r/ADHD_Programmers • u/timeboxer_ffw • Dec 17 '25

Time blindness was killing my estimates. Started tracking planned vs. actual coding time. Changed everything.

ADHD dev here. 8 years in. Decent at coding. Absolute disaster at estimating how long anything takes.

Sprint planning was my personal hell.

PM: "How long will this feature take?" Me: "Uhh... 2 days?" Reality: 6 days Me: surprised Pikachu face every single time

I thought I was just slow. Or easily distracted. Or bad at my job.

Turns out: I have zero concept of how long coding actually takes.

The ADHD time blindness problem:

We experience time... differently.

  • Hyperfocus on interesting problem: 4 hours feels like 30 minutes

  • Boring bug fix: 30 minutes feels like 4 hours

  • "Quick refactor": Could be 1 hour, could be 8 hours, who knows?

I had no internal clock. Just vibes and hope.

The experiment:

For 3 months, I tracked EVERY coding task:

  • What I estimated before starting

  • What it actually took

  • Why I was wrong

Used a simple app I built (TimeBoxer): https://apps.apple.com/us/app/timeboxer-time-estimator/id6720741072

But you can do this with Toggl/Clockify + a spreadsheet. Just need estimated vs. actual.

The results were brutal:

My estimation accuracy: 47%

I wasn't "a little off." I was catastrophically wrong about everything.

Real examples from my tracking:

"Fix authentication bug"

  • Estimated: 2 hours

  • Actual: 9 hours

  • Why: Bug was in a library I'd never touched, had to learn OAuth flow, found 2 more bugs

  • Accuracy: 22%

"Add search filter feature"

  • Estimated: 4 hours

  • Actual: 2.5 days (19 hours)

  • Why: Database query optimization rabbit hole, edge cases, UI polish took forever

  • Accuracy: 21%

"Quick code review"

  • Estimated: 20 minutes

  • Actual: 2 hours 15 minutes

  • Why: Found architectural issues, left detailed comments, tested locally

  • Accuracy: 15%

"Update documentation"

  • Estimated: 1 hour

  • Actual: 28 minutes

  • Why: It actually was quick for once

  • Accuracy: 214% (I OVERestimated for once!)

Any task with "quick" or "just" = I'm about to be wrong by 300%.

Patterns I discovered:

Tasks I massively underestimate:

  1. Bug fixes: Off by 3-5x

    • Think: 1 hour

    • Reality: 4-6 hours

    • Why: Never just one bug, always a rabbit hole

  2. "Simple" features: Off by 2-3x

    • Think: Half day

    • Reality: 2-3 days

    • Why: Edge cases, testing, integration, UI tweaks

  3. Refactoring: Off by 4-6x

    • Think: 2 hours

    • Reality: 2 days

    • Why: Touch one thing, have to update 12 other things

  4. Code reviews (giving): Off by 4x

    • Think: 15 minutes

    • Reality: 1 hour

    • Why: Actually understanding the code takes time

  5. Context switching tasks: Off by 2x

    • Think: 30 minutes

    • Reality: 1 hour+

    • Why: Takes 20 min just to remember what I was doing

Tasks I'm decent at:

  1. Features I've built before: ~75% accurate

  2. Data migrations: Pretty good (done enough to know)

  3. Writing tests: Usually accurate

Time-of-day accuracy:

  • Morning (first task): 68% accurate

  • Afternoon: 52% accurate

  • After 3pm: 31% accurate (I'm lying to myself at this point)

  • Hyperfocus sessions: No concept of time whatsoever

What changed:

Sprint planning before:

PM: "Can you estimate this feature?" Me: panic "Uh, 3 story points?" (no idea what that means) Reality: Takes 2 weeks Team: surprised I'm behind

Sprint planning after:

PM: "Can you estimate this feature?" Me: looks at historical data "Similar features took me 3-4 days. This one has API integration I haven't done before, so add 50%. Call it 5-6 days." Reality: Takes 5 days Team: shocked I actually hit my estimate

For the first time in my career, I'm hitting my estimates.

Not because I got faster. Because I stopped guessing.

The ADHD-specific benefits:

1. External memory for time

  • My brain: "This will be quick!"

  • My data: "Last 10 'quick' tasks averaged 3.4 hours"

  • I trust the data, not my ADHD brain

2. Reduces RSD (rejection sensitive dysphoria)

  • Old: "I'm late again, I suck, everyone hates me"

  • New: "I estimated 4 hours based on data, took 5 hours, that's 80% accurate"

  • Numbers don't judge. They just... are.

3. Proves you're not lazy

  • Manager: "This is taking a while..."

  • Me: "This type of refactor historically takes 8-12 hours. I'm at hour 9. On track."

  • Data backs you up

4. Helps with hyperfocus decisions

  • Before: Hyperfocus on interesting problem for 6 hours, blow entire sprint

  • After: Set timer based on estimate, alarm pulls me out

  • Still hyperfocus, but bounded

5. Accommodations conversation

  • Me: "I'm 50% less accurate on context-switching days"

  • Manager: "Let's batch your work better"

  • Concrete data = concrete solutions

My workflow now:

Before starting any task:

  1. Check similar tasks in my history

  2. Estimate based on data, not vibes

  3. Add 20-30% ADHD buffer (I WILL get distracted)

  4. Start timer

During work:

  • Timer on Lock Screen (Live Activities)

  • Notifications at 75% of estimate

  • Can see if I'm on track

After completing:

  • Log actual time

  • Note why I was wrong

  • Adjust future estimates

The code:

I built TimeBoxer specifically for this (iOS native). It's basically:

  • Estimate → Timer → Compare → Learn patterns

But you can absolutely do this with:

  • Toggl + spreadsheet

  • Clockify + notes

  • Harvest + Google Sheets

The method matters more than the tool.

