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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?

#171

Post by PointyFluff »

NotPractical wrote: post #92
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…

How do you remove the desktop-switching animation on macOS? I'd like to use the virtual desktops feature but the animation is unbearably slow, and I was unable to find a way to disable it online even after extensive searching. Afaik "just use Linux" still isn't an option on my 2019 (Intel) MBP due to lack of support for basic stuff like Wi-Fi and keyboard :(

No post body was provided.

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

#172

Post by carl_sandland »

To think that the decades of email suffering finally ended with... slack. Now I look back at those email driven times with relative fondness. Slack is being used to drive multiple, concurrent SYNCHRONOUS discussions. Left unchecked, none of us will survive in-tact !

I will admit to loving it sometimes (being jacked in) but it always leads to burnout.

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

#173

Post by xyzelement »

This may be less or more helpful depending on your role and company culture.

When you are junior, you better be responsive. The more senior you are, the more important it is for you to own and drive your own agenda, which can only be done by consciously ignoring a ton of noise (or even valuable signal, if it's not valuable to your agenda). I can imagine this is even more important with ADHD.

The way I run my work life is, I have a document of 10-15 key things that are on my radar to push, out of which 3-4 are on my "crush first" list.

These are really important, strategic, big things. I remind myself that if I get these done but nothing else it would be a huge win. On the other hand, of I get a lot done of random stuff but not these, it's a fail.

That gives me licence to tune out the noise that isn't relevant to my goals. And to politely decline meetings, etc. Don't get me wrong, if a senior leader wanted to talk about something that's not on my list, I won't decline that meeting - but I assume that because he or she is voting with their time, it's probably actually important.

What I am getting at here is that if you define a valuable agenda, you can operate in a more 'pull' than 'push' way - meet with people and follow channels that you know ahead of time are relevant to the 3 things you care about today, and give yourself licence to ignore the rest.

Your manager can be helpful here. Meet w him/her and say: these are the 15 things on my radar, of which these 3 are top priority. Is that right?

If your manager confirms (or corrects) your priorities, it gives you some licence to ignore other stuff too.

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

#174

Post by cwkoss »

smileybarry wrote: post #45

I tweak my Slack pretty heavily to suit my ADHD but 90% of it is: turn off (desktop) notifications entirely. Not "sometimes", all of it. (I just set Windows to DND so I still get Slack's red dot) I notice the red dot as soon as it appears anyway, but the lack of bigger visuals & audio means if I'm actually focused (and don't notice the red dot) I don't get yanked out of it. The other 10% is: * Mute unnecessary channe…

My mobile slack can make notifications but can't make any sounds. Feels like a good level of 'can get in touch' without disrupting me when I'm not looking at my phone for a while.

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

#175

Post by bootloop »

jasonhansel wrote: post #99
rqmedes wrote: post #48

Not related to slack, but managing your ADHD symptoms. Look into a low oxalate diet, it really helped me and my children. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21911305/ https://www.greatplainslaboratory.com/articles-1/2015/11/13/... https://korunutrition.com/autism-low-oxalate-diet/ https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/vegetarianism-and...

OP didn't ask for advice about how to treat their condition. Presumably they prefer to hear that from their doctor, rather than from every stranger they mention their diagnosis to.

If the quality of doctors follows the same distribution as that one of SW engineers, taking advice of a stranger might have a similar use as looking for answers on stack overflow. After all, they are all self-taught..

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

#177

Post by cwkoss »

Kuinox wrote: post #47
smileybarry wrote: post #45

I tweak my Slack pretty heavily to suit my ADHD but 90% of it is: turn off (desktop) notifications entirely. Not "sometimes", all of it. (I just set Windows to DND so I still get Slack's red dot) I notice the red dot as soon as it appears anyway, but the lack of bigger visuals & audio means if I'm actually focused (and don't notice the red dot) I don't get yanked out of it. The other 10% is: * Mute unnecessary channe…

How do you manage to not click on the slack icon despite having seen the red dot ? When I see the notification icon, I won't be able to focus on something else until I cleared the notification.

Use the 'mark as unread' as a todo list, so you often have a dot and become desensitized.

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

#178

Post by sirsinsalot »

ADHD diagnosed, continuously self employed since a teenager. Nobody at work would even guess this condition rules every thought and action of my life.

My advice is simple; extend unbounded empathy to everyone and it'll come back. Be open and honest about what you need (though you don't need to specify why).

Find an environment that fosters everyone, neurodiverse or otherwise, to be the complex humans they are while protecting their right to privacy.

The tools are usually not the problem, but their use often points to a cultural issue.

Focus on knowing yourself and the culture you need to thrive. Then find it, build it, champion it, advocate for it, explain it and respect with empathy resistance to it.

People will thank you.

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

#179

Post by themanmaran »

Jare wrote: post #167
paulryanrogers wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you tried Slack in a browser with notifications turned off? Possibly kept in a separate browser profile, so you can quickly open and close as needed? Or even just minimized until needed.

Slack in browser with notifications off, and not at all on the phone (or disabled while not on call) is the only sane way. I will still go to check it quite a few times per day, but I would never survive if the thing is allowed to actively call my attention.

This is the way. I particularly like browser based apps. No concept of hiding out minimized when I close a tab. It's just gone until I decide to open it up again.

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

#180

Post by apodolny »

Changing notifications settings can get you pretty far. Also worth spending time chatting with your manager or peers to understand exactly what the expectations are for response time. It may be that you have a lot more leeway than you're giving yourself.

Here's how I configure my notifications, FWIW: https://scribehow.com/shared/How_to_Manage_Your_Slack_Notifi...

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