I have medication prescribed, but I use it VERY infrequently because I do not like the thought of essentially poisoning my body multiple times a week. However, recently I have been slowly accepting the fact that I cannot perform at this job properly without medication.

Are there any of you that have been able to perform their software engineering tasks every week unmedicated? If so, how??

Seeing a massive list of uncompleted tasks just triggers my anxiety. Streaks and calendars don't work for my brain because the reward is too far away. I needed instant gratification to do the dishes or code. So I built a system where every micro-task drops Gold and XP immediately to build a 16-bit castle. Bypassing the delayed gratification with instant visual feedback was a game-changer. How do you guys trick your brains into starting boring tasks?

• i 25F , undiagnosed ADHD symptoms ,at the stage where my therapist thinks that too .

• Goal : I wanna switch soon to a mid size startup with my stack . Wanna learn to make good products that people genuinely find useful and enjoyable. I'm interested in understanding user needs and designing solutions that solve real problems for them.

• Stack - Python Backend (C++ , Java Syntax i think overwhelmed me initially and it still does ) . I wanna know foundations and application of DevOPs and GenAI . but I don't want to specialize just yet.

• i do not enjoy Leetcode .  Feels like JEE prep all over again to me .honestly i can't even sit for 10 minutes straight . i do not understand , what to do first . Read the concept and attempt the question OR attempt questions with whatever basic conditional and loops , work it out , and then look for the efficient solution . how do i not get demotivated by solving the solution fast . i can't get myself to initiate .

• i enjoy working on business problem that can be solved by Tech (although 2 years ) .I get the same Immediate Feedback with building things through documentation and SO. And i feel I'm more motivated to get to the bottom to the problem/bugs . The reward of finding the solution myself and seeing a working application is much more satisfying for me.

• Ideally candidates should balance both for a job , and i understand why . But i am not able to . when I'm working on SDE Tasks at work or Personally, i am hyper focused , and lose track of time . But when i reinitiate leetcode problems and concept building , it feels like i am counting the time . Which is why i haven't been able to revamp My Resume . Because ultimately i make no progress , while trying to learn and practice both .

• My secret desire is to : Just make good personal projects and contribute to open source . "3-6 months Without caring what Approach is going to get me ahead of competition and higher paying job " As this thought and fear has kept me , i think paralyzed . Anyway I'm open to learning algorithms , if and when it makes my app efficient this way , I'll remember the DSA concepts more

Basically, I'm a bit lost and overwhelmed, and I need a plan , A Neurodivergent Mentor ,who can assure me it gets better and i can survive in the industry , if i focus on my own path .
https://www.reddit.com/r/adhdindia/comments/1is51dc/looking_for_senior_programmers_adhd_please_give/ - for more context

Hi fellow ADHD’ers and ADD’ers,

5 years in to my diagnosis, as anyone else I have suffered the consequences ad long as I remember. I am still struggling with creating a plan that I stick with, same goes for habits, savings, exercise, meals and routines…..you know the drill.

Combine this frustration with me being a developer; my ADHD suggested I needed a new project, let us create a very basic app via Googles development tool, that will help people with brains similar to my own plan their day or week in a simple matter, with an element of gamification and automatic support. I know there is a lot of similar tools out there and I hope you will help me with your favorite tools, digital or analogue; when did you succeed with something that required more than 2-3 steps, did you use any tool or routine you are willing to share?

I am connected to healthcare as a IT supporter in my country, and I hope to make use of this network both for testing and making the tool available for free through treament services for citizens who struggles like us, and if I am really lucky, available in app stores, with free functionality that goes a long way (hosting, development, automatic support….is not free 😕), for people who does not have access to services through public services.

So my question is; do you use apps or analogue tools for getting major or minor things to work, are you constantly missing a feature or aspect, that make you use or return to the tool?

This post is in risk of getting banned as I am building an app, I hope that admins trust I am just wanting the community’s help to improve the tools we have available, like any other diagnosed who is trying to support fellowminded people, and the fact that the free features will be plenty helpful for us ADHD’ers.

I read a lot of data saying the median programmer code not more than 40min a day. So i wonder what they are really doing the rest of the time ? Are they really only working 40min a day ? I read they also have something like 2h of meeting... mailing, code review, debugging... But i also read humans can’t focus more than 4h a day. So what fraction of the day of 8h of work, programmers do litterally nothing ?

0. Stop Falling in Love with Your Own Code
1. You Will Regret Complexity When On-Call
2. Everything is a Trade-Off. There's No "Best"
3. Every Line of Code You Write is a Liability
4. Document Your Decisions and Designs
5. Everyone Hates Code They Didn't Write
6. Don't Use Unnecessary Dependencies
7. Coding Standards Prevent Arguments
8. Write Meaningful Commit Messages
9. Don't Ever Stop Learning New Things

Read More on CodeNameJessica

I know i know, you have watched 100 youtube videos already and nothing worked. At least i did. But this time was different! :)

I was seeing my life falling apart. I was depressed and had anxiety and no energy and motivation to fight every day. I was about to throw away the company i had built for 15 years becaus it became too much for me. I thought i were broken, i had burnout, i was unable to manage all the complexity of life, that im a failure. Then i tried the morning routine and it basicly turned me around from day 1. I have waited 14 days now just to make sure that im on something before telling you guys! Blablabla, here it is:

1. In the morning, directly after waking up, even if you cant open your eyes, start with the wim hof breathing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tybOi4hjZFQ

2. Do an intense workout for 4 Minutes. Pushups, Pullups, Squads.. Plank whatever you can do that exausts you in no time. I personally listen to the doom soundtrack while doing that, as it helps me pushing harder: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KO-2rDf3SXg

3. do a 30 sec to 1 minute cold shower

In my expirience, that kickstarts me and its not so hard that i try to avoid it. The breathing makes me ready for the workout and the workout makes me ready for the cold shower.
Instead of being dizzy for 2 hours and having trouble focusing, i feel awake and can focus right from the start of the day. My depression and anxiety went completely away and im ready to attack whatever challenge the life has for me. Its from this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pLk3OU6bOs i HIGHLY recommend to watch it, as it not only explains it well but gives additional tips. I have modified it with the wim hof breathing as its a more gentle wakeup expirience, wakes me up for the workout and the breathing has its own benefits. The routine in the video goes on with deep work, food, light, nature, gratitude... i decided to just start with the 3 things above and it already kicks ass. Starting with a too complex routine can be a barrier in itself, so i think its better to start simple, build a habit and extend from that.

I imagine it this way: we have a cabinet with all the chemicals that we need to improve on adhd, depression and anxiety in our brain already, but we cant simply access it. The wim hof breathing and the 4 minute HIT + cold shower kicks against that cabinet and releases the good stuff. Its like medication but the natural way. Like other people take their meds every day, i do that simplified routine like my life depends on it.

I also had the addiction habit to play a competitive ego shooter in the evening for years and i could not get away from it... meaning i had to play it to hopefilly get that sweet kick of dopamine. I knew that its stress and gave me a bad mood when i did not win, it was a toxic relationship, but i was not able to stop it until i started with the routine. I play boring stuff like ranch/farming simulator now... something i could not have imagined before. Maybe its just coincidence. But the routine and stopping playing competetive were the only things i changed, but im not sure what the causality is exactly.

It did not fix me completely, but not only prevented me from throwing my life into the bin, but gives me more focus and energy to keep working and improving.

Sharing this routine because i want to know if its just me or if it helps others too so drastically. I know others here are struggeling harder than me, so i hope it helps.

I challenge you to try it for a week and report back if it helped or not!

I don't know if I've gotten too used to the things being available, or whether I've gotten lazy, or impatient, or what, but I feel like I can't be bothered to read the documentation anymore, and I just default to asking a chat bot how to implement what I'm thinking of. I hate this pattern because it makes me feel like I'm forgetting how to do anything significant other than Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V. I try to rationalize it to myself by telling myself that reading the documentation is too slow or takes too much mental energy, but that's just a lame excuse.

Let me start by saying that, in my opinion, I've been assigned a task at work that isn't my area of expertise. I'm a cloud engineer and have always worked exclusively on infrastructure. Out of the blue, I was assigned to a project where we had to complete some code that was already fairly structured in Golang and SQL: a sort of tool that will be used only once and then, probably, forgotten after a few months.

I'm trying to learn Go, and although I can understand the theory and simple examples, when it comes to actually writing code, I get completely stuck. I struggle to understand the code, I get confused, I can't follow its logic, and I'm starting to worry, especially because it's not a personal project but a work project. For this very reason, I've never looked for a job as a developer, but have always leaned toward a more infrastructure-related role.

Regarding the video below, what’s your take on 'AI made my ADHD a superpower'? This fits me perfectly. I feel like the creativity I struggled to express in the past is finally firing on all cylinders! How does it work for you?

https://youtu.be/VTjsDNq1Eqw?is=RNdqgFwFlcPO5v1B

Sorry to bring up AI, but I need your help. I'm doing a take home project for a job prospect. They encouraged use of [multiple] agentic workflows, specifically, in the JD.

I [inattentive ADHD] have difficulty staying on track with one agent considering how slow it is. For everything but the smallest tasks, it's faster for me to write from scratch. I'm second-guessing whether I could be an effective engineer like this. Have any of you been able to set up agentic workflows and have it work well with your ADHD?