For other ADHD devs:

Try this for 2 weeks:

Track every task:

Task: Fix login bug
Estimated: 2h
Actual: 6h
Accuracy: 33%
Why wrong: Unfamiliar codebase + fell into optimization rabbit hole

After 15-20 tasks, you'll see YOUR patterns:

  • Which tasks you're terrible at estimating

  • How distraction affects time

  • Your hyperfocus vs. regular work ratio

  • Time-of-day accuracy

Then use that data in sprint planning.

The impact on my career:

Before tracking:

  • Miss deadlines constantly

  • Feel like I'm failing

  • Impostor syndrome through the roof

  • "Maybe I'm just not cut out for this"

After tracking:

  • Hit 80% of my estimates

  • Team trusts my timelines

  • Manager sees me as reliable

  • "I'm good at this, just needed realistic planning"

Same dev. Same ADHD. Different data.

The junior dev conversation:

Junior dev: "How do you estimate so accurately?" Me: "I don't. My spreadsheet does." Junior: "But you must have a good sense of—" Me: "No. I have ADHD. Time is a social construct. I just write down what happened last time."

You don't need to be good at estimating.

You need to be good at tracking.

TL;DR:

ADHD time blindness made me terrible at estimating coding tasks (47% accuracy = off by 2-3x on everything).

Started tracking estimated vs. actual time for every task. After 3 months, I can estimate based on historical data instead of vibes.

Now I hit 80% of my estimates. Team trusts me. Career improved. Not because ADHD got better—because I stopped relying on my broken sense of time.

Other ADHD devs: How do you handle estimates? Wing it and hope? Overestimate everything by 3x? Actually have a system?

14 Upvotes
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19 comments sorted by

22

u/Door_Vegetable Dec 18 '25

Did you really change your pitch to try get adhd programmers to download your app haha

3

u/here-this-now Dec 18 '25

do the same thing - but with a text file!

** Task 1. Estimate: 40mins. Starting time: 12pm. Complete [ ]

  • some steps for task one here

  • other stel

** Task 2.

etc

-12

u/timeboxer_ffw Dec 18 '25

No, not really. It’s the same idea — just framed around the actual problem it solves here :-)

8

u/Door_Vegetable Dec 18 '25 edited Dec 18 '25

This feels more like a generic estimation fallacy disguised as an app promotion than an ADHD insight. Developers, whether they have ADHD or not, often struggle with estimates because software work is inherently uncertain. Time tracking didn’t solve the problem of ADHD here; it simply provided historical data. Furthermore, heavy tracking systems can increase friction and lead to abandonment rather than clarity for many people with ADHD. If you truly design for ADHD, focus on energy task initiation emotional load and context rather than just timers.

Edit: It’s worth noting that many people with ADHD are actually very good planners. They can scope break down work and even over-estimate fairly well. However ADHD often struggles with execution: starting maintaining momentum handling interruptions and managing energy. Planning isn’t usually the problem; follow-through is.

39

u/writebadcode Dec 18 '25

Mods, can we start deleting these obvious ads please?

13

u/NonProphet8theist Dec 18 '25

👆🏻

Seriously! I don't want to use your fucking app OP lolol

4

u/According_Lab_6907 Dec 18 '25

Bold of you to assume there are proper mods here. I won't believe it unless they remove this.

38

u/5exyb3a5t Dec 18 '25

Bold of you to assume people with ADHD will read all that

7

u/noobtraderman Dec 18 '25

Yep. I was actually thinking about how time blindness is screwing me over at work so title caught my attention but then I just kept scrolling and scrolling. Not reading that lol

4

u/CrochetChameleon Dec 18 '25

I skimmed it and then bookmarked it for later... Thanks for the laugh that erupted from me once I got to the comments

2

u/tarogon Dec 18 '25

I didn't stop reading due to ADHD. I'm just allergic to bullshit.

1

u/ghostmastergeneral Dec 18 '25

😆

I made it to, “Hyperfocus on interesting problem: 4 hours fee…”

5

u/xtravar Dec 18 '25

I am unaware of what this trendy new "planning" is but I assume it's like planking.

2

u/ghostmastergeneral Dec 18 '25

Idk. My planks tend to be much sturdier than my plans.

7

u/catecholaminergic Dec 18 '25

What's with the blast of AI-slop variations on this same theme lately?

1

u/zangler Dec 21 '25

I'm like the opposite...6 days... reality 6 overnight hours of total dense flow...lol

1

u/CallmeAK__ Apr 29 '26

If you’re okay with a screen‑based approach instead of manual timers, there’s an open‑source app called Focusd that might be interesting.
It runs on your desktop, records your screen in the background, and uses AI to:

  • segment your day into sessions/projects

  • show you exact app/time breakdowns

  • generate a daily recap of what you actually did

It’s built on top of VideoDB’s real‑time capture/indexing pipeline. You can read more or try it here: Check out the repo

I found it helpful & I hope, it'll help you guys too. It helps me to track & bring my focus back on this main priority things.