An Apple Watch now Air pods. ADHD implusive buying is saving and ruining me all at once.

One of the many traits of ADHD that has plagued my adult life is implusive buying. Being a grown adult I am now working and with that comes with it access to money. Couple this with my ADHD brain being inquistive and always wanting to learn means that I am always look at new products and can and will buy them.

And so this happened

October 18th 2021 9:00pm

Apple headline reads “Introducing the new generation of Air Pods”

ADHD Brain “ Oooo whats that new shiny thing, must learn all and want it”

October 18th 2021 9:05pm

Apple Website “New your new Air Pods Pros are on their way”

Music to my ears

In my last blog I spoke about how I bought an apple watch and it was my best implusive purchase yet, well its happened again and I love my new toy.

All of the focus. All of the time

Another magical yet taxing trait of ADHD is my brains ablitity to focus on everything all at once, all the time. This is amazing because it allows me to focus on multiple projects all at the same time and push them forwards at break neck speeds. I have the ablity to juggle many plates and keep them in the air while pushing them higher and higher.

Yet there is a negative to focusing on all things, I get distracted all the time.

My brain will hear something and pick that up and pull my focus there, or see an object and want it. Right now I am sitting in a coffee shop and there are hundreds of noises going on and my brain wants to focus on each one. I get distracted over and over again and get no where. In fact those plates could come crashing down anytime. My new purchase has 3 features that help combat these distractions.

3 life saving features

Thank you Tim Cook for these life saving features, they make being an apple fan boy all worth it.

A little less noise please

The first feature is a pretty obvious one, it’s noise cancellation. The Apple Air Pod pros I have in ears have active noise cancellation which means that the outside noise is reduced and at times even cancelled out. As you can guess this reduces the amount of information that is coming into my brain and thus in turn allows me to stay focus on spinning all those plates higher and higher.

The noise cancellation is not just useful when I am looking to focus on creative tasks like writing this blog but also in the gym. A key part of my ADHD coping mechanisms in the make sure I am contsantly training and exercising hence I spend 5/6 hours a week in the gym. As with the coffee shop the noise cancellation allows me to focus on just me and get the best of the time in the gym, but the headphones help in another key way. MUSIC.

1 single noise will do nicely

The second life saving feature is pretty obvious, the headphones play music. Growing up I was always told to work and train in a simple distraction free environment, definitely no music. This really did not work for me. In a silent room I cannot focus. The silence allows my brain even more space to think about all the things all the time.

What I have learnt is that if I give my brain 1 constant noises it can settle down and gets my focus on. This may be white noise while I sleep, or even now classical music. The constant same volume mucis keeps my mind on the straight and narrow. When I am in the gym I couple this focus with music that make me happy and want to train and I have a winning combo.

They just work

The final feature is a very apple thing. I can open the air pods and they just work (as long as I remember to keep the case charged). As you can expect and as per my brain I have bought many items of tech in the past and I must give apple the credit, their tech just works. When I open the case to my air pods they pair with my mac, ipad and iphone instantly and I can get straight to work. I do not need to try and spend 5 mins getting them to re-pair.

This is really important to my ADHD brain because it reduces the amount of time I can get distracted from the task at hand. If I need to take 5 mins everytime to get my heaphones to pair. Thats 5 mins I get distracted and loss track of those spinning plates. Every moment I can save and get straight to a task, those plates are saved.

Go get them now

In conclusion my implusive buying is not getting any better but the things I buy seem to be helping and they could help you to. If you struggle with keeping focused on tasks try some noise canccelling headphones and try music. I find that the playlist ‘Pop goes classical’ is amazing, the classic music keeps me focused but it’s tunes I rememeber.

Now their are other noises cancelling headphones out there. I infact own 4 sets so you have plenty of choicse and plenty for your ADHD mind to go learn and buy.

Let me know if you use Air pod pros as a coping mechinasm to help with all things focus.