly uncomfortable, that’s the moment most of us reach for something else. The phone becomes an exit from the discomfort of the task, and the discomfort itself never gets the chance to pass.
Why removing the exit works
Remove the exit and the feeling usually passes faster than expected. This lines up with something we wrote about a few weeks ago in Procrastination Is Not A Time Management Problem, where we made the point that procrastination isn’t about scheduling, it’s about what happens when a task feels boring, ambiguous or a bit emotionally uncomfortable. Alison’s phone tip is a practical version of that idea. You’re not fixing your calendar, you’re removing the easiest way to avoid the feeling.
The wider point Alison made is worth holding onto too. What works for you might not work for anyone else. It’s worth actually asking how you work best, what conditions you need to sit down and focus, what environment supports that. Most people never ask this. They borrow someone else’s routine, it doesn’t fit, and they conclude they’re broken rather than just mismatched.
If you’re working out what actually helps you focus, rather than what’s supposed to, that’s exactly the kind of thing we help people figure out in coaching.
If this sounds familiar at work, our ADHD leadership coaching helps leaders and managers build support around what gets in the way.
