121–127 of 127 posts
Momentum! At least for me, productivity requires momentum and being at a standstill feels like quite a hurdle. So at least at first, work on something you're really excited about. Something that won't feel like work. It could be a small project you couldn't otherwise really justify spending time on, but do it anyway. Visualize the end result, get yourself excited, and finish it. Once you've gained some speed you shou…
I have a similar problem which is ruining my life. Not only I cannot focus on my work, I cannot focus on anything. I'm throwing my degree and my life down the toilet. There's no light at the end of the tunnel right now. It's the worst feeling I've ever experienced. I know what I should do but I can't.
what if you try to focus on something that you really want to do and not on something you have to do?. i.e. Plan to visit a new country and work from there a couple of weeks. Something that I did when I felt like that is check all the meetups around town and meet really interesting people that ended up being good friends and help me to see things with a different point of view
If you spend too much time on facebook, it could be because that is the lowest-effort way to keep up with friends you value. Message 4 of them and schedule a time for a phone call. Better yet, schedule a recurring phone call.
There's a lot of factors that might go into this. If you're hungry, sleepy, undersocialized, unkempt, unfit, depressed, in a loud, messy, and distracting office, with unclear and unexciting goals, large monolithic tasks without clear breakdowns on how to move forward, constrained by slow tools, management, or blocked on dependencies... well, it'd be no wonder you wouldn't want to work! Eat well. Sleep well. Exercise.…
> Eat well. Sleep well. Exercise. Dress for success. One of these is not like the others. I can understand emphasis on dressing up in contexts that involve selling -- a product, an idea or even yourself. But what does it have to do with focus?
But if you're showing up to work poorly shaven, wearing stained sweatpants - you're going to be at least a little more self concious, a little less self confident. Nobody's going to lift your mood with "hey, looking sharp!". It's going to reflect in your body language, and the body language in your peers, even if it's largely on a subconcious level.
It's potentially the difference between being ready to walk to lunch, or a meeting, or an interview at a moment's notice - ready to actually tackle the work and the day - vs being ready to go to bed at a moment's notice.
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I can say medication has done wonders for my professional life and has made me much happier overall. For anyone on the fence about trying medication, I would say it is certainly worth it.
Do you have any tips on finding a project manager whom you can videochat or email with and ask for help with the project of navigating the healthcare system? (uk private in my case, though I imagine people in other places would benefit from wider answers.)
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Just because ADHD is poorly understood and often diagnosed incorrectly does not make it any less debilitating to those who have it and certainly does not imply that they are not in need of medication. Yes the medication can be abused by those who don't need it to get an edge. This is what makes it a controlled substance. Opiates can be abused too and have the same effect on everybody. The difference is that people in…
> People with ADHD need medication to function at a baseline normal level. This statement is so out of line I had to chime in. I was diagnosed with ADHD as a child. I was medicated for a few years, before I stopped taking the pills without telling my parents (they were being pressured by the private school I was in to medicate, I was kicked out shortly after they found out I had stopped.) Those years are a complete e…
Genuinely interested in hearing your story.
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> People with ADHD need medication to function at a baseline normal level. This statement is so out of line I had to chime in. I was diagnosed with ADHD as a child. I was medicated for a few years, before I stopped taking the pills without telling my parents (they were being pressured by the private school I was in to medicate, I was kicked out shortly after they found out I had stopped.) Those years are a complete e…
1) have you ever had psychometric testing done? 2) what are you non-medication coping techniques? Genuinely interested in hearing your story.
2. In large part, reminders. Notes, lists, alarms (calendar/phone alarms for _everything_, watering plants to finishing work shit), behaviorally trained prompts, anything to disrupt the "mental feedback loops" where I can find myself "unconciously" falling into something like tearing at my fingernails, reading HN, playing video games, or really any of the infinite things I'll come up with to not do what I should be doing.
e.g. even right now writing this, I'm being pinged to go back to reading PRs: after years of having automated browser alerts going "hey you shouldn't spend time in this video game/on hn, it's been 20 minutes and you have nothing to show." my brain has picked that up and is able to do it on its own. I found that hard blocking didn't work since I'd just find ways around it, but if I can remind myself this is something I _want_ in any way from pragmatism (mortgage) or emotional (getting wife nice things) whereas the games/Hn are actually _unwanted_ (despite what the dopamine might say) it's easier to force myself to focus on something I don't want, even in bursts. (getting myself to internalize and BELIEVE those facts took years and I still fight with sometimes when willpower is low.)
This was a bit of a ramble, and I'd be remiss to mention that the motivation to use the prompts would be missing without the philosophical context I assign to the things I do. (Disclaimer: I recognize not all people can use this technique, I simply use the fact that I have strong long-term motivations against my bad short-term focus) I mentioned it in passing (mortgage, wife, etc) but really finding things I _WANT_ and using my brain's likelihood to fixate on those, especially in periods of distraction, I can tie those things back to what I SHOULD be doing and create a virtuous cycle. Contrivedly: Distracted looking out a window at garden. Fuck, I can't afford this garden if I don't go back to coding. (Dang, this HN post is getting long. Better get back to work so I don't work late today and can spend time with the wife when she gets home :) )