I really dislike this sort of blog. Every article feels like it was written for their affiliates and for search engines, and rarely for the readers. It's certainly not written for people with ADHD.
Here's the only useful paragraph in the article:
> This idea came from Megan, a guest on Hal Elrod’s podcast. Megan explained she keeps track of all the books she reads in a spreadsheet. Each time she finishes a book she adds it to her spreadsheet, along with the ONE thing she is going to implement. With each new entry she reviews the list. If she isn’t implementing her ONE thing, she goes back and rereads the book.
Perhaps we read different kinds of books, but I don't see the benefit of this. I read for pleasure, without taking notes or setting objectives. I feel like those would interrupt rather than encourage reading. Good books tend to stay with you either way.
I found that a good book in a good environment is all I really need to read more. It takes 5-10 minutes before my thoughts stop buzzing around and I can focus, but once I'm in that zone, I'm good for a while.
Looks like you found the ONE thing in this article.
(jk)
I do agree with you. I read for pleasure and to satisfy curiosity. it's hard (or pointless) to try to find one thing to implement from curiousity driven exploring.
> I found that a good book in a good environment is all I really need to read more. It takes 5-10 minutes before my thoughts stop buzzing around and I can focus, but once I'm in that zone, I'm good for a while.
I think there is a huge variance in how ADHD people process information. I am 100% this way as well, but know just as many ADHD people who literally cannot finish reading even a short book. They often report audiobooks and podcasts as being much better, but I can take about 5-10 minutes of auditory input max before I am completely done. If I'm not moving I'll fall asleep[1], if I am moving my mind will wander and I'll just have 20 minute intervals that I have zero recall of ever hearing.
1: This made college lectures quite challenging. For one particularly bad class where the professor dimmed the lights to use an overhead projector, I sat in front of someone who had ample reason to want to kick me and told them to kick me any time I fell asleep. In another one that was fairly small (maybe 50 students?) the professor seemed to get sympathetic noticing I was struggling to stay awake and would wake me up as needed.
I agree. It reads like those GPT-3-generated articles from a while back that were spread on HN as an experiment[1]. They also tended to be (IIRC) self-help style blog posts, and we're about as substantive as this one.
Ditto on environment. I had found that getting out of my normal setting helped with this immensely for me. Going to a coffee shop had been working pretty well (not every time but most times), but covid killed that routine.
No thanks to a spreadsheet though. Lots of adhd advice around bullet journals too, but that worked as well as every other past attempt to keep a journal in my life.
I'm going to suggest "How to Live," a biography of Montaigne with several rules encapsulating his philosophy of life. One of them is "read voraciously, and forget most of what you read."
I read over a book a day last year and they certainly weren't "useful" or "worthy" in the sense of what your quote is talking about. But for my ADHD the problem I have is not reading, because for me the linear train of thought in the written word is soothing and settles my brain down in a way nothing else does. And for that purpose I don't want difficult to read, and I especially don't want clever literary tricks.
As a fellow ADHD-er, completely agree about reading conditions, like the environment and how well the book is suited to your tastes/mood, rather than an organizational system. The one place I've been able to read a book cover-to-cover in a single sitting was while backpacking. Found a comfy rock in shade, got into the Reading Zone, got through all of Andy Weir's "Artemis" that day.
> Every article feels like it was written for their affiliates and for search engines.
I've noticed this with youtube videos. Sometimes I will search for something, and I get a video equivalent to this webpage, very generic/general with a synthesized voice. It's getting harder and harder to wade through the crap.
> but once I'm in that zone, I'm good for a while.
Yes, I thought people with ADHD had superfocus as well.
Here's the only useful paragraph in the article:
> This idea came from Megan, a guest on Hal Elrod’s podcast. Megan explained she keeps track of all the books she reads in a spreadsheet. Each time she finishes a book she adds it to her spreadsheet, along with the ONE thing she is going to implement. With each new entry she reviews the list. If she isn’t implementing her ONE thing, she goes back and rereads the book.
Perhaps we read different kinds of books, but I don't see the benefit of this. I read for pleasure, without taking notes or setting objectives. I feel like those would interrupt rather than encourage reading. Good books tend to stay with you either way.
I found that a good book in a good environment is all I really need to read more. It takes 5-10 minutes before my thoughts stop buzzing around and I can focus, but once I'm in that zone, I'm good for a while.