Ask HN: Senior Engineers with ADHD, any mental/physical structures for work?

Exactly! My doctor made an analogy of taking meds with wearing glasses for sight correction: you don’t need to use it at all times, but if you do want to see properly then you do need them.

Out of curiosity: may I ask which medication are you using?

Most days I’m taking Concerta 54mg topping up with the short release (Ritalin) as needed. I never needed to try Adderall or Vyvanse as that combo worked so nicely for me. Some days I want to have finer control and just use the short release.

I cried throughout my first weeks on meds. Finally understanding how calm most people experience their brains was life changing. :)

20mg Vyvanse at 8am + 20mg at 1pm is the bee's knees for me, lasts until 7pm, not too strong, pretty much no side effects and doesn't disrupt my sleep. In fact, the PM naps when I'm on it and sleep deprived are godly.

In my experience perfectionism is one of the meta-stories we use to explain to ourselves why we have trouble executing. When starting things is hard, spending more time on what you are already doing is easier and feels productive. When starting things is hard, learning about all the related sub-projects feels productive and creates a powerful dopamine hit of new information.

I find what works best with the poor time horizon stuff is to spend a bit of time regularly looking at and planning the big picture on a calendar or paper, but then spend the bulk of your time chiselling away at the plan. Forget weeks and months, just worry about today and the next half hour. Break every task down until you can face the starting action. GTD was right about not knowing what to do next will stop you in your tracks. So will not being able to face what you have to do next.

During my most productive stretches I use a combo of digital and physical. There might be an intimidating list of todos in my browser, but my working hours are limited.

I break my day down into 30 minute (25 work/5 break) pomodoros. I string several together if I need a longer block. In the morning I transcribe what I want/need to work on onto enough cards to fill all the blocks for my day. Some things get split across multiple cards. Some cards get multiple items. This process gives me a good grasp of what is in store for the day, which helps minimise perseveration.

Then I arrange them to avoid boredom. Place the hard stuff first for when I'm fresh. Interleave projects because switching between projects keeps me interested. Maybe shuffle some for the surprise factor. Sometimes I also have cards for the breaks. Those I shuffle, again for the surprise factor. Hey! It's snack time! Again! Unless there's something I really don't want to do, then I'll have a doom scrolling break waiting for when it's done. Having a dual digital timer (a physical device) makes sticking to this easier.

If I can't face a card, I move onto the next one. If I reach the end and still can't face it, I try and work out why. Too hard? Too dull? Too confusing? Maybe I switch up the pomodoro and do 5 minutes on it and have a 25 minute break. ¯\_(°ペ)_/¯

The most important thing is making as much of your routine as you can a habit without allowing it to turn invisible. Making it physical helps, but isn't foolproof. Nothing is. We can learn to ignore anything except that we feel bad for ignoring things. Once you can ignore it, you have to start all over again with a new approach. You can delay the inevitable derail by making it as easy and as enjoyable as possible. You do that by making space for as many reliable dopamine hits as you can.

I haven't been able to work on ritalin or adderall. I'm on guanfacine (Intuniv), which takes the edge off the concomitant emotional issues, especially the performance-related anxiety we can accumulate over the years, while being psychically transparent. Unlike ritalin and adderall.

Get a galaxy note based smartphone--you need to get notes and have something you will always have with you to get task notes to feed into your system. Star items that are action items for you. Get a smart watch. The only feature you require here is for it to buzz. You will turn your phone on silent for meetings and miss your task tracking cues so the watch will fix that. Get a private Kanban board and share that with your task lead. Use jira or the like to track your team/reports status. Get access to your project plan. You are trying to create a sense of urgency externally since your prefrontal cortex isn't maintaining task salience/has time blindness. Make sure to get buy in from your task lead. If you have issues with this, request it as a reasonable accommodation, assuming you live in a country that protects disability rights. Set frequent alarms. Set aside time cued by these alarms to a) review your task notes and cross their stars off when you complete or get them into a tracking system. b) review your tracking systems to remind yourself of all the work you/your team must complete. Get a neurologist or your family doctor to prescribe a stimulant style medicine if you can tolerate it first, then look at other options. You need dopamine going to your prefrontal cortex to maintain task salience first and foremost. Your tools and processes are externalizing your executive function. No joke, watch all of Barkley's vids. I have successfully lead teams of up to 20 and teams of teams with these accomodations. They also help with IC tasks to keep me on track for heads down, help the team time.

Thanks to the farm bill, you can look into using cbd gummies to offset the anxiety from dopamine agonists and sdris like adderol/Concerta respectively at a very small iq cost. Find a DO since they are more open to alternative medicine.