7 Tiny Habits That Improve Focus For Students with ADHD
- Sean McCormick
- Aug 5, 2024
- 8 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
Last updated: April, 2026
Want to share a product or service with over 6,000 parents and educators interested in executive functioning?
Is your student with ADHD constantly getting pulled off task, even when they genuinely want to focus?
In this post, you’ll learn why students with ADHD often struggle with sustained attention and 7 small, practical habits that can help them focus longer on what matters most.
Table of Contents
Focus or sustained attention is a valuable executive function skill that helps students:
Make progress on essays and projects
Prepare for exams
Learn new concepts that take time and attention to internalize
With a few minor tweaks to their mindset, environment, and even their clothes, your student can sustain their attention for longer periods of time.
Let's get into how to make this happen.👇
Why Do Students With ADHD Struggle to Focus?
Sustained attention is a skill that can be developed through intentional actions.
However, working on this skill is an uphill battle.
Much of what students experience in society is designed to distract them through:
Bright, colorful ads appealing to their core needs (food, comfort, safety, etc) -- Think "find your beach" by Corona.
Phone notifications that pull them into digital "rabbit holes" -- Get 3x stars today when you stop by Starbucks...
News headlines that are irrelevant but appears highly personalized -- Here is what doctors DON'T want you to know about...
And unfortunately, the education system has not caught up in preparing students to navigate these distractions, still relying on a model that was pioneered during the industrial revolution.
Instead of focusing on transferable executive function skills like planning, organization, communication, and creative thinking, the majority of school curriculum is focused on content and rote memorization.
So as students enter the workforce underprepared for the demands of jobs that require said EF skills, they have attempted to find humor in this challenging conundrum by sharing their feelings through memes like this👇
Why Doesn't The Pomodoro Method Work Well For Students With ADHD?
Many of the techniques shared as "focus" solutions for students are not appropriate for all students with ADHD.
For example, the Pomodoro method of working for 25 minutes then stopping can frustrate students with ADHD.
Why?
Having to stop when they have just entered a state of hyper-focus fractures their attention and takes them off course.
Like a car driving in a city and making frequent stops and starts, the brain loses efficiency or "mileage" when it must constantly start and stop.
7 Tiny Habits to Help Improve Focus in Students With ADHD
As an executive function coach for many students with ADHD, here are the tiny habits I have found make a HUGE difference.
Simply trying just one of these can be impactful.👇
Tiny Habit 1: Help them choose their ONE thing each day
Many students with ADHD struggle with the feeling of having to do "all the things."
To address this general feeling of overwhelm, we train executive function coaches and educators to ask students the following question before they sit down to support a student:
If you were able to accomplish just ONE THING by the end of this meeting that helped you move forward toward your goals, what would it be?
By asking this question, you nurture the skills of prioritization and give students permission to focus on one thing rather than all the things.
Tiny Habit 2: Let your student decide on the length of the focus block
One of the secret tools executive function coaches use all the time is motivational interviewing or MI.
The main idea with MI is that you ask leading questions to encourage students to make executive decisions, rather than telling them what to do.
This strategy can be applied to supporting students who are resistant to work on an overwhelming assignment.
By giving the learner agency over the time and duration of the activity, they are more inclined to start and remain focused on their one thing.
Ask these questions to your student next time you sit down with them to support them on a challenging task:
How long are you willing to work on this for?
(wait for them to respond and even if they say, "one minute," proceed to next question)
Will you set a timer for that amount of time?
Then, when the time goes off, ask:
Would you like to keep going?
In my experience as an EF coach, 99% most students want to keep going.
The first step is the hardest and once they experience momentum, their brain wants more.
Tiny Habit 3: Set up a "parking lot"
Students with ADHD often feel they NEED to switch to something else when a new impulse bubbles up.
This is a focus killer and a big reason why they struggle to sustain attention on things that feel boring like:
Studying for an exam
Reviewing flash cards
Editing a paper
To prepare for this attentional shift, help them create a "parking lot," a place to store all the ideas that come up while they are working on something else.
This can be as simple as using Google Tasks and creating a list called "parking lot."
If you want to dive deeper into how to use Google Tasks, you can:
Check out my YouTube video on the subject👇
Explore my Semester Success Blueprint course for a short guide on how to use all of Google's Student-Friendly features.
Tiny Habit 4: Choose an optimal location
If you are in a library where other people are studying, the social pressure will encourage you to do the same.
