I found microdosing cannabis allows me to focus on one thing at a time.
Ask HN: How do you manage time and goals when you have ADHD
11–20 of 20 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do you manage time and goals when you have ADHD
#12I have tried lots of things. Some lasted more than others, but most tricks eventually fizzled out. Only four deliver consistently for me: * Prolonged periods of extreme boredom (doing nothing, as in sitting down and not even thinking about much) to reset the dopamine baseline. Stumbled onto this accidentally after a 5-day flu when I was in a heavy brain fog and could not even watch sitcoms. Came out of it into a prol…
Your first point is what I came here to say. It seems like thr hedonic treadmill is responsible for most of modern dysfybction in self-regulation.
Re: Ask HN: How do you manage time and goals when you have ADHD
#13I don't. I try to stick to specific goals and limit how much work in progress I have at any given time. Being aware of my impulsive tendencies helps a lot. However for the most part I just ride the waves. I'd rather work full steam towards a secondary objective than at half power on the most important thing. I learned to harness hyperfocus instead of fighting it. This suits the nature of my work. It's a website. It s…
I don’t get your git strategy - don’t you work with other people and have code reviews? And it’s not like branching means more things in progress - you can work on one dev/feature branch at a time.
Re: Ask HN: How do you manage time and goals when you have ADHD
#14I have tried lots of things. Some lasted more than others, but most tricks eventually fizzled out. Only four deliver consistently for me: * Prolonged periods of extreme boredom (doing nothing, as in sitting down and not even thinking about much) to reset the dopamine baseline. Stumbled onto this accidentally after a 5-day flu when I was in a heavy brain fog and could not even watch sitcoms. Came out of it into a prol…
Thank you. i will take your advice.
Re: Ask HN: How do you manage time and goals when you have ADHD
#15I don't. I try to stick to specific goals and limit how much work in progress I have at any given time. Being aware of my impulsive tendencies helps a lot. However for the most part I just ride the waves. I'd rather work full steam towards a secondary objective than at half power on the most important thing. I learned to harness hyperfocus instead of fighting it. This suits the nature of my work. It's a website. It s…
I don’t get your git strategy - don’t you work with other people and have code reviews? And it’s not like branching means more things in progress - you can work on one dev/feature branch at a time.
I have a similar workflow. I’m the only programmer in my office and just use git to make my life easier.
Re: Ask HN: How do you manage time and goals when you have ADHD
#16I don't. I try to stick to specific goals and limit how much work in progress I have at any given time. Being aware of my impulsive tendencies helps a lot. However for the most part I just ride the waves. I'd rather work full steam towards a secondary objective than at half power on the most important thing. I learned to harness hyperfocus instead of fighting it. This suits the nature of my work. It's a website. It s…
I don’t get your git strategy - don’t you work with other people and have code reviews? And it’s not like branching means more things in progress - you can work on one dev/feature branch at a time.
I work alone. Yes, it means mostly working on a single thing, with only a few minor commits in between.
Re: Ask HN: How do you manage time and goals when you have ADHD
#17I don't. I try to stick to specific goals and limit how much work in progress I have at any given time. Being aware of my impulsive tendencies helps a lot. However for the most part I just ride the waves. I'd rather work full steam towards a secondary objective than at half power on the most important thing. I learned to harness hyperfocus instead of fighting it. This suits the nature of my work. It's a website. It s…
I don’t get your git strategy - don’t you work with other people and have code reviews? And it’s not like branching means more things in progress - you can work on one dev/feature branch at a time.
With or without others, it's not uncommon. Even in some big companies (Facebook and Google) teams use this:
Re: Ask HN: How do you manage time and goals when you have ADHD
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don’t get your git strategy - don’t you work with other people and have code reviews? And it’s not like branching means more things in progress - you can work on one dev/feature branch at a time.
With or without others, it's not uncommon. Even in some big companies (Facebook and Google) teams use this: https://www.abtasty.com/glossary/trunk-based-development/
I use trunk-based development too and it's not the same as avoiding branches and working on the main branch. With trunk-based you still do all of your work on a branch - the difference between trunked-based and gitflow is how long the side branches live and where releases happen from.
Re: Ask HN: How do you manage time and goals when you have ADHD
#19Focusmate and stimulants.
Re: Ask HN: How do you manage time and goals when you have ADHD
#20It's a lifelong issue. You can improve but it will never be easy. You don't go to the gym once and say "Ok, I'm fit now!" and it's the same with ADHD.
Are the distractions internal (thoughts) or external (notifications, other people etc)? Try your best to remove or limit external distractions.
For internal distractions, try to notice what is triggering them. This is much harder than it sounds as internal distractions are often based on patterns of thought that we've had for years. The first step is simply noticing and naming the distraction. Example: "I open up my email client. I see 20 unread emails. I feel overwhelmed. I switch tabs to a news website to take my mind off the feeling of being overwhelmed."
Once you can name these feelings you can practice spending more time with them. Instead of following the distraction, take a few deep breaths. Notice what happens to your aversive feelings. Do they get stronger? Weaker? Stay the same? Just like someone working out, feeling the burn and continuing the exercise, you can have these negative feelings and still do the task.
When you've finally got the hang of noticing the feeling and pausing to acknowledge it you can finally start the task. Focus on starting it not finishing it. Small chunks, acknowledging progress and managing your emotional state are the name of the game.