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How to Read Books When You Have ADHD

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Re: How to Read Books When You Have ADHD

#31

Post by Hiopl »

dcolkitt wrote: post #6

When it comes to long, difficult slogs, I prefer audiobooks. Mostly consumed when exercising outside in nature. Imagine reading Moby Dick, and the author goes into a long boring diatribe about 19th century cetology. If you're sitting at home reading a physical book, pushing through is a long, difficult process that requires continuous effortful willpower. But when you're running a 10km, at worst you just zone out uti…

As somebody with ADHD, I can't consume audiobooks at all. My mind just starts to wander 10 seconds in and eventually I realize I haven't been listening for the past half-hour. It's the same with talks or lectures on YouTube, though I've found that putting them at 2x speed helps to keep my attention.

I really do need a book in text form, because it allows me full control over how quickly or in what order I consume it. I learned a long time ago that reading books linearly doesn't work for me, so reading as I do involves a thorough look at the table of contents, then a lot of skimming and jumping back and forth to find the most interesting/stimulating bits and assembling that into a coherent view of the book.

Re: How to Read Books When You Have ADHD

#32

Post by qart »

For the benefit of people like me, I'm quoting the part of the article that should have been at the top.

> 1. Create a Word or Google document to track your books if spreadsheets fill you with fear.

> 2. You don’t need to read the whole book. Write down your ONE thing from the part of the book you did read.

> 3. Review the document weekly, to keep the ideas fresh in your mind.

> 4. If you find that you stopped implementing your ONE thing, go back to the book and either continue reading where you had left off or reread the part that you already read.

I'll go read the entire article some other time.

Re: How to Read Books When You Have ADHD

#33

Post by da4c30ff »

I don't have an ADHD diagnosis but clearly have some of the typical symptoms.

My brain is constantly in an obsessive state, meaning that I get an obsession about something and my brain just focuses on that single topic for some variable amount of time (days, weeks, months) until I get a new obsession. I'm quite unable to think (or do) anything else during that time.

Last November I experienced something that I have not experienced before. My mind was at peace. I had no obsession for at least two weeks. It felt amazing, I was so content.

I started to read Wizard of Earthsea, which I finished few days later. Then I read Tombs of Atuan in a few days as well. I read The Farthest Shore about halfway before my brain rebooted into its usual obsessive state. This was the most I'd read in almost 10 years!

I wish I could experience that peace of mind once again.

Re: How to Read Books When You Have ADHD

#35

Post by Gene_Parmesan »

Hiopl wrote: post #31
dcolkitt wrote: post #6

When it comes to long, difficult slogs, I prefer audiobooks. Mostly consumed when exercising outside in nature. Imagine reading Moby Dick, and the author goes into a long boring diatribe about 19th century cetology. If you're sitting at home reading a physical book, pushing through is a long, difficult process that requires continuous effortful willpower. But when you're running a 10km, at worst you just zone out uti…

As somebody with ADHD, I can't consume audiobooks at all. My mind just starts to wander 10 seconds in and eventually I realize I haven't been listening for the past half-hour. It's the same with talks or lectures on YouTube, though I've found that putting them at 2x speed helps to keep my attention. I really do need a book in text form, because it allows me full control over how quickly or in what order I consume it.…

Yeah same here. I only tried audio books once or twice, it just didn't do it for me. I need the physical images of the words in front of me in order to keep them in my head. I've also found physical books to be much more forgiving of micro-distractions. When some sound from across the house distracts me, all I need to do to "pause" the reading is... stop reading. My eyes can wander around the page briefly and I don't lose anything. But with audio, I am finding myself manually needing to pause, rewind, etc.

I also listen to lectures and so on at higher speeds! People I know think I'm crazy when they walk in and hear someone yammering about some dev topic in a chipmunk's voice, but I just get so impatient with slower speech.

Re: How to Read Books When You Have ADHD

#36

Post by ZeroGravitas »

My own tips:

* Borrow books from a library to put an artificial time limit on your reading

* Use a bullet journal or similar note taking system to keep a list of things you want to read, so that something on the list will grab your interest

* Use an e-ink device, not so much for the display, but because it'll be less likely to have other distractions and more likely to let you jump right back into where you were in a book quickly.

Re: How to Read Books When You Have ADHD

#37

Post by gcatalfamo »

qart wrote: post #32

For the benefit of people like me, I'm quoting the part of the article that should have been at the top. > 1. Create a Word or Google document to track your books if spreadsheets fill you with fear. > 2. You don’t need to read the whole book. Write down your ONE thing from the part of the book you did read. > 3. Review the document weekly, to keep the ideas fresh in your mind. > 4. If you find that you stopped implem…

Thank you so much. They make articles for people with ADHD then make it unreadable for them.

Re: How to Read Books When You Have ADHD

#38

Post by shoto_io »

qart wrote: post #32

For the benefit of people like me, I'm quoting the part of the article that should have been at the top. > 1. Create a Word or Google document to track your books if spreadsheets fill you with fear. > 2. You don’t need to read the whole book. Write down your ONE thing from the part of the book you did read. > 3. Review the document weekly, to keep the ideas fresh in your mind. > 4. If you find that you stopped implem…

I wonder if all this clutter can be avoided somehow. I mean basically all other text is there for search engines only.

Re: How to Read Books When You Have ADHD

#39

Post by bryanrasmussen »

I've been diagnosed as having ADHD, but am able to lay in bed reading books all day long (sometimes I need to put the book down and walk around thinking about what I've read but often I can read straight through), so I wonder - is my diagnosis wrong or is this common. Obviously also able to program all day without rest as long as the task is interesting enough.

on edit: obviously I was able to spend all day reading books back when I was single.

Re: How to Read Books When You Have ADHD

#40

Post by lathiat »

she11c0de wrote: post #24

I don't have ADHD but often find it hard to finish books too. I honestly think that there's a lot of books that are simply not worth reading. Reading a book is quite a commitment (may take up to a month for me). I often lose interest once I realize that whole book is a single idea that could be summed up in a blog post but stretched to fit 300 pages.

Sounds like Blinkist is the service for you :)
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