I was diagnosed with ADHD at 42. It changed surprisingly little

My whole life, I've had trouble focusing.

I get distracted easily. My mind wanders. If a task isn't what I want to be doing right now, I'll find something else to do. I used to have days when I felt busy all day but accomplished nothing. It was incredibly frustrating.

But I'm ambitious and have a lot of ideas, so I had to find a way around it.

In my early 20s, I started reading about focus, experimenting with habits, and shaping my environment to make focusing easier.

Then last year, at 42, I was diagnosed with ADHD. This surprised nobody who knows me well. The diagnosis explained a lot, but it changed surprisingly little. After two decades of experimenting, I was already doing most of what helps me focus.

Today I want to share what I practise. Everything here I've tested on myself first, and then gone deeper into the science to understand why it works.

Last week was about managing energy. Focus is where you point it 👇

1. Know your prime thinking time — then protect it

Mornings are when my mind works best. I'm more creative, more focused, and it's when I do my best work on the hardest things. For you, it might be late at night or mid-afternoon. The point is to know when your brain is at its best and protect that time for the most important tasks.

I avoid meetings until 9 or 10 whenever I can. I don't open email until 11. Small tasks get batched instead of scattered through the day. Every morning I also pick one thing I absolutely have to move forward. That goes into my best thinking window. Today it was this newsletter.

Alertness and working memory change across the day, and most of us have periods when our brains are noticeably sharper. Don't give that time to tasks that you could do with half of your brain! Top priorities deserve your prime time.

What is your prime time? How can you protect it at least several days a week? What helped me at the beginning was that I would schedule a meeting with myself on the calendar so that it's visible.

2. Design your environment

I can't work from home. Too many distractions. So I got an office. Before I could get an office, I organized a small space in our living space that was only for work.

Even in my own office, I keep it minimalist. Clean desk, clean desktop, nothing around me that I'm not using. Your brain is constantly filtering what is around you, and visual clutter creates more irrelevant information to ignore.

How can you design a space that shields your focus? Try clearing off your desk, finding a dedicated spot purely for deep work, or cleaning up your digital workspace. Your computer desktop is part of your environment, too.

3. Make distraction hard & focus easy

Notifications are off on my phone and laptop during work hours. I use the Brick app on my phone and Opal on my computer to block news and social media.

The phone also doesn't come near me for the first hour of the day. In your prime time, it's better if you create instead of consume information.

The morning is when my mind is clearest, and I don't want the first thing entering it to be messages, news, or somebody else's priorities.

Another thing that I do when I want complete focus is to put my phone behind my back, out of sight. I text my wife that I'm going into deep work mode for a few hours so she knows I will not answer texts, but she can call me if it's urgent.

That tiny move matters. Studies have found that even when people don't touch their phones, having the phone visible can reduce available attention and working memory. Part of your brain is still spending energy not checking it.

The core principle here is friction. Make the distracting thing harder: delete the app, block the site, put the phone behind you, keep the sweets out of the house. Make the good thing easy: open the document before you start, put the book where you'll see it, lay out the gym clothes the night before.

4. Meditate, then empty your head

Meditation is probably the single best thing I've ever done for my focus. You focus on your breath, your mind wanders, you notice, and you bring it back.

You're training the exact skill you need at your desk: noticing that you've drifted and returning. The goal isn't to never get distracted. The goal is to notice faster and come back. Research on mindfulness practice finds improvements in attention and attentional control when people practise regularly. I started with one minute. Now twenty minutes feels easy.

After meditation, I journal. That does something different: it empties my head. Every open loop, half-remembered task, or thought I don't want to lose goes into my journal or my to-do list.

Unfinished tasks tend to keep resurfacing in our minds. Writing down a clear next step helps because your brain trusts that the task has been captured. I don't want to remember what I need to do. I want my system to remember it for me.

5. Be careful what you're training your attention on

Attention isn't just something you protect. It's something you train all day long.

I don't read daily news. I read longer articles once or twice a week, listen to podcasts, and read books all the time. A book is probably the longest stretch of single-attention many of us practise anymore.

I also never argue in online comments. It gives me nothing and keeps my mind occupied long after I've closed the tab. And I try to spend more time creating than consuming. Writing this newsletter requires more attention than scrolling LinkedIn. Building something requires more than watching somebody else build.

I also try not to fill every two-minute wait with my phone: standing in a queue, waiting for coffee, sitting in the elevator. If every quiet moment gets filled with stimulation, you're teaching your brain that boredom is a problem that must immediately be solved.

When it's gone anyway

Some days I lose it. When that happens, I stop trying to squeeze more work out of a brain that isn't cooperating. I go outside and walk, or I do 10 minutes of yoga nidra.

And instead of judging myself, I look at the system. Did I sleep badly? Did I start the day on my phone? Am I trying to do hard thinking at the wrong time? Have I been sitting inside for six hours?

Inevitably, I still slip up and fall back into old patterns. But when that happens, I don't waste time judging myself—I just reset and bounce back quickly. It isn't about being perfect; it's about returning to the work and keeping momentum.

The adventure of the week

Don't try all five things. Pick one, probably the one that made you slightly uncomfortable while reading this, and make it small enough to do even on a bad day.

Not "meditate every morning." Try one minute after you pour your coffee.

Not "protect my mornings." Move one meeting out of your best thinking hour.

Not "no phone." Put it behind you or in a drawer for one hour.

Not "stop checking email." Pick three times when you will check it.

Do it for seven days. Then ask yourself: did I spend more time this week actually doing the work I wanted to do?

As you implement some of these, people will notice. Part of this new focused you is also training people around you to respect your boundaries.

Focus isn't about forcing your brain to behave. It's about building a life that makes it easier to give your attention to what actually matters.

In a world of rising uncertainty and entire industries designed to capture and monetize your attention, deep focus is becoming a core leadership skill. It helps you stay present, diagnose what is really happening around you, act on what matters, and lead even when the path ahead is not clear.

Until next time, keep evolving ✊

Nikola

P.S. Next week we will talk about how to organize your time. What doesn't appear on your calendar doesn't get done!