Background Noise

Many people with ADHD find that they are able to focus best if they have some kind of non-distracting distraction providing stimulation in the background. For me, this is almost always background noise, though the kind of noise I need depends on my situation.

Soundscapes

This is something along the lines of white noise; it is non-repetitive, non-rhythmic, non-verbal, low-volume sounds. Whale songs, coastal waves, rain sounds, and cafe noises are examples of the kinds of soundscapes that can help people to focus. MyNoise is a website that provides free access to a wide variety of customizable soundscapes that you can save to use over and over again.

Instrumental Music

This is music without lyrics; many people find lyrics distracting but enjoy rhythmic music to help keep them focused on a task and energized. Classical music, dance music, and chill beats to study and relax to are some of the things that people like to use for this purpose. For people who really really like something rhythmic and repetitive as their background noise, 10 Hours of Crab Rave is a popular background noise selection from Tumblr.

Lyrical Music

I think we're at about a hundred years of people turning on the radio for background noise; this is the most common type of background noise in the world and a lot of people don't even think of it as a productivity tool until they look up halfway through the workday and go "why is it so quiet in here?" when someone turns it off.

If you like lyrical music as background noise but you have ADHD, you may benefit from putting albums or songs that you like on repeat to have something to listen to that you won't have to worry about getting distracted by. Pretty much everything from the "music" section of my Reclist is something that I've put on loop for hours at a time to get something done. Right at this very second, that's "Supernaut."

Speaking

I am currently in my "all podcasts all the time" mode. It used to be very difficult for me to listen to talk radio or news in the background at work because it all made me angry, but now that podcasting is a thing I can listen to ten hours a day and have a great time paying attention to my earbuds while slogging through boring tasks at work. Whether or not it is possible for me to listen to podcasts depends on what task I'm doing. If I'm doing anything that requires writing, I can't listen to people speaking or I won't be able to focus on the words; however I get a lot more cooking, cleaning, and yardwork done than I used to because I have a podcast making the time pass in ways that don't involve needing to pay attention to the stove or the weeds I'm pulling. If you're looking for depressing podcasts to check out, I've got some up on the Reclist.

Video

Video-as-background-noise is a risk, in my opinion. In fact I just lost twenty minutes going to youtube to find a link to Line Goes Up, which I have watched as background noise a reprehensible number of times.

If you can have video as background without getting distracted or losing focus on what you're doing, good on you; but I find video-as-background more effective when I'm sewing or making art and less effective when I'm working or need to get something done in a finite period of time because I'll end up watching the video. That said, I did complete a 9 foot square crocheted blanket while watching the first two seasons of Twin Peaks on repeat.

The Big Guns

I find that harsh noise allows me to focus better than anything else in the world. I don't know why. It works in a way that is really upsetting because of how effective it is. It's unpleasant to listen to for most people and may be painful for some people and animals. Merzbow's Pulse Demon is more effective for getting me to focus than any stimulant I have ever tried and I have no idea why.