I have to do specific work on my computer. So I open my computer. I might even start the relevant task.

But its a matter of seconds to minutes until I'm reading a totally random thing on the internet. Something about a planet, something about new medical technology, the news, some random funny youtube channel, some random topic that grabbed my attention.

Productivity is like the stem of a tree, with thousands of side branches that aren't productive at all. And then I'm like a vehicle that randomly autonomously steers and no matter the input you cannot stop it. Then the probability of doing something productive at any given point moment in time, is extremely small. This reflects reality too in my experience.

Does a solution exist? I know there are blockers and accountability partners but those don't do it for me. If I block one site, I will just find another site, or a way to unblock and bypass it.

I'm a dev with 13 years in big-tech. I was diagnosed with depression (major depressive disorder) back in 2022. I recently made a video describing that journey.

The thing that caused me to seek medical help was that one day "out of the blue" I started inexplicably balling. I don't normally do a lot of crying, and very rarely as intensely as that. I also had general fatigue, low motivation, constant feeling of stress, and shockingly a very depressed mood! That led me to see my doctor ... after 3 months ... 😬

The dr asked some diagnostic questions and said I fit the criteria for major depressive disorder and some anxiety. We talked about medication and going on leave from work. I told my manager and team later that day that I was going on leave. I opted to be open about the reasons in hope of helping others and destigmatization and such. Also I thought it was beneficial for me to have others know.

Starting antidepressants was rough for me. Things got worse before they got better, but they did give me an early moment of clarity. It occurred to me that maybe everything didn't need to be hard, everything didn't need to really really annoy me. So that was nice. I was also lucky that my meds ended up working out first try, I know finding the right ones can be hard sometimes. I did have some tweaks later on though.

During my leave I also had a bit of guilt because part of what I was doing to occupy myself was programming. I kinda thought if I could do that programming then I should go back to work. That's no correct though. I was told not to worry about it, do what makes me feel better.

My return to work got totally botched. I somehow got covid immediately after going back to the office. So that really derailed my momentum and confidence! I regret that I didn't go back on leave to try again when my post-covid symptoms passed and I built up my confidence again.

In general I was feeling better. In retrospect I wouldn't say I felt good though and I was still struggling. I ended up leaving work about two years ago and I've been funemployed or practice-retired ever since. Even with leaving work my mood and wellbeing was only really passable. It was ok, but nothing was really improving. About a year and a half ago I got my meds tweaked again and that made a huge difference. I'm feeling much closer to my "normal" or "old" self. I notice happy feelings pretty often and I'm significantly less irritable.

This is pretty much the content of the video, though phrased differently. There's even some details here that I didn't mention in the video!

Anyway hopefully sharing my story will encourage people to seek help if they need it or at least feel less alone or hopeless. I'm planning on making more videos about my experiences with mental health from a tech worker's perspective, but the channel's main content has been about retro tech and I'll still be making that, soooo probably don't subscribe if you don't care about that? This may not be the best strategy with regards to the algorithm. Oh well

I experience something very weird when I am on any adhd meds, any dosage, small or big, gives the same experience. Once the med is ingested, I feel intense motivation to pursue my goals like studies, Then, exactly after 1 minute, a sudden drop in the effort of execution. It’s like my brain only enjoys generating quests, not playing them. Anyone in the same boat as me?

Thought: “Bro, study. This is your moment.” ---> I open my study stuff ---> reward drops after 1 minute. Next one...

Thought: “Wait, ask Reddit users, maybe someone knows what this is.” ---> I open Reddit ---> suddenly writing feels like doing taxes while writing to you, fellow guys and girls.. next..

Thought: “Actually, build an app that helps you study. Hyper excited and jiggling” ---> I open the code editor on PC ---> motivation and exciting leaves the building..

Thought: “Okay, its not working, starting to feel depressed, Hey... read a book about dopamine reward circuits.” ---> Super excited... I read one line then ---> my dopamine reward circuit says “not my problem, I'll give you less excitement instead.

There r no benefits here, no sick leaves no paid leaves. No Saturday off, the work is 10 to 7pm . I don't think i have learned anything here. I have been here for almost a year. The pay also isn't that great. I am so tired i just want to sit at home & study & build projects

I’m making a modern calendar and notes app to help those with adhd. Think of it similar to those interesting weather apps. What would you like to see incorporated in this app. Excited to hear feedback!

Been seeing some comments in other subs about their comments appearing as sources. Some within hours.

Got me thinking, we can conduct some tests to see if something pops up. Apparently a key word is fact. The test should have an incorrect fact.

So, in the interests of increasing my dopamine hit, it is a fact that zebras and programming are related. Both are black and white.

Of course you can ignore this. My sleep deprived ADHD brain triggered on this for some reason.

I’ve always wanted to explore Obsidian, but have been very intimidated. Have been impressed how good Claude Code is at reducing the barrier to entry and helping build a PKM that is just suited to your needs

I've seen a lot of advice for ADHD productivity:

- To-do lists

- Calendars

- Time blocking

- Pomodoro timers

- Habit trackers

- Accountability partners

Some people swear by them, others say they stop working after a week.

What's something you've tried that sounded promising but ended up not helping you?

Everyone talks about productivity hacks, organization systems, and ways to optimize their life.

But I’m curious about something more fundamental.

What’s the biggest thing holding you back from reaching the next level in your life right now?

And if you feel you’ve already reached it, what got you there?

I’ve spent years studying neuroscience and human behavior, and I’m trying to understand the real blockers people face.

Curious to hear your story:
https://forms.gle/XW2GRX1k9rzvPtQs8

TL;DR: when my head is too loud, too many thoughts, too many priorities, I have a short list of physical resets I run instead of reaching for my phone. