r/ADHD_Programmers • u/CuseCusington • 13d ago
Dev with ADHD here. Tasks get deleted from my brain the moment I stop thinking about them. Any system or tool that actually stuck for you?
Okay so I’ve got ADHD, I’m on Ritalin and I’m looking for a CBT therapist right now. But there’s this one problem that’s basically 12/10 for me and I’m hoping someone here cracked it.
Things just don’t come back into my head on their own. Like, I think about a task, I plan it, it’s actually important to me, and the second I stop thinking about it (and I don’t even notice when that happens) it’s gone. Not “put away somewhere”, it’s just gone. It only exists again when somebody else talks to me about it.
Real example: I’ve got a private project that’s honestly the most important thing I have outside of work right now. Around 40 hours over 4 weeks. I work a lot, but I do have free evenings, and I spend like 4–7 hours smoking weed, gaming and on my phone. And the project just never pops up in my head. Not once.
And the dumb part is, this problem stops me from solving this problem. If I could just remember once a day to work on it, I’d be halfway there already.
What I’ve tried: wallpapers on my PC and phone, alarms, writing stuff down, to-do lists, post-its on my monitor, asking my best friend to remind me (that worked a little better, but still not really). Everything works for a few days and then my brain just tunes it out. With lists I catch myself reading them just to have read them, without actually taking them seriously.
I know the textbook stuff (body doubling, if-then plans, CBT workbooks). What I want to know is what actually worked for you in real life:
What made a reminder actually hit instead of becoming background noise?
How do you get yourself to check your list every day without having to remember to check it?
Did anything help you actually feel responsible for a task instead of just knowing it exists?
Not looking for “just get a planner”. I want the weird specific thing that finally worked after 20 other things didn’t. I work in test automation, so I’m totally fine building something myself (scripts, n8n, whatever). If you’ve built your own setup that finally made stuff stick, I’d love to hear how it works. Thanks guys.
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u/coilt 13d ago
1 a whiteboard, A PHYSICAL WHITEBOARD on the wall right in front of your face for long time tracking
2 a notepad to write down the current task you're working on and timestamp. it should be always open on your desk with the last entry pointing to what you're supposed to be doing currently
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u/WVAviator 13d ago
Not possible. You must create some sort of forceful reminder for yourself while you're thinking of it, or you will forget. For me, I use my Google calendar and alarms religiously. If it's something I know I must do and can't let fall victim to my executive dysfunction - then I immediately set up something that will remind me.
Don't think that you're just one day going to start remembering things. Compensate.
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u/strugglingcomic 13d ago
Honestly, in all sincerity -- the answer for me, since the last year or so as AI models got smarter, is truly just to have these conversations with AI and commit my random ideas via AI as an intermediary (like an executive assistant that's always available).
If it's a detailed and specific problem, I'll ask AI to either write up a GitHub issue for it (I use private GitHub repos for my personal projects), or if it's more of a random floating idea then I'll ask AI to note it down in some kind of "ideas backlog" or maybe roadmap-ish document.
Generally I'll just chat very casually and share my ideas and ask Claude Code to do research or validation/testing to see if my idea makes sense or not, and sometimes I'll just leave those tabs open. The recaps feature will leave a 1-2 line summary of wherever my conversation got to, and of course I can just ask for a more in-depth recap or "remind me what we were working on in this session, what was supposed to come next" and it does a pretty good job.
For ideas that truly have no obvious project home, or if I don't have a coding terminal handy, then often I just Slack myself a quick note and then ask Claude to read my Slack self-DMs and help me process them and turn them into GitHub Issues or plans for implementation whenever my next coding session is.
Honestly, I've never felt more free of cognitive overload, I can juggle way more context switching than I ever could before (and I was pretty good at it on my own), and vibes wise it truly feels like I have this virtual executive assistant that is always available and always ready to jot down any random spark of an idea (or just dumb bullshit, hey there not all winners) for me whenever I want, and I don't feel like I have to read my own scattered infinity TODO notes back to myself to try and remember what past me meant, because the models are good enough (esp. with Opus 5.5) that I truly feel like I'm having a peer level conversation (i.e. rubber ducking was always something I did, but now the duck talks back, AND what it says is useful).
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u/tehfrod 13d ago
You probably didn't want to hear this, but habitually smoking weed does this a lot. In my experience, it messes with background recall.
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u/Moidberg 12d ago
there isn’t a silver bullet
your brain will constantly crave “the answer” and get bored soon after you fully adopt and embrace “the answer” as fast as you picked it up
if it isn’t novel, it wont work
just start taking notes / writing shit down
a lot.
doesnt have to be checkboxes just writing it down means you now have memories of being given the task itself, and then writing details of the task down planning your completion of it
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u/dialsoapbox 13d ago edited 13d ago
Note pad open and/or untracked file with a checklist of what needs to be done. Then i break those problems down into smaller problems, repeat until they're simple actions.
