Adult ADHD · Attention and everyday tasks

Interest and motivation in adult ADHD

Interest, boredom and deep absorption in adult ADHD, and the conditions that help attention become available for everyday tasks.

Nisha Bal · Founder & Principal OT
Updated 11 October 2026

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When someone tells me they cannot concentrate, I want to know when their attention does become available. Many adults with ADHD can spend hours absorbed in a problem, a subject or an activity they care about, while struggling to begin a few minutes of ordinary administration. That contrast is clinically important. The capacity to become involved is present. The difficulty concerns how attention becomes engaged, how it is maintained and how it can be moved when another part of life needs it.

We sometimes call this an interest-based mind rather than a practical-based mind. It is a useful description of a pattern I see: knowing that something matters does not necessarily make it feel available to do. A bill can have serious consequences and still remain unopened. An unfamiliar question can immediately draw the person into reading, making connections and learning. The person understands the importance of the bill. Understanding its importance and initiating the required action are different parts of the experience.

I want to examine those parts closely. Does attention drift before the person begins, or after a few minutes? Does an interruption pull them away? Do they forget what the next step was? Does the task carry boredom, uncertainty, fear of getting it wrong or a history of criticism? Someone who is deeply involved may have another problem: they cannot release the activity, notice the time or respond to hunger and another person's request. Beginning, remaining and stopping each deserve a place in the assessment.

Recent adult experiments give substance to this more specific view. In two studies, adults with ADHD symptoms were able to direct attention toward valuable information in working memory as effectively as comparison participants. The finding concerns a particular process, but it matters: a diagnosis or symptom pattern does not tell us that every means of directing attention is unavailable. We need to discover which processes are working and which conditions make them usable.

Hyperfocus also needs to be understood through the person's actual life. Some adults describe extraordinary absorption, productive learning and a sense of being fully involved. They also describe difficulty controlling when it begins and ends. Recent interviews explored how interest and time pressure could bring on absorption, followed by difficulty stopping and a need to recover. In therapy, I want to protect the possibility of deep work while helping the person retain a way back to meals, sleep, relationships and the rest of the day.

Interest itself contains several things. There may be novelty, a clear question, a visible result, movement, feedback, an appropriate challenge or another person working alongside you. A practical activity can supply many of these conditions naturally. A form on a screen may supply very few. When we identify what is drawing attention into one activity, we can ask how some of those conditions could be brought into an activity that is difficult to enter.

This requires more thought than adding a reward to everything. A reward may increase someone's motivation while leaving an instruction unclear or a working-memory demand too high. We still need to ask whether they know what to do, have what they need and can see the next step. An OT can help turn an abstract demand into an activity with a beginning, a sequence and a recognisable point of progress. The task becomes more possible because its demands have been understood.

For a low-interest task, I often begin with a small building block. Open the document. Read one question. Put the necessary materials on the table. We can notice the feeling that arrives and remain curious about it while taking that action. The activity may still feel neutral or unpleasant. Practising a beginning before urgency takes over gives the person another experience of what they can do, and another opportunity to understand what makes the next step easier.

Boredom deserves the same attention. It can be a real and difficult experience, with restlessness and a strong urge to leave. We can investigate whether the activity offers too little information, asks for too much mental juggling, lacks meaning or carries uncertainty. These are different conditions. Changing one may help, and the person may also need practice in staying with an ordinary task that offers little immediate pleasure. Both the conditions and the response to them can be worked with.

There must also be room for the person's interests to develop. Curiosity can become knowledge, creativity can become a skill, and the appetite for something new can become a useful project. If the entire week is spent struggling through demands that give little back, those capacities have nowhere to grow. Finding a place for them can give life direction and provide evidence of ability that years of criticism have obscured.

The modern reward environment makes this harder. Reels, repeated checking and endless content recruit the appetite for something new throughout the day. We need to ask what that habit is taking from the interests and activities the person values. Taking ownership means choosing conditions that give attention somewhere worthwhile to go, then arranging enough support for the necessary activities around it. Confidence grows when a person begins to understand their pattern and can act on that understanding.