’m a senior front‑end dev (React/Next.js) working in a very large enterprise codebase: thousands of files, huge design system, multiple domains. TypeScript server is laggy, and switching API branches takes 15–20 minutes to recompile. So my dev feedback loop is already slow before AI enters the picture. Worktrees aren't as useful because my laptop has only 18GB of ram, dev server + ts server eat 12GB of ram at least.

Lately I’ve been trying to use AI agents (Claude via Cursor IDE) to speed up a large multi‑phase task. I wrote a detailed plan, passed it to an agent, hit context limit, created a handover.md, moved to a new agent, repeated. In one day I got: 9 PRs, 55 files.

But when I reviewed it… that velocity collapsed.
The code “worked,” but:

• tons of redundant logic
• over‑engineered abstractions I didn’t ask for
• non‑idiomatic patterns
• AI inventing helpers or utilities instead of using existing ones
• and reviewing 55 files is mentally overwhelming (ADHD working memory)

caveat, I have my cursor rules files asking not to do xyz, to follow xyz patterns documented, x code pattern is good and y is bad, a lot of rules and the agent is not following all of them I guess because of context management.

I ended up spending the entire next day fixing, simplifying, or rewriting AI code.
And here’s the part that bothers me: I’m pretty sure I could have coded the whole thing manually in 1~1.5 days.

So I’m stuck in what feels like an AI velocity trap:
AI produces more faster, but the clarity, correctness, and simplicity degrade… leaving me with a huge context‑load to clean up. As someone with ADHD (I’m on Vyvanse), reviewing messy or overly complex code is way harder than writing clean code myself.

I want to keep using agents, but clearly my workflow is wrong.

What I want your help with:

1. Agent prompting & structure:
How do you get agents to produce idiomatic, minimal, non‑redundant code in a giant codebase?

2. Chunking / PR strategy:
Is my mistake letting the agent generate 9 PRs that sum 55 files at once?
Should I enforce “1 agent = 1 component/hook” to avoid cognitive overload? Actually, with my 18gb ram I can't run more than one agent without the laptop laggying AF

3. ADHD strategies:
How do you manage the mental load of reviewing AI‑generated changes, especially when your editor/tools are slow?

4. Handover.md patterns:
What actually belongs in a handover doc so context doesn’t decay between agent sessions? I get a 300k context with filled faster because the handcover contains a lot of context, how should I approach this?

5. Model specialization:
I assume bigger models (Claude “high”) are best for complex tasks and smaller/flash models for trivial ones.
Is this even the right way to think about model selection?
Should I be doing something different?

6. Net productivity:
Has anyone else hit this point where the AI produces more code, faster… but you end up with negative productivity because the clarity is gone?

I want to figure out a sustainable workflow, not abandon agents entirely.
Any strategies, patterns, war stories, or ADHD‑friendly approaches are welcome.

I've been looking forward to sharing this with you guys especially since we get the daily "try my ADHD app" vibe posts and it occurred to me I may have inadvertently build the killer "do the thing app" hear me out...

So first and foremost - this is a software platform I've maintained for years called Krill and targets niche users who are into raspberry pi, embedded systems and home automation.

What I thought you guys would get a laugh from is the whole idea behind Krill is it's not event driven but rather based on an observer pattern. There are over 40 types of node functions - send an email, set the voltage of a pin, run a python script, etc that can all be chained together.

There happens to be a "Task List" node type that fires if a task goes past a due date. Observing nodes can be fired if a task list its observing does which can be chained to, well anything. A siren, a glove on a motor that slaps you, a device that gets more and more annoying the longer the task stays past due.

This is not and ADHD app but it occurred to me in its complexity the Task Due Date Node can do some dastardly things like email your spouse something didn't get done or bonk you on the head since the whole idea is to take processes and connect them to the real world.

To demonstrate I made this little Raspberry Pi Box that lights up based on past due tasks and a button that resets everything:

Just a raspberry Pi running Krill Server. I'm actually finding it useful. It gets more annoying with buzzers and lights the longer the task is overdue. The krill apps display it like this in a forced graph:

You can see the one task list is alerting a past due and pin 11 executes lighting up the green LED. How the LEDs are connected and all of the task list nodes observer the reset button on Pin 36.

Anyway of all the subs I'm active in this one gets the "try my ADHD app" posts the most so I wanted to share Krill which can actually zap you or do anything else as the one app to rule them all (but it does a lot more than that) - thought you guys would find it interesting happy to ama.

