Ask HN: People with ADHD, how do you focus for reading books?

Hey i have adhd too and have faced the same problem.

So I created an app just for this. You can try it at https://www.speakreader.com. Since you have adhd i suggest you go with at least 2x speed. I usually read at 3x speed just fine. At this speed your mind can't get distracted with other things. I read almost 1 book every week using this nowadays.

Fyi, the app is 100% free but you will need to enter your own Google wavenet api key for text to speech engine - since it billable over the first million chars by google so I can't give them away with the app.

Funny thing is, reading books is one of those things that are not affected negatively by my ADHD - At least books that interest me - As a child I would get very sucked into books and totally ignore other inputs. I was the kid who got yelled at for reading in school. That being said, this was pre-internet, apps, smartphones etc. Now I hardly ever get a chance to get sucked in like that, except for traveling by air. When I have to travel I often by one of the fun novels at the airport book shop and the trip is over in the blink of an eye.

I read what I'm extremely interested in. When the mood comes to me I'll just read. Shrugs it doesn't happen often though. Last book I read was "The Pentium Chronicles". Found it on archive.org and I rented it for two different days and just binged it before bed. I didn't get distracted because on the first day I made sure to set myself up to not have anything else left to be distracted by. The second day I just wanted to come back to the story really badly. The reason I wanted to read the book was all the messing around I was doing with retro systems in PCem and 86box and I wanted more appreciation for what went into the hardware. So I was so absorbed in articles and wiki and technical documentation and my own world that Twitter and Reddit and YouTube had no relevance.

Edit: the really hard part is the initiating of the action rather than the upkeep of the action later on.

Edit edit: when I say I read the book before bed I don't mean I read it on my phone. I read it on my Mac Mini which is connected to my 55 inch 4K TV in my web browser on archive.org.

Eliminate the distractions. I have a separate desk for work. I sometimes turn off the network on the machine on that desk when reading/brainstorming/focussing. My phone isn't in the room.

Get into the habit of mentally segregating your workspace like that. I use the separate desk just to re-enforce the line for myself. It's obviously not strictly necessary. But when I do this, I find that distractions feel out of place and I notice them more quickly. (Why am I sitting here with my phone? I never have my phone in this room. I shouldn't have my phone in this room.)

I take the opposite approach. Rather than reducing distractions, I make reading more stimulating. (Even if I clear all external distractions, I'll still get distracted by wandering thoughts.)

For tech books, I have clear criteria for taking notes. (And I take them on paper, so I'm not switching between apps.)

Some of the criteria are arbitrary, just to help me pay attention. The big non-arbitrary criteria is, "Every time I see a word/term, and I'm not 100% sure I know its precise meaning in the current context, I write it down (leaving some space to flesh it out later.)" Then I add other observations about the book's meaning for that term as I read.

Of course, that's just one example. My point isn't about taking better notes (though it may increase the quality of your notes.) It's that you can make reading more stimulating by treating notetaking as a game with clear/specific rules.

If anyone has tips for non-technical books, I'm all ears. I haven't cracked that code yet.

I don't know if I have ADHD, but I find I can concentrate much better if I walk while reading, either pacing around the lab or just take a walk with my phone/tablet/papers in hand.

If your budget allows I'd recommend combining Kindle with Audible. This is what Amazon calls "Voicewhisper". I find that applying multiple senses helps keep distractions out. Also nice to use Kindle's highlighting which you can look through on Goodreads afterwards.

I find that this approach works really well for books on e.g. on design, architecture and management. Can be slightly more awkward for books with a lot of diagrams and code, but usually just a matter of pausing the audio over certain sections.

Depending on the difficulty of the language used I can often play on 1.7-2x playback speed.

I've given up on taking notes, I'm bad at it and I've never looked at my notes a single time. I can absorb the information more readily if I just read with 100% of my attention on reading. Some people seem to benefit from the way notes help them solidify their own mental models, but for me the context switching makes it very difficult. My handwriting is also absolutely atrocious.

Reading long form content on the computer is not feasible for me either. I've converged to printing everything (if it's a paper), and going outside somewhere with my phone.

Out of sight out of mind applies universally (sometimes good, sometimes bad) - I have the most success when I engineer my environments to put the things I need to focus on in front of me.

If you care about keeping your notes electronically, maybe have a look at rocket book or something.

I have logged more pages turned and books completed on a stationary recumbent bike at my local YMCA than anywhere else in the world. Some earbuds to drown out the radio (and others' grunting), an ereader with far more content then it should ever carry... I was set.

I've tried to replicate it at home to no avail, however that sort of bike (with a desk add-on) makes for a decent place to do my usual computer work.

Adhd here, no meds.

I’d argue this is 2 problems.

1. You reaching for social media is not from ADHD but from habitually doing it. Sure your adhd might be why you’re prone to them but still a habit. You do it when you’re not mentally stimulated. I have deleted the Reddit app (well Apollo) from my phone a dozen times. I’ll go to open the app and it’s obviously not there. That’s the habit.

Do whatever you can to break this habit. For me, its deleting the app when I feel I’m spending too much time on it. Go a week or two without it and then I “reset” that habit and time I spend on it.

2. The second problem is not being able to focus on a book. Good luck. I read A LOT but mostly tech articles. I read 1-4 books a year typically poolside on vacation. The times I’m at home reading a book, I typically will read for 6 hours straight. I’ll chew through it in a day or two. Then I can’t read another book, no matter how hard I try, for months. Unfortunately for us, you just have to follow the dopamine.

I don't. I haven't finished a book in years. I keep buying them, though. Such is life.

What I found was that my ADHD characteristics of not focusing deeply on books was just shallow distractions like you mention.

