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Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

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Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#261

Post by makeworld »

TheRealHB wrote: post #54

The Blinking LED, A simple Hack that still works for me after years: 1. Place a tiny LED (red or yellow) by the side of your monitor or virtually on the screen corner. Basically anywhere almost bordering your field of view. 2. Make it blink like a fast heartbeat (120-150 bpm) and gradually slowdown to around 60 bpm (or your slow heartbeat base). Make the slope approx 20 to 60 minutes (you can adjust the best rate by…

Reminds me of this: https://jacobshapiro.substack.com/p/teaching-at-the-brains-t...

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#262

Post by swozey »

flir wrote: post #255
greenie_beans wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

daily check-in throws off my morning too. i have an hour from when i start til check-in, which is not enough time to get into deep work. looking forward to moving to a new timezone where i can take advantage of that timing with two hours before check-in.

WFH encourages scheduled meetings. It's a nightmare. I'd much rather just get an interruption out of the blue than have someone schedule a meeting to talk to me, because in the run-up to the meeting I won't try to start anything (what's the point if I've got a pending interruption?) At least my standups are first thing in the morning.

I don't understand it. My company is fully remote but they are absolutely horrendous at async comms. I was trying to walk someone through adding a docker build process to their CI and.... he just couldn't communicate/understand it through slack and he wanted to schedule a meeting. Great, now instead of being able to respond while working on other things I have to cut out an entire hour of my day just for you.

Thanks.

Beyond that I refuse to do daily standups. I'll quit a company if they won't let me do async or communicate through slack. I'm not logging in and the start of my day being a meeting every single day. Absolutely not. I've been there before.

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#263

Post by sonicanatidae »

tapland wrote: post #222
sedivy94 wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ADHD has little to no physiological markers. As the floor of expectations for attention and executive functioning continues to rise, the rate of diagnosis increases.

One thing I noticed: Other people would get hyper from coffee, I would not. My brain would calm down a lot with the help of caffeine. I would regularly down 3-4 red bulls (diet) in the evening if I knew I needed to fall asleep and sleep well. I'm not sure if it's been studied but anecdotal evidence from others seem to suggest I'm not alone and that some others have the same experience.

Paradoxical effects are not uncommon. My DNA is weird. I have lots of them.

One example, is opiates make me MOVE. Most people they zonk out, not me. I'm ready to move your house, one brick at a time, with my bare hands and feel like I could knock it out in about an hour.

Proton Pump inhibitors are common meds for acid reflux. About 10 years ago, I did a genetics study (I worked at the lab, and my data stayed mine) and learned that of the 7 classes of PPIs available, at that time, my body only works with 1. The others either have little/no effect or similar.

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#264

Post by TeMPOraL »

aeonik wrote: post #213
Cthulhu_ wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ironically, it's easy to forget to put things in a calendar or on a todo list.

More irony: - Forgetting to look at the calendar - Forgetting to look at the to-do list -> Make a different to-do list - Have 10+ to-do lists - Forgetting what the to-do even refers to - Discover emacs org mode, it can link everything together -> constantly forget emacs key bindings - Use logseq/obsidian instead -> forget which names/links refer to projects -> have 10+ aliases referring to different perspectives of t…

Even more irony:

- "Forgetting" to look at the calendar, or to-do list, or your phone reminders, or a list written in large letters on a whiteboard behind your desk.

I seem to have a cognitive equivalent of an ad blocker, my mind will literally erase any task list from existence, the moment I start getting even slightly anxious about it. It's like a magic spell - I can put the list in front of my face, and my eyes will just keep glossing over it, like if it was a tear in reality.

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#265

Post by erosenbe0 »

pc86 wrote: post #209
keyle wrote: post #33

This hits home. I think we need to really take a hard look at today's world of tech and how we communicate and collaborate. I find that, if time allows, I get a massive productivity boost after 4:30pm and everyone is either winding down or leaving. All the sudden, the walls flatten, the horizon deepens and I enter a deep state of flow. Around 10 AM, after an elongated "stand up", I should be ready to go... And yet it…

Such a minor part of your comment, but I simply cannot focus on anything if my apps aren't all fullscreen. I have two monitors, and two applications visible at any time. Right now I have this on one screen and a non-work YouTube video on the other (Your Mom's House is a great podcast btw, especially if you already have YT premium). I have trouble focusing, I don't think quite to the level of ADHD, but it would be so…

That's fairly common. Think back to old school paper workflows or studying for school. Some people can concentrate with 5 books open and papers strewn all over the place. Others can't stand to have but one book open and one sheet of notes.