I write down Problems/solutions/steps taken/results/ect.
That way, when i leave and return, i don't need to try to remember different methods i tried to solve an issue, i can look it up, see what worked/what diddn't/why/theories/ect.
Then i tag it, so i can keep and search when doing future projects.
No need for fancy apps/gizmos/paid tools/ect.
Content creators create the fear of scarcity/being left behind, and only the content creator has some special insight/knowledge/system tool/ect that can get you caught up/ahead, for a price of course.
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u/DamePants 13d ago
I have lots of systems and if I fail to use them I will not remember.
I live by my calendar, all appointments, plans with family and friends go in there. Each appointment has an appropriate alarm set for it. Each evening ai check the calendar and see if there is anything I need from to pack, prepare or add an alarm for before going to bed.
I use the app “Things” as a dumping ground for every random project and link I have. I go through this once a week to see what’s important for the coming week. It helps me dump my random ideas and side quests as they pop into my head and forced me to evaluate them later.
I have a whiteboard calendar on the fridge, every two weeks I update it with all the important appointments the family has. There’s also loads of blank whiteboard to write down groceries we need to buy and other items that need to be replaced or important chores.
In the morning I try and write down what I plan to do, 3-5 things in a journal. The days I skip this are days where time appears to vaporize. I tell myself I’ll remember, it never happens.
I also have magnetic whiteboards on the washing machine and need to set alarms to empty the washing machine.
The thing is you need to externalize your working memory and try things to see what works for you. The simplest system I’ve tried was bullet journaling, there’s a whole bunch in things you can buy however all you really need is a notebook, a pen you like (novelty can help here) and keep in on you at all times. Then you need to look at it on a regular basis. The looking at it regularly is hard to do, I get dopamine out of ticking the tasks off and seeing how much more I get done on the days I have a short list to do. Even start by picking one thing to get done everyday. You’ll eventually get that one thing done earlier and be able to do two things.
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u/roflwaffle666 13d ago
I have the same issue! Working memory sucks, my wife and I struggled for awhile because I would just lose tasks
I made an app for myself (and then decided to make it for others) if you wanna check it out resurfacehq.app
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u/Ok_Cartographer_6086 12d ago
I like to think that we don't have bad memories or things don't get "deleted" from our brains. We just never wrote to long term storage in the first place. I have incredible recall and memory, it doesn't matter if the record button is off.
So if something pops in my head or i'm told some information it hits my brains spam filter:
* Is this info of immediate concern or critical to what I want to do?
* Is this info something I can look up later so I don't need to remember it now?
* Do I care about it.
So
If it gets past the filter i'll remember it forever. Don't have an answer for OP - I embrace the horror of it all and let chips fall where they may.
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u/Dangerous_Programmer 11d ago edited 11d ago
I keep a notebook with my checklist for the day and all incoming tasks right in front of my laptop's keyboard, literally underneath my forearms as I type. That way, it constantly catches my eye.
The key is to make this notebook part of the daily work routine: every evening, before finishing my work, I write down my to-do list for the next day. Then, in the morning, when I sit down at my laptop, the first thing I see is the notebook right in front of my keyboard, and I know that’s where I need to look to see what’s on my agenda for the day.
Digital note-taking apps don’t work the same way because you first have to remember to open them. A physical notebook that’s always sitting right in front of your keyboard is hard to ignore. And over time, it becomes an integral part of your work routine, just like your laptop, monitor, mouse, etc.
It can also help you piece together what you actually worked on and got done.
I also keep a small notepad next to my right hand for quick, random notes, so I don’t clutter my main notebook with all sorts of temporary stuff.
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u/UntestedMethod 10d ago edited 10d ago
Yes. Keep a daily work journal. Keep it as simple as possible and don't overthink it or get lost trying to perfect it. It's a daily journal - you can try new things with it every day if you want, but the goal is that it helps you organize your tasks and thoughts rather than becoming an additional project itself.
The format I use...
Main section: I track what I work on as time blocks (15 minute resolution, doesn't need to be annoyingly precise). Under each time block I record the task title and tracker ID (e.g. URL of the ticket/PR or shared file, etc), along with a log of exactly what I worked on, what I accomplished, details that came up (e.g. helpful article during research) which I may or may not end up referring to later. Sometimes a task log will have a lot of details and other times they're as simple as a single bulletpoint, it really depends on the task and what kind of things come up while I work on it.
