HACKER Q&A
📣 managingahhs

ADHD and Slack


I've been diagnosed with severe ADHD by two psychiatrists and I'm struggling with messaging at work.

I work remotely and we use Slack.

I'll often be distracted by notifications but I'm starting to manage that better by muting and closing Slack sometimes.

But I still have these long threads where I'm talking honestly without thinking took much. I'm very polite and I'm trying to help but I notice I put a burden on my team.

Just last week I told myself I'd refrain from asking difficult questions and today I had a 1 hour thread about a difficult topic. I think it distracted people, especially when they don't seem to care and think everything is fine or can't be improved.

Is there a Slack app or some other method to ask me to think twice before engaging in conversation on Slack?

  👤 keikobadthebad Accepted Answer ✓
Try email... you and the recipient have longer to think about what to say. IM interrupts people and demands immediate attention, like a phone call; that gets old pretty quickly. Email waits until the recipient has time to look at it and they can reply if they feel like it.

Or try talking over a short, intense video chat for a single topic.

👤 dusted
I see IM as a slighly less formal email, I check it when I check it. Teams is what we use, I run that in a virtual machine which shows the lockscreen for most of the day.. I'll check email and IM four or five times a day, when I find it convenient. If it's actually important, people can call (has not happened yet)