People with ADHD, have you ever tried dev tooling to organize or aid with your short attention span?
Yuval
Ask HN: Devs with ADHD do you use specialized tooling?
1–10 of 84 posts
Re: Ask HN: Devs with ADHD do you use specialized tooling?
#2Would love to hear about your tooling.
Re: Ask HN: Devs with ADHD do you use specialized tooling?
#3Best tool I found against it is two parts A) split tasks into smaller pieces, probably smaller than what your peers do, as it's easier to progress when you can complete things in smaller sittings and B) do tasks in various disciplines if possible, where they differ a bit more than just programming tasks.
It helps a lot if your workplace can accommodate you a bit on the latter. Previously I've been jumping around on tasks related to code, testing, infrastructure, documentation and customer support, just to be able to avoid the feeling of boreness and repetition.
Working as a consultant and starting my own businesses also helped a lot as then I'm free to work on whenever basically, as long as the contract you accept are not longer than a few months and you do enjoy all aspects of running a business for example.
But no, no specific software or so, just methodology.
Re: Ask HN: Devs with ADHD do you use specialized tooling?
#4Best tool I found against it is two parts A) split tasks into smaller pieces, probably smaller than what your peers do, as it's easier to progress when you can complete things in smaller sittings and B) do tasks in various disciplines if possible, where they differ a bit more than just programming tasks. It helps a lot if your workplace can accommodate you a bit on the latter. Previously I've been jumping around on t…
A) for me was extremely powerful, aswell as non-linear progress work like research where most of the progress is offline.
Thanks for this awesome comment!
Re: Ask HN: Devs with ADHD do you use specialized tooling?
#5a) keep a TO DO list, can be as simple as a todo.txt file or use an app. Prioritize things.
b) as others replied, keep work units small enough to be able to tick off multiple per day.
c) drown out that noise if in a shared office: Get some good headphones, search Youtube for ADHD music.
d) minimize distractions: Don't hesitate to mute your messenger and close your mail app for an hour or two to get that focus time.
e) Use that TO DO list to guide you through the day, amend it and re-prioritize as needed.
f) Try Pomodoro technique. (Disclaimer: I personally hardly ever use it, unless the work is truly horrible.)
g) Try to make your work day as comfortable as needed, don't be hard on yourself. Ideally you should like your way of work. If that's not possible, e.g. you have to clock out to do short breaks, look for a different employer.
h) Automate the hell out of your work day, be it with scripts, keyboard macros, inbound mail rules. Your life is too short to type and click the same things again and again.
Re: Ask HN: Devs with ADHD do you use specialized tooling?
#6Medication. I dropped out of high school because I couldn't focus. I didn't really have the outward symptoms of ADHD but my mind was always racing.
I ended up eventually getting diagnosed, even doctors who don't usually prescribe stimulants prescribe them to me. I went from being unemployed and extremely depressed and doing small odd jobs living out of a cheap hotel room, to working at a FAANG like company without even studying for the interview. I am 26 and often wonder what life would have looked like if I got help earlier.
Todo lists help. Exercise helps. Medication did the trick for me.
Re: Ask HN: Devs with ADHD do you use specialized tooling?
#7On a slightly different track to the other comments but make the computer work for you. Reduced memory retention means using good static types, lots of tests, and libraries/APIs that are hard to use incorrectly are an enormous benefit.
Re: Ask HN: Devs with ADHD do you use specialized tooling?
#8this is probably small in the scheme of things, but working memory is known to often be poor in sufferers. This my computer configuration has no-auto-raise, so I can have a window in the foreground, whilst typing into a window behind it. what this allows me to do is not have to short-term-memorize eg variable or function names, I can type into the destination while looking directly at the source window. Works on Linux; won't work on Mac due to the way their menu bar works.
Re: Ask HN: Devs with ADHD do you use specialized tooling?
#9Best tool I found against it is two parts A) split tasks into smaller pieces, probably smaller than what your peers do, as it's easier to progress when you can complete things in smaller sittings and B) do tasks in various disciplines if possible, where they differ a bit more than just programming tasks. It helps a lot if your workplace can accommodate you a bit on the latter. Previously I've been jumping around on t…
given the emotional intensity surfacing from trauma surrounding ADHD, I've found breaking tasks into absolutely trivial piece's is sometimes necessary to make any progress.
Task 1: open VS code.
Re: Ask HN: Devs with ADHD do you use specialized tooling?
#10Better use of async communications with your co-workers helps significantly.