How do you focus while you read/study with ADD?

I have seen this topic touched on a couple times here. I would like to get more feedback from some of the people here on this. I have not seen a doc, nor am I sure I have ADD. I am sure I can’t keep focus, and I figure any tip would help. Here are some of the things I do.
*Play music
Although I find myself focused on the music sometimes, it does help keep me "distracted" so I can read (if that makes sense)
*Focus my wondering
I know I will wonder off into the void, so I let myself take a portion of what I am reading and explore it more in detail. This makes getting through the material take a lot longer, but it also helps with retention of the material.
*Take Notes
I have a composition book to take notes in as I pass info that I know I need to remember. This has worked well, although I have found myself wondering off track as I write, looking for more information (which may not even be related)
*Take breaks
Get a drink, stare out the window, walk around the house, whatever! This helps, but makes the time to read/learn the material take longer.

What techniques do you use?

TIA,
IG

Sometimes, I just put down whatever it is I'm doing, close my eyes, and let my mind wander for a little bit. Nothing longer than a minute or two, but it always seems to help to just let my mind run around freely for a while. Micro-breaks are great too; just getting up, walking around, and getting a soda or whatever can really help you refocus. I've always felt that the mind is a little like a bouncy critter in a cage--sometimes, it needs to be let out to stretch its legs. I think this is especially true of ADD minds, don't you think?

Great tips, IG! Thank you for sharing.

~Alexiel

Usually I have to have total silence to study. I used to really have ADD (it isn't as prevalent anymore) and I used to have a hard time studying. It isn't as hard now because there's really nothing else to do at this school.

White noise works for me.... I turn on a fan nearby and let it drown out other sounds. There are also white noise generators available, but the fan also pushes some air around past my fast, which also helps to calm me (passive stimulation is good for me!).

White noise works for me also, running water sounds, rainforest sounds etc.

How about highlighting reading in different colors? Or using a book mark or ruler to read line by line? You could also cut a rectangular hole out of a piece of paper the size of one sentence and move that down each line as you read, blotting out the rest of the page. You might try reading little chunks a time too. Reading for me is one of the most sensitive areas for ADHD.

Let me preface this by saying that I don't know if I have ADD. However, I definitely have some attention problems. For reading, highlighting helps me a lot. To study for test, I find it's important to be studying actively, not just staring at the information - cover stuff up to quiz yourself, or write notes on the material in outline form. To stay focused on lectures, I find I either have to take a lot of notes if it's a lecture, or else participate a lot if it's a class discussion. Otherwise I either get really bored or my mind starts to wander, unless whatever's being discussed is really interesting.

However, I have a big problem with just getting started on studying - I tend to procrastinate to no end, and if I have a lot of different things to do I just find it so overwhelming that I can't get started. I also can't figure out where to start. I have tried making lists but this doesn't help much, as I still feel overwhelmed and get easily distracted. Does anyone have any tips for this? For me, it is key to the problem of studying.

Kate81