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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?

#141

Post by cptaj »

Please ignore if you're already doing this and/or know this stuff.

I strongly advice behavioral therapy. Not any therapy, this is crucial. Find yourself a therapist that focuses and is an expert on behavioral therapy and work with him to build up the tools you need to survive in this work environment with your condition.

They can help you build healthy habits, drop destructive behaviors and give you several tools to organize and monitor yourself. Basically, build up your brain muscle with the skills it naturally lacks due to your condition.

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

#143

Post by WheelsAtLarge »

nashashmi wrote: post #19
Ilasky wrote: post #15

Founder with ADHD here! I ran into this issue a bunch at my previous job as well. The notifications were always going off and detracting me from doing the actual work. There were two things I did, and do now, that have worked for me: 1. Similar to you, I muted my notifications and opened slack a few times a day. 2. I paired up with someone else to focus on the task at hand (like with Double[0]). I was able to ignore…

Lol. Self plug without the disclaimer. Shame.

I'm not thrilled with the plug but he makes sense. It's good advice.

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

#144

Post by zztop44 »

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 half an hour each (for a total of about 2.5 hours a day). These days I can get away with less than 10 minutes.

4. Block these times in your calendar. At the start of the day, block out the rest of the time without meetings etc as Deep Work. People will understand you’re not easily contactable.

6. Tell your close team mates/manager that if they ever need you urgently they can contact via Signal/WhatsApp. If anyone needs you and really can’t wait a few hours then they’ll ask your manager and be able to get in touch. If you’re really worried about being uncontactable then put your phone number in your Slack bio.

Using that, I went from being totally addicted to Slack to being able to be a productive worker again. Of course your mileage may vary.

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

#146

Post by WheelsAtLarge »

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…

This is pretty good advice. But if you are going to hide the slack desktop while you are working then you should let people know. Otherwise, people will expect a response real time and wonder why you are ignoring them. It's human nature.

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

#147

Post by neilv »

> company that uses Slack heavily. They have 1000+ channels and my team is tagged in a lot of stuff

It's possible that the entire company has problems here -- with communication/organizing efficiency, and with lots of activity that might not be very productive (spending lots of time operating Slack, and being interrupted by it).

You might not be able to solve the entire-company problem. But you should talk with your manager, if you trust them. They could interface sideways and up the chain of command, and with HR -- on behalf of their reports' health and the effectiveness of their unit, and maybe more broadly (depending how hierarchical the company is).

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

#148

Post by wcerfgba »

Lots of advice here about things you can do, but remeber that your work is relational: you and your company can work together to find a solution that works for you. I see this as a JEDI (justice, equality/equity, diversity, and inclusion) issue. Your company should be willing to make reasonable adjustments to accommodate you.

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

#149

Post by kbuchanan »

ansc wrote: post #104
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…

Funny, this is exactly to the point how I have it. Unfortunately I haven't found a way to remove animations on OSX, but works well regardless.

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

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

#150

Post by dahdum »

WheelsAtLarge wrote: post #146
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…

This is pretty good advice. But if you are going to hide the slack desktop while you are working then you should let people know. Otherwise, people will expect a response real time and wonder why you are ignoring them. It's human nature.

If you always respond instantly you set that expectation for the future. I wouldn’t be expected to respond immediately if I were presenting over Zoom, had just left for a bathroom/drink break, on an important call, or was in the middle of an careful process anyway.

It’s not as if I ignore it completely, I can check Desktop 1 for flashing notifications with a simple left hand only Alt-1, and be back on my working desktop in like a second. That quickly becomes as autonomic as Ctrl-l, n, e, Enter when I’m in a browser.

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