Ask HN: Devs with ADHD do you use specialized tooling?

You don't need more tools, you need fewer. And get rid of notifications, sounds, distractions, bouncy icons in the Dock. Mute #general on Slack or Discord. Go minimalist, in work and in life.

I use Todoist. I try to add almost everything I have to do in a day in it, because I enjoy the small release of dopamine when I cross things out, however small they are.

I hate the modern trend of rainbow vomit colour themes in editors. There is no reason to have 25 colours on the screen for keywords, strings, arrays, variables, constants, etc. Consumes too much brain CPU time for nothing, so I tend to prefer minimalistic themes, which are very rare to find.

Brown noise to concentrate, pacing around the house when doing deep thinking, I listen to fast paced psytrance when I'm in the flow but I don't need to think too much. But 99% of the time, silence is better. Nature sounds would be best, still working on it.

Unmedicated I am a person with a ton of great ideas than never go anywhere. Finding a productive balance requires very careful monitoring of diet, medication, mood management, sunlight and sleep. Change one of these slightly, and it's probably going to be an unproductive day.

Lastly, just accepting that 9-to-5 or commuting like a regular person is just not for me. Freelance work is best, because I don't know how to switch off and I get my best ideas whenever I least expect it, like scrolling cat pictures and figuring out the solution for yesterday's problem. The subconscious mind is always working on something.

If you want the best advice I could give you: do not trust your memory. ADHD memory is terrible. Write stuff down. Use calendars, alarms and reminders. Get a small A4 whiteboard and write anything down. DO NOT rely on your memory. Outsource it.

I can simply just agree with this. Keeping a ToDo app as simple as a word doc or sth is sometimes the best way to set good habits.

Also, maybe have an excel file to not loose track of your projects. This article can be helpful as well https://review.firstround.com/ditch-your-to-do-list-and-use-...

Building on many in this thread of keeping a TODO list. I use PostIt notes, usually the larger, lined ones. I keep an unordered list of stuff to do, adding and crossing things off throughout the day. At the end of the day I rewrite my list for tomorrow, then I crumble up the old PostIt note and launch it into the trash can. Its visceral and fulfilling, accompanied by a mini-meditation of sorts to eject those tasks from my brain. I've tried Kanban-like programs and other things, I use them in project management. However, for my personal tasks I find nothing gets it done like a physical piece of crumbled paper, sometimes I jump up and dunk it into the trash with glee. It helps...

I don't beat myself up if I don't get to everything. I don't stress about how long the list gets. Sometimes I'll have multiple PostIt's going with some loose association of long term/short term or project-specific tasks. The important part though is the cross off of tasks (progress throughout the day), and the mental reset at the end of the day of what to start with tomorrow.

On a related note I feel the way people frame ADHD, particularly during elementary schooling, is all wrong. It is literally a super power. I can context-switch and am generally more engaged doing so. The idea of slogging away at only one task at a time in a linear fashion gives me hives. Its not to say I can't do it, but its highly dependent on my interest level with the task and my flow state. However, no matter what happens I know I can widdle a task down a bit in 15-30 minute increments with a context switch to something else, then come back later.

Many coworkers of mine over the year have commented on how I can switch between 3-4 things at once. It's common for me to drop a task (interrupted by someone or my interest level), come back, check the PostIt note, and pick right up where I left off. I think there is some truth in ADHD aligning well to entrepreneurship, product ownership, or senior leadership. The other piece of it is being brutally honest with yourself at what your not good at and finding others who can supplement those tasks. I worked closely with a senior dev for a long time who wanted a linear, head down, deep dive task to sink his teeth into. The four or five less understood, needs some research, maybe a quick PoC, pathfinder tasks, sign me up.

My other tools are 3-square meals a day, 8 hrs of sleep a night, and walking the dog before and after work (helps the mind reset). When the urge to do something strikes, try to follow through with it in the moment, there is a high probability it will be lost/forgotten otherwise.

Thats all I got...

If you use uBlock Origin I recommend exploring the preferences, it has a whole category of filters called "annoyances" which is disabled by default, among others.

For me NeoVim is great because it has zero distractions and clutter. It just does nothing by itself and doesn't try to proactively "help" me. I try to apply similar standards to the rest, with varying success. Muting browser tabs is nice, though I wish I could set it on a timer - I like to forget unmuting things.

I think Kanban boards work better for me than todo lists, or rather they have a better chance at working at all. Might be due to the smooth drag and drop of the tasks once I'm done.

Honestly, before my diagnosis and prescription (which was the “tool” that has helped more than anything), I would probably say org-mode was/is my primary coping strategy. There were two ways it helped a lot:

- in the spirit of David Allen’s Getting Things Done, it became an easily searchable place where I can just brain dump anything that’s bouncing around and feel confident that I can find it again down the road. I have about a decade of loosely organized notes that I frequently refer back to: courses I took, projects I worked on, cheat sheets for tools like tcpdump or restic, etc etc.

- When I was consulting I leaned on org-agenda a ton. I drove my entire life into it: birthday reminders, garbage day, room cleaning reminders, taxes, and then all of the project plans for different clients. First thing at the start of the day I’d fire it up and really easily get into the flow of things.