The evidence behind the article

Research notes and references

Interest-based mind is the author’s clinical shorthand for context-sensitive engagement. Allocation, maintenance and disengagement are used descriptively; technical selective attention is one narrower cognitive process. Atkinson’s two experiments used symptom-defined adults and found preserved value-based prioritisation of visual working-memory items, with costs to less-valued items. They do not establish preserved overall capacity or all attentional functions. Hyperfocus surveys and qualitative accounts concern reported absorption, not a single agreed mechanism. Groen found no overall diagnosed-group hyperfocus advantage, contrasting with Hupfeld and Dwyer; definitions and settings differ. Bowen’s small mixed-diagnosis interview sample adds detail about starting, stopping and recovery. Kallweit found increased motivation without inhibition-performance improvement under reward. Orban associated boredom with attention and working-memory difficulties; cross-sectional mediation does not establish causation. The practical task adjustments and brief feeling-tone practice are the author’s clinical synthesis, developed further in the feeling-tone essay.

References: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23.

Jackson, J. N. S., & MacKillop, J. (2016). Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Monetary Delay Discounting: A Meta-Analysis of Case-Control Studies. Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, 1(4), 316–325. doi:10.1016/j.bpsc.2016.01.007.
Read source 1
Study notes
Meta-analysis with an adult subgroup supports average differences in delayed monetary reward valuation. Laboratory choices do not establish universal pleasure-seeking or effectiveness of everyday strategies.
Berke, J. D. (2018). What does dopamine mean? Nature Neuroscience, 21, 787–793. doi:10.1038/s41593-018-0152-y.
Read source 2
Study notes
Neuroscientific perspective on dopamine's complex roles in learning, motivation and movement. Not an ADHD intervention trial or evidence of a screen-related dopamine reset.
Beheshti, A., Chavanon, M.-L., & Christiansen, H. (2020). Emotion dysregulation in adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: a meta-analysis. BMC Psychiatry, 20, 120. doi:10.1186/s12888-020-2442-7.
Read source 3
Study notes
Adult ADHD meta-analysis supports greater emotion-regulation difficulty at group level. It does not establish that every adult avoids unpleasant experience or that dopamine alone explains the pattern.
Hoogman, M., Stolte, M., Baas, M., & Kroesbergen, E. (2020). Creativity and ADHD: A review of behavioral studies, the effect of psychostimulants and neural underpinnings. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 119, 66–85. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2020.09.029.
Read source 4
Study notes
Creativity findings vary by sample and measurement. Strengths should be personalised; ADHD does not guarantee creativity. The review did not find an overall negative psychostimulant effect on creativity.
Nordby, E. S., Guribye, F., Nordgreen, T., & Lundervold, A. J. (2023). Silver linings of ADHD: a thematic analysis of adults’ positive experiences with living with ADHD. BMJ Open, 13, e072052. doi 10.1136/bmjopen-2023-072052.
Read source 5
Study notes
Qualitative adult accounts support including strengths in discussion. Self reports do not establish that all adults with ADHD share a strength or that dopamine causes creativity.
Adamou, M., et al. (2021). Recommendations for occupational therapy interventions for adults with ADHD: a consensus statement from the UK adult ADHD network. BMC Psychiatry, 21, 72. doi 10.1186/s12888-021-03070-z.
Read source 6
Study notes
Expert consensus about OT assessment and intervention. A practice framework, not a trial showing that all proposed strategies improve ADHD symptoms.
Babajanyan, D., Freame, L., Steele, R., & Poulton, A. (2023). Understanding attentional functioning in adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder—Could this improve diagnostic specificity? International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(6), 5077. doi:10.3390/ijerph20065077.
Read source 7
Study notes
Qualitative workshop and follow-up contributions from 29 adults recruited through an ADHD organisation; 24 returned demographic questionnaires. Participants described dull-task aversion, deliberate distraction and stronger engagement with interesting tasks. Some described deadline panic as helping concentration. One described deadline anxiety without improved focus. Self-selection and qualitative reporting cannot establish prevalence, causal sequence, hormone release or objectively improved performance. Full primary article read.