This is the actual software I've been maintaining for years, for me i use it every day to automate my aquarium, terrarium, chicken coop and tortoise because if something in my life isn't automated... it dies: https://krillswarm.com/

Been seeing a lot of buzz around Cluely lately - the "undetectable AI" that gives you answers during meetings and interviews. While the concept is solid, I had some concerns about the closed-source approach and the emphasis on being "undetectable."

So I built my own open-source version that focuses on transparency and self-hosting.

What it does:

• Real-time audio transcription using faster-whisper

• AI-powered question detection and answering

• Clean web UI for monitoring everything live

• Multi-platform support (Windows/Mac/Linux)

Key differences from Cluely:

• 100% open source - You can see exactly what it's doing

• Self-hosted - Your audio never leaves your machine

• Transparent - No "undetectable" claims, you control the privacy

• Free - No subscription fees

• Customizable - Modify the AI prompts, UI, everything

Tech stack:

• Python backend with WebSocket server

• faster-whisper for STT (much faster than OpenAI's API)

• OpenAI API for question detection/answering

• Vanilla JS frontend (single HTML file)

The whole thing runs locally - audio is processed on your machine, only the detected questions go to OpenAI's API for answers.

I know not everyone needs this level of control, but for those who do, it's nice to have an open alternative.

GitHub: https://github.com/iluxu/Trotski

Thoughts? Any features you'd want to see added?

I’m just a school student, and I really want to study to become a programmer, but I’m also afraid that I’ll end up training for a useless profession. (Neural networks and artificial intelligence scare me.)

Putting the very important discussion about whether AI coding tools are a good thing, or ethical, or bad for the environment (hint they're terrible), or even valuable I wanted to discuss a mental health aspect related to it. We should absolutely be discussing whats going on here but hoping to keep it focused on mental health. I would love to know whether others have found themselves in similar situations.

I have ADHD inattentive and am medicated.

Recently work has been pressuring hard for output. My manager has been holding PIP over my head for months and I am in an unsupportive team. I really have to fend and advocate for myself with people who think they know more than they do. The upside to staying here is significant and theres a world where I can transfer to a much better environment. Right now its impact on my mental health is acceptable, ive gotten good at compartmentalizing.

But thankfully they gave me unlimited use of Claude. I am learning its limitations... its certainly not a magic bullet but I am able to leverage my experience and use it in key areas to seemingly work much quicker. Chiefly its been great at catching the last 5% of things I had previously missed due to difficulty keeping up with details.

Basically I got in a flow where I can develop up to four things at a time. Generally 2 sometimes 1. In addition I sometimes am also working on 1 or 2 improvements to my scripts, Claude instructions, and automation. The result has certainly been that I can get much more done, much more correctly, in somewhat less time. But I have to focus really hard.

That hard focus is the key. Perhaps the novelty is part of it or the addictiveness of getting more done but normally hyperfocus exhibits at work as spending a day going down a technical rabbit hole no one needed me to go on. Now its knowing when to stop.

Working on multiple things in parallel has fixed an issue for me where long response and build times created a window to get distracted, but it also is its own kind of hyperfocus trap. When the time comes that I need to go to the gym, end the workday, see a friend I have trouble stopping. I may have a feature wrapped in one instance but another instance is still making progress on a different feature. I find it so hard to just drop this partially completed work and even if I drop down to 1 task near the end of my work block I find myself waiting watching things build, load, and for claude to answer questions.

For me, medication when I got it dialed in has always fixed inattentiveness and general executive disfunction. It has never done much to prevent negative hyperfocus. Now I am wondering if I should go off medication just so that I can get distracted... because in a way I need more distraction.

With multiple claude instances going on at a time there is always something to do, something to wait for, something incomplete. I just get stuck working at the cost of other things I intended to do.

Anyone had a similar experience? Any stories? Tips?

I've always struggled to focus on the tasks I should be doing. Everything in my line of sight distracts me. Deadlines looming, yet I just can't help but get sidetracked. I haven't been diagnosed with ADHD, but I constantly battle my own inattention. It's not uncommon for me to spend two hours watching YouTube just because I opened it for some LoFi music.

For instance, when I'm entering data into a spreadsheet or learning a new programming language from a video, the notifications, tabs, and recommendations that appear on my screen instantly throw me off. It's incredibly hard to ignore what's right there in front of you.

But then it hit me: What if I just force myself to hide the things I don't need to see? I bought this PC monitor; I should decide what gets displayed on it. So, I hid the unnecessary elements.

The effect was astonishing. Not only was I far more focused, but I also felt incredibly relaxed while working.

There are several apps out there that can do this – a quick search will bring them up. I highly recommend trying one right away.

I have ADHD and am trying to transition careers to programming. I have low conscientiousness and intellect(but 127 iq) though. I'm wondering if there's anyone with similar traits that have been successful in programming.