According to Kelly Kang , the lead psychiatrist at UCLA ’ s Behavioral Health Associates , the number one complaint she ’ s been seeing in her patients isn ’ t depression but a sudden fear they might have ADD . “ I ’ ve been getting a lot of referrals for patients who think they have ADD ,” says Kang . “ People are saying , ‘ I can ’ t concentrate , I can ’ t focus , I can ’ t get things done .’ People are having to work in situations they ’ re not used to and they ’ ve had to adjust , whether it ’ s creating an office space in their home or working in the presence of children even if they ’ re in a separate room .” While some circumstances may be out of our control , there are ways to take back control of our minds and empower our children to do the same . So before you throw in the towel and chalk up 2020 as a complete distractable wash , try these five tips . When it comes to our brains and our ability to focus , incremental differences can snowball into mountainous effects .
Keep the desk free of clutter . Clutter might seem harmless but mess speaks to us constantly throughout the day . Researchers at Princeton University found that visual cortex can be overwhelmed by task-irrelevant objects , making it harder to allocate attention and complete tasks efficiently . Messiness can be a vicious cycle , one that may start with physical clutter but always ends in mental clutter , which can lead to more physical clutter . Ambitions to maintain an entire work room tidy , however , may be grandiose during a pandemic . A more attainable goal might be to just keep your child ’ s desk clutter-free . Better yet , make this her responsibility . Afterall , if having chores is the best indicator for success , putting your child in charge of her study space might pay double dividends .
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