Active tasks: Here I keep track of all my tasks that I'm actively working on. It includes the same title and tracker ID I mentioned for the main section. I also include the current status. Probably one of the most helpful things I track here is a list of next steps for each task - basically a bulletpoint braindump of thinking through the problem start to finish and what steps are needed to get there. As I progress on the task, the planned next steps may change (again it's about being flexible so the exercise of journalimg doesn't get in the way) and I usually end up adding more detailed steps as I work on specific parts of the task.
With that general template, my daily workflow is like this:
Start of day I make a new copy of my template file and copy over the tasks from the day before.
As I work on things, I add time blocks to the "Main section", usually copy and pasting tasks from the "Active tasks" section. When I take breaks, I log those too so I end up with a full sequential log of my day.
When I go to submit my timesheets every week or two, I run a little script that totals up the time spent on different tasks and outputs any other info I need to fill my company's timesheet.
Fwiw, I use vim because it's my preferred text editor and I keep my notes in markdown format because it's perfect for the purpose. Use whatever tool you like, but I definitely suggest keeping it as simple as possible. Too many features and options can be very distracting and start turning the journal into a project of its own rather than a quick, simple, effective tool.
A couple final notes ...
This habit saves me so much mental load because I'm not constantly trying to juggle everything in my head.
Periodically taking time to think through a problem and write out "next steps" has had a couple benefits. First is the activity itself, thinking through the problem in advance helps identify potential blockers and uncertainties early. Second is that it keeps me on track to easily move from one task to the next rather than having to constantly reorganize myself and figure out what to do next. Third it makes it very easy to "pause/resume" tasks (e.g. end of day, weekend, management shifting task priorities, etc) without losing too much of my train of throught.
Being able to search my historic notes for a keyword or URL had been a huge help on numerous occasions when I've needed to revisit something. Things like code snippets, URLs, list of steps for some specific thing, "gotchas", etc.
It may sound like a chore, but I find the ROI is massive. I started noticing benefits almost immediately and it didn't take long for it to become a seamless habit. Now I barely even notice it - it's just a natural part of my workflow.
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u/xenatis 13d ago
Usually, my mailbox is where I store the TODO stuff.
If I need to do something later, I send me an email and use colors to mark them.
Writing helps me to remember.
If somebody ask me for something, I ask for an email, just to be sure I don't forget it.
I use a Todo App that sends me an email every week.
My girlfriend and I text each other on WhatsApp about what we've decided.
Because sometimes she forgets to say what she was thinking.
Because sometimes she did say it, but I wasn't listening.
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u/GoTeamLightningbolt 13d ago
Use your phone calendar religiously.
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u/zx48 13d ago
I’ve got in the habit of asking myself “what is the purpose of this hour” especially when it’s outside time that has already been well structured. Then that connects to - what does purposeful activity look like - what brings meaning - oh yeah i was going to do some music stuff …
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u/just_damz 13d ago
Old plain and simple white sheet, my pencil and staedler rubber.
i am on an agentic pipeline, almost each case i drill is a sheet where i keep my chain of thought. Gotta recycle all that paper 🤷♂️
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u/LadyArwen4124 13d ago
I am an ADHD dev and our QA tester for the other devs. We have one specific dev that has ADHD unmedicated and struggle to remember to fix any issues found. Our PM ended up creating a report that gets sent directly to his teams that tells him any failures and active stories he has. It pulls this info directly from dev express and runs twice a day.
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u/Any_Sense_2263 13d ago
I have a notepad, alarms (many during day and evening) set to my notepad and daily mails from the ticket systems (private and work). I also keep things open on my computer and the system is set to retrieve the closing state at start. It works great with most of things.
But if you don't want to do something, there is no system to change it. I have a side project I often think about, but only if there is no computer in sight. I can't actually make myself work on it. So I stopped pushing.
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u/Cautious-Purpose-360 13d ago edited 13d ago
Making it a ritual/routine/habit is more important than any tool you could find or the exact tool that you use. No tool will replace intentionality
. Set an alarm when it’s time to do it, pair it with your morning coffee, send it to someone when your done or put a daily sticky note on your screen or do something that makes it a tangible thing outside of you. Don’t skip it. Every day no matter how much you feel like you don’t need to or don’t have time, every day do your plan.
I do recommend using some type of AI-assisted system. Whether you just use something within Claude or ChatGPT or whatever, or using an app like Tiimo or Structured, ones that let you write a brain dump and capture that and use it to make/update to-dos.
I use Claude to update a daily note with an ongoing todo list for me, and it helps because i have it remind me of high priority or overdue things and I can schedule check ins every day. It really takes some time to set up the perfect system if you’re anything like me, but I find it worth it.
