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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?

#241

Post by troebr »

zztop44 wrote: post #144

I don’t have ADHD but I get very distracted by Slack. Here’s what worked for me. 1. Slack app uninstalled on my phone. If I need it for something, I install it, use it, then delete again. 2. Slack app on my laptop fully closed by default. 3. Set times (about 5 a day) to check in and respond to notifications and scan channels. When I was a senior manager with lots of actually important messages these blocks were about…

Unrelated - did you go from management back to IC? Or a quieter management role.

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

#242

Post by clscott »

miniBill wrote: post #201
kbuchanan wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you prevent ⌘+Tab from automatically jumping you between desktops? At that point, the desktops feel like impediments, not boundaries.

There is some software to have a windows-like alt-tab experience, and you can decide to filter to current desktop or not

What is this miracle software?

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

#243

Post by dataminded »

You do want to be that person that is not reachable. There is no value in being available 24/7 unless your job is oncall and responsible for addressing fires in real-time.

Shut off slack, sign-off and coach people on how to reach you. They should rely on batch systems that you check a couple times a day or they can call or however else contact you in an emergency that requires real-time engagement.

You can also do office hours, where you are reliably online and chatting at known and published time.

Slack is cool because it makes everyone feel important in exchange for them giving up their time and productivity.

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

#244

Post by nrdvana »

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 :(

If you really want to run linux, get a Lenovo Thinkpad. They actually test the hardware with linux distros and even have bios options for Linux sleep states, labeled as such. Give the Macbook to someone who wants to run MacOS. The X1 Carbon line is my favorite, with excellent battery life for basic coding and video watching. Also, power options to set the maximum charge to 80% to preserve the life of the battery. (lithium ion batteries last nearly forever if you keep the charge between 20% and 80%) And yes, it has so much battery to spare that that middle 60% is enough to last a day of coding.

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

#245

Post by cjamesd »

I have regained a lot of focus by using the Unread filter. I don't think it's on by default, you have to go into settings. I use it to mark the events in my day where I go to slack. I just hit the unread filter, read through all that I need or want to, respond, and then decide if I'm going to be in slack for a while (e.g. A conversation that will be having a lot of back of forth) or if I can safely context switch back to whatever I was doing or something new. The Unread filter has keyboard shortcuts too, so you can navigate stuff quickly.

This may also be an opportunity to raise the issue. If it's not your style to be direct about it, consider just asking in your team channel for advice on this very issue. Maybe it's an important conversation to open up at your workplace.

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

#246

Post by mirekrusin »

cjamesd wrote: post #245

I have regained a lot of focus by using the Unread filter. I don't think it's on by default, you have to go into settings. I use it to mark the events in my day where I go to slack. I just hit the unread filter, read through all that I need or want to, respond, and then decide if I'm going to be in slack for a while (e.g. A conversation that will be having a lot of back of forth) or if I can safely context switch bac…

Yes, unread messages is the best way to consume slack.

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

#247

Post by jareklupinski »

LocalPCGuy wrote: post #159
jareklupinski wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've completely forgotten about the era when anyone could screen their own calls with the equipment they already had, they just needed to figure out "oh I should let _every_ call go to voicemail after one ring and wait to hear who it actually is first" How did we go backwards? rhetorical question, but can we bring it back with what we currently have?

I have that on my Pixel phone, if it detects a number that isn't in my contacts, it'll auto-screen the call and provide me with a text transcript of their response. I can see what the person says and choose to answer or let them just continue on to leave a message. And if it thinks it's actually a spam call, I don't even get it ringing, it just quietly "handles" it (but obviously takes a message so I can call back if…

ah, that's neat! on my iphone the only option is to send all calls that aren't in my contacts to voicemail, which is just me saying "please send me a text message"

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

#248

Post by bezier-curve »

paulryanrogers wrote: post #157
zztop44 wrote: post #144

I don’t have ADHD but I get very distracted by Slack. Here’s what worked for me. 1. Slack app uninstalled on my phone. If I need it for something, I install it, use it, then delete again. 2. Slack app on my laptop fully closed by default. 3. Set times (about 5 a day) to check in and respond to notifications and scan channels. When I was a senior manager with lots of actually important messages these blocks were about…

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.

I tried this myself years ago and my previous boss complained because my status was not showing up as online. This was well before 2020 when remote work was not as common as it is now, so I'm still a little annoyed by that. Also open offices, they're the physical version of Slack.

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

#249

Post by dangus »

zztop44 wrote: post #144

I don’t have ADHD but I get very distracted by Slack. Here’s what worked for me. 1. Slack app uninstalled on my phone. If I need it for something, I install it, use it, then delete again. 2. Slack app on my laptop fully closed by default. 3. Set times (about 5 a day) to check in and respond to notifications and scan channels. When I was a senior manager with lots of actually important messages these blocks were about…

This is pretty good advice. I'll add onto this:

- Your company is idiotic in how they use Slack. With what I assume is a large company (1000+ channels) teams shouldn't have to respond to mentions with the possible exception of people directly on your team. Suggest/insist that the team implement a formal request intake system and actively discourage mentions. On my SRE team, we directly told other teams that Slack was not a method to request that work be done, and that all requests via Slack would be ignored. Our public channel was for asynchronous informational questions only (and please read the docs first). If your team has an on-call obligation, it shouldn't be implemented through Slack mentions, it should be through a defined incident management process with the appropriate policies and tools designed for that job.

- Remember that you have a diagnosed condition that can be considered a disability and that your employer must by law make reasonable accommodations for it if you live in the USA. You should insist on being provided a method of work that accommodates you (and you're not even asking for anything that costs money). If you get pushback on this Slack situation, insist in writing that this is a disability issue and you are formally requesting a disability accommodation and include HR on your request. (It's true that HR is there to protect the company and not you, and in this situation that's exactly what they'll do: protect the company from an ADA lawsuit by accommodating your disability)

To be quite honest I'm not even sure your ADHD is actually the problem here. Your company sounds like a nightmare.

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