1. Tracking multiple small work items, especially the tail end work items that are inherently boring: As a mid level engineer when I was working on a maximum of couple of work items, it was easier to focus on them and track deployments, follow ups with others etc. It becomes exponentially tougher for me once it goes beyond 2 work items.
2. Understanding a mature big project in detail: I have always been able to efficiently work on projects that require working from ground up as they provided extra motivation. I can even handle medium size projects as I can work with a few unknowns. But for huge projects spanning teams worth 100s of team members, it becomes overwhelmingly difficult to focus on my subproject without trying to understand everything it touches upon. Maybe it's a result of perfectionist tendencies, maybe it's because I have problems starting work items with extremely limited amount of scope compared to the workings of the whole project. There are new terms, new things very slightly unrelated to my smaller project at hand that I don't know no matter how much I learn.
3. Relatively efficient multi tasking: Once I get started on any task, it takes a while for me to get going, and even after finishing it up, it takes a while to start on another task as well. I'm extremely efficient once I get into the zone and the task is a big enough unit that only I have to work on. But when the project involves interacting with multiple stakeholders in an async manner, it gets split into tens of small units requiring immense willpower to start and stop. If these units are not big enough, this results in lengthy procrastination times that ultimately reduces my productivity to 10% compared to when I'm working on a single big item by myself. This problem is easily avoidable at junior/mid level engineer, but at senior level these are prerequisite rather than a choice.
4. Acceptance with the nature of work: I have always loved Computer Science ever since I understood its basic concepts. I have worked at fintech companies where the work involved understanding and interacting with core C/C++ constructs and computer science fundamentals to extract the maximum execution speed to give that edge in trading, and that was immensely satisfying. But at senior level and above, most if not all software companies require work that's less research/depth in nature and more planning/organizing/breadth in nature. I have considered doing a MS/PhD but at the moment I want to continue evolving in the role I have.
I'm interested in any and all opinions/points of view here, ranging from "Use X technique/tool to help being organized/plan/etc." to "I struggled with similar issues, and here's how I cope/developed structures to help with this over the years".
My life has never been the same since I got on it. The first few days I had to cry a lot, it was so incredibly beautiful and liberating. It was.. quiet. No more dozens of thought streams at once. Thoughts suddenly had structure. Everything had structure. I could tap into the potential that had always been there, but had been inaccessible. I felt normal. I fixed up my whole life within a few months, organized it (which now even helps when I dont take the medication), took care of things that have been unfinished for years.
And that's only work and organization. My social skills went through the roof too. I started to be able to hold normal conversations, I could listen properly, I could reply properly, and any conversations I have have become just so much more deep and meaningful. My depression and anxiety have vanished completely, for they were only a symptom of the ADD too. I eat better, I sleep better, my apartment is clean. I'm happier and healthier than I've ever been.
There is no real alternative. You can decide to keep on coping, but at some point you really have to ask yourself if you want to make everything harder on yourself than it has to be.
1. Find your medication. After I found mine with the correct dosage, my life improved ten fold. Our dopamine system is wired differently and medication is the basis of treatment to cope with it.
2. Externalize everything: thoughts, events, planning, even your life’s values if you feel like it. Write it all down and build the discipline to keep those updated. Use todo-lists for everything. The poor executive functions we experience can be compensated by externalizing everything, so always organize your thoughts in a notepad. I use NotePlan mac/iOS app and highly recommend to check it out.
3. A lesser commonly known part of being ADHD is that it can also cause emotional unbalance. We can get overwhelmed, overexcited and overanxious easily. Keep awareness of your emotions. Again, write them down.
4. SLOW DOWN. Especially if you are also hyperactive. Try to think and react more slowly to the world around you. Give time for things to sink in your head before taking action.
5. Last but not least: be kind to yourself. You can’t always do everything perfectly. Mistakes are going to happen and that’s normal for everyone. Focus on improving yourself a little everyday and enjoy the present.
If you haven’t seen this video yet, it explains better and in much more detail: https://youtu.be/sPFmKu2S5XY
1. Get your health/medication on point. Find out what medication works for your and take it consistently. You can't afford to lose out on the extra executive function good medication can give you.
2. Accept your ADHD. Flagellating yourself for missed deadlines, forgotten tasks, procrastination and so on will only make things worse. I used to beat myself up about procrastination and it led to a cycle of anxiety that only made things worse. If you have a low productivity day accept it. Take each new day, each new project and each new task as completely fresh an isolated.
3. Record yourself working. Use a camera or a screen recorder. Try to notice exactly what happens. Do you start a task and then procrastinate? Do you procrastinate before the task starts? What triggers it? Is it internal? External? It can feel like you know what is triggering things but getting an actual recording can show you things you would have never noticed in the moment.
4. Inject novelty into boring tasks. Often simple boring tasks don't have enough excitement to make them interesting. Counterintuitively, making a task more difficult can add novelty and help stop you procrastinating. What adds novelty and challenge will be very individual.
5. Make peace with that fact that some techniques will stop working for you and you will need to change how you work. Just because something was working great last week doesn't mean it will work this week.
Good luck!
2. I use Google Tasks and stick everything there obsessively. Some tasks are higher overhead to track than to execute, but not having to make the track/just-execute distinction enables more execution because of how ADHD works for me (choice making induces task avoidance)
3. I have a daily meeting at 0830 where I execute a daily tasks list. Here's the first few lines:
Recruiting platform checks
Greenhouse:
Screen current candidates
Review scorecards
Review Application Review
Write 3 objectives for the day
Clear all Gmail inbox
One off tasks
Review task deadlines
On Recruiting Board
On Engineering Board
Do all immediately due tasks
This is problematic for someone in my position, so I just use the tools to deal with them and I'm able to fairly performant, though it probably sounds silly to many people who are able to task-dispatch much more easily.