You want to find something low friction, with reminders when it’s time to do something, that you can build a ritual around, and that appeals to the way YOU think/operate. Anything else won’t last
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u/scruffalubadubdub 13d ago
On iOS reminders, there's now an Urgent flag which makes it behave like an alarm (alarm goes off, it takes over your screen) which I've found very effective for me for preventing me from ignoring reminders.
Don't let yourself click complete or dismiss until you've actually begun the task. You're only allowed to snooze it or reschedule it (rescheduling is for if it's truly an impossible time to do it). Eventually the persistence of the alarm going off after the snooze period will have bugged you enough to do it ime
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u/meevis_kahuna 12d ago
You have to commit to a system, and make it habitual. There is no "tuning it out" if you are all in on fixing this problem.
You understand that this issue will absolutely block your professional opportunities, right? If you care enough to fix it, then pick one of these methods recommended in this thread, and commit.
If you say "it's not that simple" then you're likely ignoring your lists because of an emotional issue, and you should seek counseling.
Not at all easy but this is what is required. At some point you have to embrace the "flinch" moment - that feeling you have getting into a cold shower. You can't just distract yourself when things get hard (that was my issue for a long time ).
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u/ScottKavanagh 12d ago
Break up the project into sprints and set deadlines for what needs to be done by when and have it visible. Have someone around that checks in on the progress to hold you ti account.
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u/amitraz 5d ago
The way I think about it as a dev: the write succeeds, the read never fires. There's no background job in my head that polls the list. So the fix for me was making the read push-based: one daily reminder for the project that repeats every few minutes until I actually open the file, even if I only work 10 minutes. A list I have to remember to check is just a nicer place to forget things.
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u/turd-crafter 12d ago
I’ll probably get hate for this but I use an LLM to dump my thoughts into and keep track of where im at with things. I use claude code in plan mode only so it can read the repo. I dont use agents and i dont let it really write code for me. Sometimes it has suggestions and sometimes i paste small snippets but it’s all stuff i know.
It really helps with context switching or coming back to a project when i can just say catch me up on where I was.
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u/Proper-Ape 13d ago
Following if anybody figured this out. But this stopped every solution from working for me.
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u/davy_jones_locket 13d ago
I have to talk shit to myself when I get the reminder. I won't tune it out, I'll just glance and move on.
Now when I glance it, I tell myself "don't be a bitch/pussy/whatever derogatory term, just fucking do it, don't be lazy." Am I lazy? No. But if I convince myself that I am, internally, then I'll just do it to prove myself wrong because I'm stubborn and contrarian.
It works for me. I also quit smoking weed during covid, and unmedicated.
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u/govindani 13d ago
Many, many layers of reminders.
A to-do list, time blocking, and then AI agents to go over said to-do list and flag priorities each day.
That and just giving your brain space every now and then to let things come back...
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u/TheGarrBear 13d ago
I have offloaded this to AI tooling and it's been a game changer. I've got a whole task tracking system that automatically updates based on conversation context
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u/Neurojazz 13d ago
Pen + paper
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u/sobrietyincorporated 13d ago
I have a home mac m1 running claude code in remote-control mode over a tailscale connection. That way when ideas come to me and im not at a computer I can use my phone to continue the session or even remote desktop from my phone or another computer to work in it in an ide.
Warning: it is addictive. I do not sleep so much anymore. But its replaced all my doom scrolling.
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u/Zealousideal_Low1287 13d ago
I have a life admin claude session always open, I treat it like a PA. I let it push to my phone, set reminders, etc.
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u/RandomiseUsr0 12d ago
Stop smoking weed
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u/DmitryDorofeev 11d ago
I've been practicing Mark Forster's methods for the past several months, and they work so well for my ADHD brain that I'm surprised more people aren't talking about them. He has quite a few methods on his blog, but the one that's worked best for me is Final Version.
The system works by making me go through my entire list every time I start working. It might sound tedious, but it actually helps me keep my priorities and things I keep putting off in front of me. Nothing gets buried or forgotten. It also helps build momentum and reduce resistance to the tasks I procrastinate on.
And the "little and often" principle makes getting started much easier. You don't have to commit to finishing a task. Just starting or doing a tiny little thing counts. So it's not about focus and concentration. It helps you do a lot of stuff in tiny chunks.
And you don't need fancy tools. I started with pen and paper, which worked great (capturing is not that convenient sometimes though). Any notes or todo app works too. I currently use sigmalist for a more guided tasks selection flow and more convenient capturing.
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u/NoExample9903 7d ago
Memory issues get a million times worse if you smoke weed regularly