How To Help the ADHD Brain | Simon Sinek + Jim Kwik | A Bit of Optimism

1 Sept 2026 · 2 min

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1:45

In this conversational excerpt, Speaker A describes the common ADHD struggle of buying many books, starting them, and then abandoning them, resulting in piles of unread material. Speaker B offers practical, low‑tech techniques to help an ADHD brain stay engaged while reading. The core recommendations include using a visual pacer—such as a finger, highlighter, pen, mouse, or any moving object—to guide the eyes forward and prevent regression (re‑reading or back‑skipping). This leverages the brain’s natural attraction to motion, keeping attention anchored to the text. Additionally, Speaker B suggests actively prompting the mind with targeted questions (e.g., “How can I use this?”, “How does this relate to what I know?”, “When will I use this?”) to stimulate the reticular activating system (RAS) and create a sense of purpose and progress. The dialogue emphasizes that these simple, trainable habits can make reading feel more rewarding for people with ADHD, encouraging them to return to books and finish them.

I buy books like they're going out of fashion.
Yeah.
And I've started a lot of books. Yeah. And I can't finish them. And my ADHD, I get very distracted, or I'm like, oh, I'll read, but then I don't. And I have the books piled up next to my bed. Literally, I have a pile of books next to my bed that don't get read. Right. Right? Yeah. So for somebody with my funny brain, the ADHD brain, can you give me some tips or tricks to make me feel like I'm making progress and enjoying myself? So then I'll go back and do more of it.
I would say a visual pacer could help, certainly. This is trainable, but you have to pull yourself through the information because your eyes are attracted to motion, right? Like, if you're a hunter-gatherer, if the bush next to you moves, you have to look because that's your survival. Because number one, that could be lunch, or number two, you, you could be lunch, right? You could be lunch, right. Either way. So your eyes are attracted to motion. So when you're using a visual pacer, a highlighter, a mouse on a computer, you know, a pen, your finger, whatever it is, your eyes are being pulled through the information. As opposed to your attention being pulled apart. Using your finger will help you improve your speed. Yeah. The opposite is regression. Regression is backskipping, rereading words. Some people read whole lines by accident. And it's, you're wasting a lot of time. You're not gonna backskip when you're pulling your finger across the page or using a highlighter or a pen or whatever. The other thing that could help you get more out of it is asking, like just how we prompt AI, we're not prompting our mind with useful questions. Like if you're reading something and asking yourself questions like, How can I use this? How does this relate to what I know? When will I use this?
So like if I finish the first section, then ask a question that I'm hoping to get answered in the second section?
I, yeah, the things that we let in, there's like a little gatekeeper called your reticular activating system, RAS. It's engaged by what's important to you. And usually what directs that spotlight are the questions you're asking.