Curious if anyone has tips on ADHD and jobs based around billable hours that require detailed time tracking. I find timers extremely difficult and stressful, and I've taken to writing down what I've done each day as I work, along with timestamps.
Ask HN: People with AD(H)D, how do you deal with it?
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Re: Ask HN: People with AD(H)D, how do you deal with it?
#12Curious if anyone has tips on ADHD and jobs based around billable hours that require detailed time tracking. I find timers extremely difficult and stressful, and I've taken to writing down what I've done each day as I work, along with timestamps.
I found Timely https://memory.ai/timely useful for my case.
Re: Ask HN: People with AD(H)D, how do you deal with it?
#13I asked the same question couple years back and got quite a few good tips and advices: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19989627
Re: Ask HN: People with AD(H)D, how do you deal with it?
#14Curious if anyone has tips on ADHD and jobs based around billable hours that require detailed time tracking. I find timers extremely difficult and stressful, and I've taken to writing down what I've done each day as I work, along with timestamps.
I write down the time when I switch tasks, and also I try not to switch between many different tasks/issues.
As for the details, the app we use for time tracking has a calendar input interface which is precise upto 5 mins, with all our gitlab issues synced as billable tasks, so that is pretty straightforward.
Also, I tend to leave a small note on what part I worked on so that when looking back the time is justified. If you don't have that maybe drawing bars on google calendar in a separated "billing" calendar could help.
Keep in mind, that when it comes to being very punctual on time you can play the politics back (e.g. when managers hammer on clocking in on time, you get to clock out on time too) and claim budget for work items that took shorter than expected.
Re: Ask HN: People with AD(H)D, how do you deal with it?
#15I prefer to split tasks into two types.
Marathons. So if I'm not over-tired and I've had my morning coffee, and a good night's sleep, I will do a marathon session of 4-5 hours of solid work, no interruptions apart from social media feeds where I need to know what's going on in the world so I have context for what I'm working on. (If Github's down for example, I need to know that).
Sprints. These are smaller tasks that take 5-10 minutes, but I treat them as micro-habits that compound over time, or in other words; many-littles-make-a-lot and the desired outcome reveals itself over longer periods of time.
It's good to know which mode you're in, because with ADHD, you need to pre-allocate time-frames to the important things and know when you're in sprint-mode vs marathon-mode. Some people mix them up and end up doing 4-5 hours on something that should be a 5-10 min sprint, and needs to be incrementally improved on over a long duration (we're talking months or years of progress here).
Re: Ask HN: People with AD(H)D, how do you deal with it?
#16[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: People with AD(H)D, how do you deal with it?
#17The only way that has ever worked for me is always having enough amphetamine
I was undiagnosed until 20's and tried literally everything, I have an entire library of self-help and motivation books. Nothing helped.
Re: Ask HN: People with AD(H)D, how do you deal with it?
#18Put yourself in a crucible situation. You'd be surprised how effective it is. I have managed to set myself up that way, and even I'm surprised at how much I've grown in a matter of months. As a direct result, I sleep well and have a positive outlook on the future.
What do you mean by this? I'm a little confused as to what an example of a productive "crucible situation" may be.