[HN Gopher] Ask HN: Devs with ADHD do you use specialized tooling?
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Ask HN: Devs with ADHD do you use specialized tooling?
People with ADHD, have you ever tried dev tooling to organize or
aid with your short attention span? Yuval
Author : yuvalsteuer
Score : 11 points
Date : 2022-10-20 20:47 UTC (2 hours ago)
| capableweb wrote:
| Best tool I found against it is two parts A) split tasks into
| smaller pieces, probably smaller than what your peers do, as it's
| easier to progress when you can complete things in smaller
| sittings and B) do tasks in various disciplines if possible,
| where they differ a bit more than just programming tasks.
|
| It helps a lot if your workplace can accommodate you a bit on the
| latter. Previously I've been jumping around on tasks related to
| code, testing, infrastructure, documentation and customer
| support, just to be able to avoid the feeling of boreness and
| repetition.
|
| Working as a consultant and starting my own businesses also
| helped a lot as then I'm free to work on whenever basically, as
| long as the contract you accept are not longer than a few months
| and you do enjoy all aspects of running a business for example.
|
| But no, no specific software or so, just methodology.
| fragmede wrote:
| given the emotional intensity surfacing from trauma surrounding
| ADHD, I've found breaking tasks into absolutely trivial piece's
| is sometimes necessary to make any progress.
|
| Task 1: open VS code.
| yuvalsteuer wrote:
| A) for me was extremely powerful, aswell as non-linear progress
| work like research where most of the progress is offline.
|
| Thanks for this awesome comment!
| _boffin_ wrote:
| Truthfully, I just let it run wild. I take my medication and also
| caffeine (I know... I know...)
|
| I know I'm underperforming what I'm capable of by a long shot,
| but still doing decent enough.
|
| Things I do though: - notes in meetings with who is in
| attendance, primary topics, resolutions, etc. - collect a
| boatload of pdfs and resources. - I'm not going to remember the
| formula or whatever for most things, but I do remember where I
| can find the information that will show me the formula.
| sph wrote:
| I use Todoist. I try to add almost everything I have to do in a
| day in it, because I enjoy the small release of dopamine when I
| cross things out, however small they are.
|
| I hate the modern trend of rainbow vomit colour themes in
| editors. There is no reason to have 25 colours on the screen for
| keywords, strings, arrays, variables, constants, etc. Consumes
| too much brain CPU time for nothing, so I tend to prefer
| minimalistic themes, which are very rare to find.
|
| Brown noise to concentrate, pacing around the house when doing
| deep thinking, I listen to fast paced psytrance when I'm in the
| flow but I don't need to think too much. But 99% of the time,
| silence is better. Nature sounds would be best, still working on
| it.
|
| Unmedicated I am a person with a ton of great ideas than never go
| anywhere. Finding a productive balance requires very careful
| monitoring of diet, medication, mood management, sunlight and
| sleep. Change one of these slightly, and it's probably going to
| be an unproductive day.
|
| Lastly, just accepting that 9-to-5 or commuting like a regular
| person is just not for me. Freelance work is best, because I
| don't know how to switch off and I get my best ideas whenever I
| least expect it, like scrolling cat pictures and figuring out the
| solution for yesterday's problem. The subconscious mind is always
| working on something.
|
| If you want the best advice I could give you: do not trust your
| memory. ADHD memory is terrible. Write stuff down. Use calendars,
| alarms and reminders. Get a small A4 whiteboard and write
| anything down. DO NOT rely on your memory. Outsource it.
| rslabbert wrote:
| On a slightly different track to the other comments but make the
| computer work for you. Reduced memory retention means using good
| static types, lots of tests, and libraries/APIs that are hard to
| use incorrectly are an enormous benefit.
| fragmede wrote:
| this is probably small in the scheme of things, but working
| memory is known to often be poor in sufferers. This my computer
| configuration has no-auto-raise, so I can have a window in the
| foreground, whilst typing into a window behind it. what this
| allows me to do is not have to short-term-memorize eg variable or
| function names, I can type into the destination while looking
| directly at the source window. Works on Linux; won't work on Mac
| due to the way their menu bar works.
| tapoxi wrote:
| I use https://selfcontrolapp.com/ to block websites that offer a
| quick dopamine hit, like HN. I put my phone in do-not-disturb
| mode. I block focus time on Google Calendar and set myself to be
| DND on Slack during that time.
|
| Jira actually helps, but I set some time aside to organize it,
| typically when I know I can be interrupted because it doesn't
| require much focus. Split every task into multiple subtasks. This
| makes your progress more visible and projects less daunting.
|
| Keep a physical notebook by your desk. I've tried alternatives
| but they're too easy to tinker with and therefore, too
| distracting. At a minimum you need to offload things you would
| store in your memory onto something, and the easier and faster
| that is to do, the better.
| sys42590 wrote:
| a) keep a TO DO list, can be as simple as a todo.txt file or use
| an app. Prioritize things.
|
| b) as others replied, keep work units small enough to be able to
| tick off multiple per day.
|
| c) drown out that noise if in a shared office: Get some good
| headphones, search Youtube for ADHD music.
|
| d) minimize distractions: Don't hesitate to mute your messenger
| and close your mail app for an hour or two to get that focus
| time.
|
| e) Use that TO DO list to guide you through the day, amend it and
| re-prioritize as needed.
|
| f) Try Pomodoro technique. (Disclaimer: I personally hardly ever
| use it, unless the work is truly horrible.)
|
| g) Try to make your work day as comfortable as needed, don't be
| hard on yourself. Ideally you should like your way of work. If
| that's not possible, e.g. you have to clock out to do short
| breaks, look for a different employer.
|
| h) Automate the hell out of your work day, be it with scripts,
| keyboard macros, inbound mail rules. Your life is too short to
| type and click the same things again and again.
| daviddever23box wrote:
| Better use of async communications with your co-workers helps
| significantly.
| max182 wrote:
| Medication. I dropped out of high school because I couldn't
| focus. I didn't really have the outward symptoms of ADHD but my
| mind was always racing.
|
| I ended up eventually getting diagnosed, even doctors who don't
| usually prescribe stimulants prescribe them to me. I went from
| being unemployed and extremely depressed and doing small odd jobs
| living out of a cheap hotel room, to working at a FAANG like
| company without even studying for the interview. I am 26 and
| often wonder what life would have looked like if I got help
| earlier.
|
| Todo lists help. Exercise helps. Medication did the trick for me.
| yuvalsteuer wrote:
| Would love to hear about your tooling.
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