Inattention is more than being “easily distracted.” It’s the everyday struggle to hold a thread in tasks, in conversations, or in your own thoughts. In ADHD, this pattern comes from differences in executive functioning, such as planning and sustaining focus, rather than from laziness or a lack of effort.

How it can show up

• Starting tasks late, especially unstructured, boring, or complex ones, even when you want to get going

• Drifting during conversations or meetings and needing people to repeat themselves

• Misplacing essentials like keys, wallet, or phone, or losing track of steps in a process

• Rereading the same paragraph and still not absorbing it

• Small “careless” errors that don’t reflect your true ability

• Time blindness: underestimating how long things take and running late despite best intentions