Zoning Out: How to Reign It In

It’s common for individuals to come to work with me and describe feeling that their ADHD is getting worse. As a neurodevelopmental disorder, ADHD doesn’t often truly get worse. However, the symptoms often worsen when under stress. Fortunately, there are ways to help them improve as well. Zoning out has been one that’s come up often recently in my practice, so we’ll write about that today. In this article, I’ll give some tips for limiting the amount you zone out along with some information to help you understand what functional purpose zoning out serves.

Before jumping into ways to reduce how much you zone out, I’ll cover why we zone out. It is something that occurs across cultures. Therefore, we tend to assume that it’s a positive behavior. If I were to suggest that zoning out was a good thing to my clients rather life interfering, I imagine that most would be annoyed that I even suggested it. I’ve worked with many individuals who were wrongly accused of not caring about their relationships or careers because of the frequency that they were zoning out. This created more stress and made the body’s need to zone out even higher. So, perhaps we’ll say that it is something your body does with a positive intention.

Why We Zone Out

• Your body wanting to increase its ability to complete a cognitive task

• Calming down from high levels of stress

  • I like to remind clients that boredom is often a distressing emotion

• Managing an overly cluttered mind

Each time someone zones out, they are likely working towards sharpening their focus, putting outside factors aside, and reducing stress. The primary solution I encourage for reducing the amount someone zones out is to reduce the body’s need for it. You can likely look at the three bullet points above and come up with clever ways to address these needs that suit your life. I’ll provide some options that are research supported below.

How to Reduce How Often We Zone Out

First, we have time in nature or another peaceful environment.

Looking at a handful of studies inspired by the researcher of Rachel and Stephen Kaplan, we have strong evidence that time in calm environments helps to address all three primary challenges that push us towards zoning out. One of the simplest and most satisfying ways to spend time in a calm environment is to go for walks in nature. If you have access to parks, trails, or a quiet garden, I’d encourage any client to run an experiment. Spend ten minutes there a day doing something familiar, such as reading, and notice if they feel better and zone out less.

• A few of the studies referenced include:

  • Hartig, Mang, & Evans, 1991: https://doi.org/10.1177/0013916591231001

  • Clay, 2001: https://www.apa.org/monitor/apr01/greengood.aspx

  • Ohly et al., 2016: https://doi.org/10.1080/10937404.2016.1196155

Second, it is often beneficial to reduce how much you have on your plate.

If you are juggling a lot at once, adding one more thing to your to do list is likely to add more stress and further decrease your focus. Instead, it is often beneficial to complete some tasks you’ve already begun or accept that you cannot move forward with a certain task at this time.

Two others way to help reduce how much your mind is carrying are to share with a loved one what things are weighing on you or to grab a pen and paper and write out all the things on your mind. This can be a surprisingly effective way to put things down that we’re mentally carrying. It is important to note that there are so many awful things happening around the world at this time. Your brain is carrying those even if you feel numb to them.

Lastly, we have providing your brain with unstimulated time to process.

Your brain is naturally quite exceptional at processing stress and organizing itself. It does this best when you aren’t already occupied. Some frequent opportunities in your life may include going for walks, tidying up, or driving. If you are a soul who loves music, audiobooks, or podcasts, it’s likely that you have learned to be more efficient and fill the silence of these “mindless times.” It’s often recommended to reintroduce some silence. This will give your brain a chance to reduce how much it’s carrying.

If you’ve struggled with lots of what’s been talked about here, I encourage getting connected with a therapist. If you are located in any of the states posted below, don’t hesitate to reach out to see if we are a good fit to work together. Click here to get connected.

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Written by Dr. Luke Bieber on January 31, 2026.

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Citations

Clay, R. A. (2001). Green is good for you. Monitor on Psychology, 32, 40. Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/monitor/apr01/greengood.aspx

Hartig, T. A., Mang, M., & Evans, G. W. (1991). Restorative effects of natural environment experience. Environment and Behavior, 23, 3-26. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013916591231001

Ohly, H., White, M. P., Wheeler, B. W., Bethel, A., Ukoumunne, O. C., Nikolaou, V., & Garside, R. (2016). Attention Restoration Theory: A systematic review of the attention restoration potential of exposure to natural environments. Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health, Part B, 19, 305-343. https://doi.org/10.1080/10937404.2016.1196155