Wieland, L. M., Ebner-Priemer, U. W., Limberger, M. F., & Nett, U. E. (2021). Predicting delay in goal-directed action: An experience sampling approach uncovering within-person determinants involved in the onset of academic procrastination behavior. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 695927. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.695927.
Read source 8
Study notes
Eight-day experience sampling of 75 university students generated 501 paired task appraisals. Increasing perceived task unpleasantness between planning and intended action predicted greater odds of delay; increasing task value predicted less delay. Expected success also mattered, whereas estimated effort did not independently predict delay in the combined model. These within-person results closely support the feeling-tone/task-onset link. Self-report and observational design cannot establish causality; participants were not selected for ADHD or assessed for adrenaline.
Eckert, M., Ebert, D. D., Lehr, D., Sieland, B., & Berking, M. (2016). Overcome procrastination: Enhancing emotion regulation skills reduce procrastination. Learning and Individual Differences, 52, 10–18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lindif.2016.10.001
Read source 9
Study notes
Randomised two-week study analysed 83 adult completers, mean age 40.8. A roughly ten-minute daily procedure joined task-feeling identification, tolerance, brief relaxation/reappraisal, action and review. Self-reported procrastination improved versus waitlist, d=0.34. This was not a ten-minute exposure interval or ADHD trial. Passive control, completer analysis, unmeasured adherence and no follow-up limit inference. Full primary paper read.
Volkow, N. D., Wang, G.-J., Newcorn, J. H., Kollins, S. H., Wigal, T. L., Telang, F., Fowler, J. S., Goldstein, R. Z., Klein, N., Logan, J., Wong, C., & Swanson, J. M. (2011). Motivation deficit in ADHD is associated with dysfunction of the dopamine reward pathway. Molecular Psychiatry, 16(11), 1147–1154. https://doi.org/10.1038/mp.2010.97
Read source 10
Study notes
45 never-medicated adults meeting DSM-IV ADHD criteria and 41 controls. ADHD participants scored lower on a questionnaire measure of achievement motivation. Within ADHD, motivation scores correlated with dopamine D2/D3 receptor availability in the accumbens and midbrain, and transporter availability in the accumbens. Lower motivation also correlated with inattention. Correlational; motivation was a questionnaire surrogate. Receptor/transporter availability is not a direct universal dopamine-level measurement. Shares a cohort with Volkow's 2009 JAMA study; not an independent replication or screen/reset experiment.
Marx, I., Höpcke, C., Berger, C., Wandschneider, R., & Herpertz, S. C. (2013). The impact of financial reward contingencies on cognitive function profiles in adult ADHD. PLoS ONE, 8(6), e67002. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0067002
Read source 11
Study notes
38 adults aged 18–40 with clinically assessed ADHD and 40 controls. Financial contingencies changed selected performance measures: adults with ADHD made fewer impulsive false-positive responses and responded more slowly in a continuous-performance task; some time-reproduction differences were reduced. Rewards affected waiting behaviour in both groups. Effects depended on task and measure; rewards did not improve stop-signal or n-back performance. Reward and response-cost contingencies were combined, many comparisons were tested, and task order was fixed. Not proof that enough interest removes ADHD.
Hupfeld, K. E., Abagis, T. R., & Shah, P. (2019). Living “in the zone”: hyperfocus in adult ADHD. ADHD Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorders, 11(2), 191–208. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12402-018-0272-y
Read source 12
Study notes
Adult survey samples of 251 and 372; ADHD symptom levels measured with validated questionnaires. Higher ADHD symptom scores were associated with more reported prolonged absorption across school, hobbies, screen time and everyday scenarios. Supports explaining attention as variable engagement, including strong absorption, rather than a uniformly absent capacity. Self-report and symptom associations, rather than an objective trial establishing an exclusively interest-based attention system. A correction notes an accidentally omitted hobby-frequency response option. Does not measure dopamine or prove hyperfocus is always helpful.
White, H. A., & Shah, P. (2011). Creative style and achievement in adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Personality and Individual Differences, 50(5), 673–677. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2010.12.015
Read source 13
Study notes