I got rid of those distractions by buying a Kindle or using an iPad with no fun apps on it. I only allow myself to read on them and if I "context switch", I punish myself by not allowing myself to use those fun apps until I read X pages/minutes.

I built a reading habit over the last 3 years because of this. I went from reading 1-5 books a year in 2018, 12 books in 2019, and 52 books in 2020+ (pandemic definitely helped, but I fell in love with reading again).

Your brain is elastic. It can return back to the shape you previously had before the introduction of ADHD/addicting tech. It takes time, patience, and it's fair share of pain to cut the addiction. I'm on year 5 and thriving, but the first couple years were extremely challenging.

I read only hardcover books in an room with no electronics and distractions. I have found with e-books that I habitualize screentime with distraction and needed to break that habit.

If you're simply beyond help - here are some nuclear options:

- Download what you want to read and go somewhere without internet.

- Deactivate your twitter/reddit/youtube when you start reading, reactivate it when you're done.

- Get a separate device (maybe some old crappy laptop) where you are not logged into anything, leave your other laptop at home and go somewhere to read. Don't install anything on that laptop, it helps if its so slow and old that nothing works on it.

I think this could be an interesting use case for VR, a merciless immersive reader without any menu option to leave (you can only power down the system to get out)

I installed a digital detox app on my phone that is scheduled for 7pm to 5am every night. It only lets me use apps that I deem beneficial, and limits "scroll traps"

Also, I'm fortunate in that I can observe a Digital Sabbath every Saturday where I can turn off my phone and laptop all day and just sit in the hammock and read physical books. It's really hard with everyone in my house on their phones all the time, but I feel like spending one day a week without screens has really helped my ADHD the rest of the week.

I have severe adhd. I've always loved reading. I can and often do read all day long. I'm currently reading war and peace for the third time. I read lots of philosophy, history, in-depth medical and comp science.

Constant internet access and video games put me in a mental mode where I end up with a really short attention span, and cannot bear spending more than 5 minutes on a task that does not provide an interactive feedback loop. After a few days without the instant gratification of the modern web and vidya, I can usually snap back into a mindset that allows me to study, ponder, and pursue goal-oriented activities.

I've found that the controlled binge model works best for me. I am usually very conscientious about my diet, exercise routine, sleeping hours, and drug and e-stim intake. About every 3 - 6 months, however, i'll go on a two week video game bender. It actually seems to help my mental acuity and focus after my controlled binge is over.

I think you were on the right track with physical books. (And I think of the delays in writing notes as a way to force me to linger with the material I'm trying to remember.)

Sometimes I will leave the house with a book or two that I want to read -- leaving behind my laptop (and maybe even turning off my phone). A peaceful, boring, sunny day out in nature somewhere....with only my book.

Listening to the audio book while doing some mindless chore or going for a walk has worked well for me. Good luck!

Audio books at 2x or greater speed. If the narrator is too slow, my mind wanders with each pause between words and during long, drawn out syllables. High speed forces me to concentrate.

I regularly buy a lot of books and go through periods where I read a lot or don't read much at all. Like most ADHD folks I think it's related to hyper-fixation most of the time, but sometimes it's just plain old motivation. One thing that helped in the past was buying an AlphaSmart on Ebay and just taking notes in Markdown on that. If I have the ebook I usually do a side-by-side with Ulysses or emacs open to take notes since it's a pain to deal with the AlphaSmart and an ebook reader, but for physical books it's quite easy to just cover up the page I'm not using as a stand. I generally keep technical notes organized by larger topic, then sub-topic, and then a separate file for each specific thing.

I tend to prefer physical books for long-form reading that isn't really focused on having you write code and ebooks for when it's more of a tutorial/project-based thing, and I think the multi-tasking aspect of taking notes or writing code while reading helps me from getting distracted, as I notice I tend to get bored quicker when I'm focused on one task for took long versus having a passive task to keep me busy. Lately I've decided to try doing something different, and instead of taking notes I am just highlighting stuff. I used to hate highlighting and marking up books, but once I got over it I found it's almost as effective as taking notes with the added bonus of being able to just sit outside or going somewhere quite with just the book and highlighter.

I've found that I have no problem reading books, so long as they're exactly what I'm interested in right now and I have a copy available. I've found I absolutely struggle with reading books when I'm no longer as excited about it as when I impulse bought it and it's been sitting on my bookshelf for 2 years.

Switching to reading books on the kindle app on my phone was so successful for me I racked up credit card debt impulse buying title after title, so I actually blocked the kindle app and removed my card details from Amazon.

Audible worked for certain titles/genres and not for others. It's a lot less effort which can make quite a difference, but I find I absorb information differently. The upside is progressing through the text isn't reliant on your executive function, so it happens more consistently.

Physical books sometimes I just can't put down if it's super interesting to me right then and there. I've definitely struggled to make my way through physical books where I'm reading it because I know I should/ought to.

Another thing I like about physical books is there's nothing to click on. No tabs to open. However, I found I would go through the bibliography at the end of each book and as a result buy 3 more books. So, to counter that dynamic I sat and physically ripped the bibliography out of the hundreds of books in my bookshelf.

I dunno man... it's just hit and miss. Like everything in the ADHD life.

As an option for critical period:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olanzapine

I keep a pen in hand and I write in my books as I’m reading. Underlining, bracketing, or rewording parts I find interesting. That seems to help provide a pseudo feedback loop for me. Of course that makes them pretty much untradeable afterwards.

I'm trying right now to take handwritten notes while reading. But my focus is on handwriting source code snippets from the textbook.

It seems like hand-writing source code works since it is something concrete rather than just an abstract concept described in words.