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Ask HN: I have diagnosed ADHD and cannot work with Slack anymore – advice?

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Re: Ask HN: I have diagnosed ADHD and cannot work with Slack anymore – advice?

#131

Post by dpbriggs »

dahdum wrote: post #78

I started using 4 virtual desktops to manage distractions many years ago and it’s worked wonderfully for me. Desktop 1 is for chat, email, Spotify, and general web browsing. Desktop 2 is for software development only, nowadays VSCode. A separate browser profile is used here and only for development related browsing (docs, stack overflow, live testing). Desktop 3 is data and system administration. Remote terminals, Ex…

I've had this exact setup for nearly a decade. Sometimes Slack (or Google Chat) ends up on desktop four.

It really cuts down on distractions.

Re: Ask HN: I have diagnosed ADHD and cannot work with Slack anymore – advice?

#132

Post by 8note »

If you have ADHD and can't concentrate when people are trying to contact you all the time, you should be that person who is unreachable.

That doesn't mean you can't set expectations to help people figure out how to contact you, or give escalation paths if somebody does need you immediately

Re: Ask HN: I have diagnosed ADHD and cannot work with Slack anymore – advice?

#134

Post by NotPractical »

roxgib wrote: post #98
tomxor wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> or the classic "it does not exist, you're just a slacker, pharma is just trying to sell you some drugs" I don't think it doesn't exist, I think it's not a useful label. Partly due to the way it's treated as a long term issue that should be addressed with drug use, and partly because it can often be unhelpful to the individual's own psychological state, some people flip into an "i'm broken" mode and stay hidden behi…

> it's treated as a long term issue that can only be addressed with drug use. But that's what it is? Drugs aren't the only treatment, but they are by far the most effective.

They are effective at first, and then you become tolerant and either need to increase your dosage for the same effect, or take a break (which can be difficult to suffer through because now you're operating at less than baseline functioning until homeostasis kicks in, which can take a week or longer). And e.g. Adderall was only released in 1996, so there hasn't been much time to study the long-term effects.

This happens with most drugs, not just for ADHD. Even caffeine (another kind of CNS stimulant, but less potent). Remember your first cup of coffee, how nice and awake you felt after you drank it?

Please don't take this the wrong way, btw. This is coming from someone who was also diagnosed with ADHD but stopped taking the meds because I didn't think they were worth it in the long term. I just drink coffee and take occasional week-long coffee breaks now. But everyone's different and I'm sure these drugs are an absolute necessity for some people, despite the risks.

Re: Ask HN: I have diagnosed ADHD and cannot work with Slack anymore – advice?

#135

Post by kleiba »

Frankly, how does anybody get any work done in such a setup?

Long gone seem to be the days when Joel Spolsky was arguing for uninterrupted work as a key factor to getting things done [1]. It's even one of the 12 points on his test.

https://www.geekwire.com/2016/just-shut-let-devs-concentrate...

Re: Ask HN: I have diagnosed ADHD and cannot work with Slack anymore – advice?

#136

Post by jupp0r »

I don't have (diagnosed) ADHD, but this keeps me sane:

1. mute all @here or @channel notifications. Those are almost never critical. If somebody needs you to do something, they'll DM you.

2. pick a handful of channels that are important and mute all others (in that they don't show up as having unread messages). Those are the channels that you'll want to read all messages in.

3. Block 1-3 daily calendar entries with 15 minutes in them in your calendar for Slack time. This is the time where you will read the messages from 2. and respond. Feel free to extend the time blocks if you need to if it's up and you aren't done. You'll look at channels in 2. outside of these time blocks.

4. If there is something urgent going on (ie production outage), you'll deviate from this and that's fine.

Re: Ask HN: I have diagnosed ADHD and cannot work with Slack anymore – advice?

#137

Post by TrevorJ »

Here's what I have found helps:

1. Mute any channel that you don't absolutely need to have active.

2. Use the slack-calendar integration if it's available for whatever calendar solution your team uses.

3. Add meetings in your calendar for yourself for doing work. Many people at my company will label these as "focus time", "Heads down on project work" or the like.

Depending on the slack integration, it will show that you are in a meeting. If not you can set your status to something like suggested above, and you can mute your notifications for the duration.

I'll often additionally let the people I work closest with know how they can get hold of me if something is truly urgent "Hey, I go super heads down on project work from 12-5 most days, if something super urgent comes up you can call me at ###-####".

Re: Ask HN: I have diagnosed ADHD and cannot work with Slack anymore – advice?

#138

Post by eloisius »

8note wrote: post #132

If you have ADHD and can't concentrate when people are trying to contact you all the time, you should be that person who is unreachable. That doesn't mean you can't set expectations to help people figure out how to contact you, or give escalation paths if somebody does need you immediately

Exactly. If you’re constantly available you’ll spend all your time on Slack fielding unrefined queries. “Hey did someone on your team touch X recently, because blah blah blah.” Just turn off notifications and ignore it. If it’s important for you personally, it will eventually end up in your email. Let all the people who (for whatever reasons) want to be constantly available be your low pass filter.

Re: Ask HN: I have diagnosed ADHD and cannot work with Slack anymore – advice?

#139

Post by fredgrott »

Assuming that you got some nootropics working for you...

1. Virtual Desktop workspaces 2. Good set of noise canceling headphones(no, not listening all the time just as important to drown out noise) 3. Turn off notifications everywhere, yes even email. 4. Investigate and find good fidget music, mine tends to be music scores and classical music.

Oh, yeah, welcome to the ADHD club. The secret handshake is we do not give a flying fuck.

Re: Ask HN: I have diagnosed ADHD and cannot work with Slack anymore – advice?

#140

Post by TylerE »

hacknewslogin wrote: post #42
mxvanzant wrote: post #39

I think your idea of limiting Slack is great. You can provide an alternative to be reachable for emergencies if needed. In addition in my reading, I've come across some helpful nutritional approaches and these were news to me: http://doctoryourself.com/hoffer_ABC.html http://doctoryourself.com/adhd.html (These articles are geared towards parents with ADHD kids, but applies to adults also.)

I'm getting a lot of red flags from this website. It reads like a marketing campaign to sell the writers books and vitamins. All of the "evidence" is anecdotal. As someone who struggled with ADHD their whole life, it's demeaning to read. "Your kid has ADHD? Oh he just needs some niacin."

Guy is a total quack. Literally vitamins to cure cancer.
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