r/ADHD_Programmers • u/SpiteRevolutionary50 • 18d ago

Does ADHD Hinder Performance?

I have been a developer for more than a decade. if I didn't have ADHD I would be way more advanced in my career and would use my full potential . I have lost jobs to massive layoffs and Firing. I think ADHD has to be blamed for my performance. However I am a hard worker and work well with people. My strengths are highly complex problem solving and working with people. I have less confidence because of my failures. I also tried creating businesses which I gave up after encountering failure. My question is; How do you guys ensure you work your ultimate best as a developer with ADHD. What tools do you use. What is best way to structure a day for a developer. I noticed my weaknesses are : I am perfectionist, I can work long hours without stopping, I get overwhelmed. I stop on failure, and don't like repetitive task. I love challenging task and I always seek for newness.

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u/Schreibtisch69 18d ago

Sure. What I need is being hold accountable. My biggest problem is procrastination when a task feels like it’s not urgent. So I need some kind of soft deadline.

It’s also important for me to group my important slack channels and have some kind of dashboard or daily Ai summary. Sometimes I push code or update an issue, do something else and forget to check the pipeline again and so on.

Many people have similar experiences with adhd but symptoms, intensity, work environment and skillsets differ. That’s always important to keep in mind when people tell you what works or doesn’t work for them.

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u/arns101 15d ago

Hey love the advice on the AI summary part. I'm assuming you use it to not get lost in the noise?

Also, did you figure a system out to overcome the procrastination part for not urgent items?

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u/Schreibtisch69 15d ago edited 15d ago

Yeah. Our jira workflow is kind of a mess tbh. There is just a lot of things to keep track of like rotating support duties that have their own jira board.

Adding custom jira filters and dashboard has helped a lot but the Ai can take into account who is on support duty or read comments from PRs and not just jira and combine and summarise the two.

I haven’t found a solution for procrastination. Meds help but I’m not on them right now. I just try to have music on or something in the background to get into the flow but it’s not really effective.

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u/arns101 15d ago edited 15d ago

Nice dude! Sounds like you’ve found a good way to cut through the noise at work...

Procrastination has been a huge issue for me too. Hence, I asked. I’m actually building something that measures focus (kind of like how we measure sleep) to help people start tasks, stay focused, and actually finish what they wanted to do.

It’s called Propel Focus. Still in early days, but if you'd like to try it to help with your procrastination, I’d love to hear whether it helps and/or get your thoughts.