60 undergraduates: 30 reporting a recently clinician-confirmed ADHD diagnosis and above-threshold symptoms, and 30 controls; mean ages about 20. Half the ADHD group used stimulant medication. The ADHD group produced more original verbal responses, reported greater creative achievement and preferred idea generation more strongly. This supports making room for creativity as a possible strength rather than defining ADHD solely through deficits. Small, selected university sample; diagnosis history and creative achievement were self-reported. Does not establish universal superior creativity, dopamine as its cause, or that reducing screens increases creativity. Full primary paper inspected; publisher abstract and author-lab citation cross-checked.
Lasky, A. K., et al. (2016). ADHD in context: Young adults’ reports of the impact of occupational environment on the manifestation of ADHD. Social Science & Medicine, 161, 160–168. doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.06.003.
Read source 14
Study notes
Primary qualitative interviews with 125 young adults originally diagnosed as children. Fifty-five percent described context-dependent ADHD experiences; interest, hands-on work and stimulation sometimes supported functioning. No randomised environment intervention. Full methods and results checked.
Bernacer, J., Gambra, L., Rodriguez-Romero, D., Carbonell, M. E., Magallon, S., & Arrondo, G. (2025). Association between ADHD symptoms, physical effort discounting, and unhealthy lifestyles in adults. Scientific Reports, 15, 17255. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-02024-9
Read source 15
Study notes
Cross-sectional study of 181 adults aged 18–33, including 58 clinically diagnosed ADHD participants, analysed dimensionally. More ADHD symptoms predicted fewer high-effort choices in a hypothetical treadmill-for-money task; greater effort discounting was associated with sedentary behaviour. In the actual button-pressing task, reward probability, money, fatigue and medication status influenced decisions, but ADHD symptoms were not independently significant. Medication comparisons were observational. This supports examining anticipated effort in lifestyle implementation; it does not establish cognitive-effort aversion, a dopamine mechanism, or intervention efficacy.
Barack, D. L., Ludwig, V. U., Parodi, F., Ahmed, N., Brannon, E. M., Ramakrishnan, A., & Platt, M. L. (2024). Attention deficits linked with proclivity to explore while foraging. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 291(2017), 20222584. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.2584
Read source 16
Study notes
Preregistered online virtual berry-foraging experiment, 457 US adults, mean age 45.63. ADHD screen-positive participants left depleting patches earlier and earned higher reward rates. More exploratory behaviour was closer to optimal patch-leaving timing in this setting. Screen-positive status was unusually common: 206/457 (45%); these were symptom screens, not verified clinical diagnoses. Supports a context-dependent advantage for exploration. Adaptation, evolutionary selection and real-world occupational advantage remain interpretations rather than experimentally established conclusions.
Hargitai, L. D., Laan, E. L. M., Schippers, L. M., Livingston, L. A., Fairchild, G., Shah, P., & Hoogman, M. (2025). The role of psychological strengths in positive life outcomes in adults with ADHD. Psychological Medicine, 55, e278. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291725101232
Read source 17
Study notes
Matched cross-sectional online study: 200 UK adults reporting a formal ADHD diagnosis and meeting symptom-screen criteria, versus 200 controls. ADHD participants endorsed ten strengths more strongly, including creativity, hyperfocus, humour, spontaneity and broad interests. Groups had similar strengths knowledge and use. Greater knowledge of personal strengths was associated with better wellbeing, quality of life and fewer mental-health symptoms in both groups. Self-reported strengths and correlational outcomes; not objective proof of superior creativity or a strengths-treatment trial.
Dwyer, P., Williams, Z. J., Lawson, W. B., & Rivera, S. M. (2024). A trans-diagnostic investigation of attention, hyper-focus, and monotropism in autism, attention dysregulation hyperactivity development, and the general population. Neurodiversity, 2. https://doi.org/10.1177/27546330241237883
Read source 18
Study notes
Online adult survey, N=492: 122 ADHD-only, 141 autistic-plus-ADHD, 130 autistic-only and 99 comparison participants, ages 18–75 overall. Identification combined self-report and screen criteria; 93/122 ADHD-only and 118/141 combined participants reported diagnoses. Neurodivergent groups reported greater hyperfocus; hyperfocus also coexisted with more inattention/distraction. Enjoyment and productivity varied, and excessive engagement had costs. Supports varied regulation of attention and interest-related engagement, not an exclusively interest-based neural system or uniformly beneficial hyperfocus.