If you are at a disco, you dance 🕺🪩
Help your student choose a location where other people are focusing on their school work.
This shift gives them a dopamine rush by introducing them to novelty, allowing them to focus for an extended period of time.
Tiny Habit 5: Establish focus AFTER eating and sleeping
Stanford Professor, Kelly McGonigal, found that our focus is highly impacted by a lack of sleep:
Sleep deprivation (even just getting less than six hours a night) is a kind of chronic stress that impairs how the body and brain use energy....The good news is any step toward more or better quality rest can be a real boost to self-control.
It is difficult for students to focus when they are hungry or tired.
By strategically helping them to place study blocks after eating and sleeping their attention will be more sustained.
Tiny Habit 6: Dress up
There is a magical effect on focus when we put on anything other than pajamas or sweats.
It changes your identity, at least momentarily, as documented in this study👇
Adams and Galinsky discovered that wearing a white lab coat described as a doctor’s coat tended to increase sustained attention, compared to wearing that same coat described as a painter’s coat.
Without consciously knowing it, we assign meaning and symbolic value to our clothing.
Some clothing triggers relaxation while other clothing triggers focus and attention.
Help your student take control of their focus by encouraging them to choose clothing that motivates them to learn and grow.
Tiny Habit 7: Create time-based goals (not outcome-based goals)
The problem with writing outcome-based goals is that students make inaccurate time estimates.
This leads to a feel of lack, like:
"I'm so bummed I didn't finish my math homework."
Instead, have your students write time-based goals like:
"I'm going to work on my math homework for 30 minutes."
Then, they build momentum by enjoying meeting their goal.
This is aligned with one of my core productivity principles which is to do something.
By focusing on time-goals over outcome goals, your student will remove the expectation of finishing, and just focus on progress.
This allows them to focus for longer, unencumbered by fear of failure.
FAQs
How can I help my ADHD child focus without nagging?
One of the best ways to help a student with ADHD focus without constant nagging is to reduce overwhelm and make the task feel more manageable.
Instead of reminding them about everything they have to do, help them choose one priority, decide how long they are willing to work, and create an environment that supports attention.
Why do traditional focus strategies not work well for students with ADHD?
Many traditional focus strategies were not designed with ADHD brains in mind. Methods like fixed work intervals can sometimes interrupt momentum right when a student is finally locked in.
Students with ADHD often do better when they have some control over the length of their focus time, a clear priority, and support for managing distractions before those distractions hijack the whole session.
What is the best way to improve sustained attention in students with ADHD?
The best way to improve sustained attention is through small, repeatable habits rather than trying to force long periods of concentration all at once.
The goal is building the conditions that make focus more likely.
The Bottom Line
If you want to help your students with ADHD increase their focus, try one of these seven habits to see drastic gains in their focusing abilities:
Guide them to choose ONE key item to focus on in each coaching session or class period
Coach your student to choose the length of a study block
Teach them how to create a "parking lot"
Help them pick a location where other people are studying
Support them to study after they are fed and rested
Show them that wearing the right clothes matters
Walk them through how to set time-based goals
Hope this helps 🤙🏻
This article is a part of the larger category of:
Related articles:
P.S. If you want to work on executive function skills with your students, consider joining hundreds of other educators and parents who have completed my Semester Success Blueprint Course. In less than 2 hours, this comprehensive course will teach you and your student the system I developed to help hundreds of students learn how to manage school effectively and raise their self-awareness and engagement with school.
About Me
Hey! I'm Sean 👋
I'm a former public school special education teacher who realized that executive function skills are more important than knowing when George Washington crossed the Potomac.
Since then, I've made it my mission to teach anyone who will listen about how to develop these key life skills.
In 2020, I founded Executive Function Specialists to ensure all students with ADHD and Autism have access to high-quality online executive function coaching services. We offer online EF coaching and courses to help students and families.
Realizing I could only reach so many people through coaching, in 2021 I started the Executive Function Coaching Academy which trains schools, educators, and individuals to learn the key strategies to improve executive function skills for students.
In 2023, I co-founded of UpSkill Specialists, to provide neurodivergent adults with high-quality executive function coaching services.
When not pursuing my passions through work, I love spending time with my family, getting exercise, and growing my brain through reading. You can connect with me on LinkedIn.
Want me to speak on executive function skills at your event? Learn more about my speaking topics here.