I go to the coffee shop and do 3 15-minute Pomodoros every morning. The combination of being at a dedicated place, limiting the work I have to do, and having a stimulant works reasonably well for me.
It’s amazing what you can get done in 45 minutes if you really focus. I struggle to write much—if any—code outside of that window. The rest of my day is chat, email, docs (reading or writing), or making simple one or two line fixes.
I was diagnosed in like the second grade and have struggled throughout my life. I’m in my mid-30s now.
People with ADHD are conditioned to expect that the projects they take on will fail if they do not put in 150% effort. I was this way in school. At work, it should not look like this. You should tend your to-do lists and deligate to your junior and mid-level devs wherever you can. Put them to work on implementation and focus on the high level stuff or fill in the gaps on things that they can't do.
On a personal level, take up meditation. This speaks to training your brain how to slow down and focus. 20 minutes a day of shutting your brain off and just sitting will make the world of difference. Lean on your medication if you need it. It really does make a difference, but it can introduce some behavioral changes that are not ideal if taken for years (for me, it induced manic depression).
You're already qualified to do the work or you wouldn’t be recognized for it. You don’t need to do more. Getting a promotion is a formal acknowledgment of work you already do! This is your chance to be rewarded for it and relax.
Congratulations, also, are in order. It’s really tough for us to thrive with this kind of anxiety and pressure. Reward yourself. Take a vacation if it helps. And keep doing the things you’ve found rewarding and successful.
2. Learn to offload work to juniors. Create tickets and dump them in your backlog. Work with your manager to make sure that "work that is not an efficient use of my time" gets handled my someone else. Anything that drains your energy or seems tedious and can be a learning opportunity for a junior. Use your 'procrastination' as a signal that whatever you're working on should be assigned to someone else.
- I'd recommend anyone to do this (using the same app or another one), but I use Obsidian.md for notes. I'll create a page for each Jira ticket that I'm working on, where I'll include personal notes about things I've noticed (e.g. "When passing in this object I get X result") as well as Q's that I have and any answers that I've been given.
- I use the LeechBlock extension to block certain websites between certain times of the day, including HackerNews and LinkedIn (the latter is a huge rabbit hole for me). Link: https://www.proginosko.com/leechblock/
- I've got noise-cancelling headphones. There's a lot of sirens and honking horns outside of my place and they do a great job at blocking those things.
- If I'm really distracted, I'll move my phone to the other side of the room so it's out of sight.
- I started seeing a psychiatrist in late-January and started taking Vyvanse as a result. At first (lower dosages) I didn't notice a lot of differences, but there was one day to where I didn't take Vyvanse---I was on 40mg and went to pick up my prescription the next day. I was shocked at how much harder it was for me to focus and get stuff done. I asked myself, "Is this what it was like pre-Vyvanse?" Out of all of the items on this list, starting on Vyvanse was probably the most effective thing.
- I got a standing desk a month ago and stand during meetings. Not only is it a bit easier for me to focus, but I'm also getting my money's worth :)
I wish I could say just pick the work that is more R&D in nature and avoid 'secretary' work, but you obviously don't have that choice. Personally I love anything along the lines of Lockheed's 'Skunk Works'[0] program. Pure R&D and risky too, because you don't know if it will work. F7ck around and find out is my mantra.
Is there a reason you put so much stress and was it all worth it? Are you doing it for money, prestige or a combination of both?
Most of the times its always better to slow down and not fight with your condition just to perform your regular duties. Taking medication and optimizing all for doing your job seems like a waste and something that will have its consequences in the long run.
I prefer trello but it is fantastic to idealize what I need to do and sort priority and what to do down the road.
I find what works best with the poor time horizon stuff is to spend a bit of time regularly looking at and planning the big picture on a calendar or paper, but then spend the bulk of your time chiselling away at the plan. Forget weeks and months, just worry about today and the next half hour. Break every task down until you can face the starting action. GTD was right about not knowing what to do next will stop you in your tracks. So will not being able to face what you have to do next.
During my most productive stretches I use a combo of digital and physical. There might be an intimidating list of todos in my browser, but my working hours are limited.
I break my day down into 30 minute (25 work/5 break) pomodoros. I string several together if I need a longer block. In the morning I transcribe what I want/need to work on onto enough cards to fill all the blocks for my day. Some things get split across multiple cards. Some cards get multiple items. This process gives me a good grasp of what is in store for the day, which helps minimise perseveration.
Then I arrange them to avoid boredom. Place the hard stuff first for when I'm fresh. Interleave projects because switching between projects keeps me interested. Maybe shuffle some for the surprise factor. Sometimes I also have cards for the breaks. Those I shuffle, again for the surprise factor. Hey! It's snack time! Again! Unless there's something I really don't want to do, then I'll have a doom scrolling break waiting for when it's done. Having a dual digital timer (a physical device) makes sticking to this easier.
If I can't face a card, I move onto the next one. If I reach the end and still can't face it, I try and work out why. Too hard? Too dull? Too confusing? Maybe I switch up the pomodoro and do 5 minutes on it and have a 25 minute break. ¯\_(°ペ)_/¯
The most important thing is making as much of your routine as you can a habit without allowing it to turn invisible. Making it physical helps, but isn't foolproof. Nothing is. We can learn to ignore anything except that we feel bad for ignoring things. Once you can ignore it, you have to start all over again with a new approach. You can delay the inevitable derail by making it as easy and as enjoyable as possible. You do that by making space for as many reliable dopamine hits as you can.
I haven't been able to work on ritalin or adderall. I'm on guanfacine (Intuniv), which takes the edge off the concomitant emotional issues, especially the performance-related anxiety we can accumulate over the years, while being psychically transparent. Unlike ritalin and adderall.