Atkinson, A. L., Pinheiro Sanchez, B., Warburton, M., Allmark, H., & Allen, R. J. (2025). The ability to direct attention in working memory is not impaired in adults with symptoms of ADHD. Journal of Attention Disorders, 29(9), 684–705. https://doi.org/10.1177/10870547251330039
Read source 19
Study notes
Two online experiments analysed 65 and 68 UK adults aged 18–35. Symptom groups combined self-identification and ASRS screening; 27/70 reported formal diagnoses. Valuable visual-memory items were prioritised similarly across groups, with and without trial feedback, at a cost to less-valued items. Points were notional, not monetary rewards. This establishes a specific preserved allocation process, not intact overall memory or every attentional function. Selection, mixed diagnostic status and short laboratory tasks limit generalisation. Full primary methods and results read.
Groen, Y., Priegnitz, U., Fuermaier, A. B. M., Tucha, L., Tucha, O., Aschenbrenner, S., Weisbrod, M., & Garcia Pimenta, M. (2020). Testing the relation between ADHD and hyperfocus experiences. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 107, 103789. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2020.103789
Read source 20
Study notes
Survey study with 1,124 nonclinical adults and 78 diagnosed ADHD adults compared with 78 matched controls. Clinical groups did not differ overall in hyperfocus occurrence, frequency, duration or pervasiveness; ADHD participants reported fewer educational/social contexts. Trait associations in the nonclinical sample were weak. Material contrary finding alongside studies reporting more ADHD hyperfocus. Definitions and motivational contexts may matter, but that explanation remains interpretation. Primary abstract and university record verified; full publisher PDF retrieval was blocked.
Bowen, A., & Horlin, C. (2026). Absorbed, trapped, or lost? A qualitative investigation of hyperfocus experiences in ADHD adults. Neurodiversity. Published online 8 August 2026. https://doi.org/10.1177/27546330261469762
Read source 21
Study notes
Interviews with seven UK adults aged 21–58, four formally diagnosed and three considering or awaiting assessment; collected November 2023. Accounts linked interest and sometimes urgency with intense absorption, limited control over onset/cessation and subsequent physical, psychological or social costs. Helps distinguish engagement from the ability to regulate and release it. Very small convenience sample, subjective retrospective accounts and theory-informed analysis cannot estimate prevalence or prove mechanisms. Full primary methods and analysis read.
Kallweit, C., Paucke, M., Strauß, M., & Exner, C. (2021). Adult ADHD: Influence of physical activation, stimulation, and reward on cognitive performance and symptoms. Journal of Attention Disorders, 25(6), 809–819. https://doi.org/10.1177/1087054719845050
Read source 22
Study notes
Within-person manipulations in 36 clinically diagnosed adults and 36 matched controls. Monetary reward/feedback increased reported motivation but did not improve inhibition-task performance; brief cycling did not improve selective-attention performance. Subjective responses differed from objective performance, and a stress-ball arousal manipulation failed. Small, mostly nonsignificant effects, task ceiling and mixed medication status limit inference. Useful contrary evidence to assuming incentives or stimulation reliably remove executive difficulty. Full primary methods, results and limitations read.
Orban, S. A., Blessing, J. S., Sandone, M. K., Conness, B., & Santer, J. (2026). Why are individuals with ADHD more prone to boredom? Examining attention control and working memory as mediators of boredom in young adults with ADHD traits. Journal of Attention Disorders, 30(1), 8–22. Published online 29 July 2025. https://doi.org/10.1177/10870547251356723
Read source 23
Study notes
Cross-sectional comparison of 31 young adults with high ADHD traits and 57 without, mean age 19.1. Greater boredom proneness accompanied weaker attention-control and working-memory factors; statistical mediation accounted for small portions of the association. Symptom-defined university sample, extreme-group selection and simultaneous measurement limit causal interpretation and can inflate group effect size. Supports investigating cognitive demands as well as task interest. Primary publisher abstract verified; full paper was paywalled. Online publication was in 2025, final volume in 2026.

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