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#266

Post by deafpolygon »

Had me until "Obsidian" - absolute worst thing ever for my ADHD. Hours spent tinkering ... experimenting with plugins. I was on the verge of developing plugins before I realized: I wasn't getting anything done. I gave up and went with OneNote. The freeform canvas is a godsend for my ADHD (I am able to lay things out spatially left and right), but I'm not able to tinker with it as much anymore.

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#267

Post by atcalan »

You need to have a note capable phone like a galaxy 23 ultra. You also need a smart watch so you don't turn off your reminders in meetings and to forget to turn back on. Redmine and or jira are your friends. Make a list of all expectations and star the ones that are action items. Ironclad once a day go through the list and either complete or transfer into a task tracking system each starred item and then check it off--don't use the list to manage tasks. If you manage others, do the same and set follow up events for you. Never silence, only snooze alarms unless completed. Set annoying alarms or block out time for heads down work to avoid time blindness for when you hyperfocus. Your Ventromedial prefrontal cortex is not functioning correctly and consequently your planning system needs a wheelchair.

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#268

Post by muhblah »

keyle wrote: post #33

This hits home. I think we need to really take a hard look at today's world of tech and how we communicate and collaborate. I find that, if time allows, I get a massive productivity boost after 4:30pm and everyone is either winding down or leaving. All the sudden, the walls flatten, the horizon deepens and I enter a deep state of flow. Around 10 AM, after an elongated "stand up", I should be ready to go... And yet it…

This reflects exactly my day to day struggles. Especially that productivity boost when every one starts leaving, and I _was not able_ to finished the smallest one of my tasks planned for the day 'til then most of the time. I'm writing "was not able" on purpose here, because as someone (being blessed) with ADHD, your brain does not allow you to make progress on the smallest tasks due to all those fireworks being blown around you in your brain.

During my part-time studies (I had a 70-80% employment at that time) the time I really started studying productively was after 9-10pm when everyone around me went to finish their day and the world around me started to go silent and night is coming in. Thinking of it today, I don't know how I would have survived that time without the huge support from my wife back then. So all the credits of me being able to complete my studies go to her!

Nowadays, I would not know how I would get through the day-to-day work without medication most days. That often worries me a little.

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#269

Post by gosub100 »

slipperlobster wrote: post #99
mathieuh wrote: post #92

I used to think I had some ADHD symptoms: growing up I never did any revision for any of my school exams until a couple of days before, all my coursework and projects were done last minute in a week of intense focus, I've had issues with drugs in the past etc. Then I met someone who actually has ADHD and saw them before they'd taken their stimulant drugs. They were completely nonfunctional in any sense of the word, t…

Note that ADHD can manifest physically, mentally, or a combination of the two. I've been recently diagnosed with ADHD in my late 30s after finally seeing a psychiatrist, and at most my physical manifestation of it is minor fidgeting. Where it really burns me is not being able to dedicate brainpower for more than a few minutes at a time, unless I'm in one of my "focus" modes. Similarly, my brain constantly has multipl…

Did you have the inability to read books? I notice that I simply cannot focus on reading a book to save my life. I can read internet comments and articles all day though. If I try to read a book I get annoyed that they're "not making their point" fast enough, especially with fiction and visual descriptions of people and places. I used to just complain about it, but now I wonder if thats actually pinpointing something wrong with my brain (such as ADHD). If I'm reading fiction, I do not translate the word "red" with the color, things like that. And usually within 2-3 paragraphs, my eyes are reading the text but my brain is thinking about computers or what I need to get done that weekend. It's awful because I'm missing out on an entire mode of art but I dont know what to do about it. I've only been enthralled in a book once or twice in my 40 years of life.

Re: Hacking ADHD: Strategies for the modern developer

#270

Post by sonicanatidae »

TheRealHB wrote: post #54

The Blinking LED, A simple Hack that still works for me after years: 1. Place a tiny LED (red or yellow) by the side of your monitor or virtually on the screen corner. Basically anywhere almost bordering your field of view. 2. Make it blink like a fast heartbeat (120-150 bpm) and gradually slowdown to around 60 bpm (or your slow heartbeat base). Make the slope approx 20 to 60 minutes (you can adjust the best rate by…

OMG. I could not do this. I hope it's useful to others, but not for me...at all.

The biggest distraction for me, when working/focusing, is movement at the edge of my vision. You know, like most websites with their moving ads, or fly-out videos that no one asked for, etc.

I'm glad you found your silverbullet, but that specific approach would wreck my productivity.

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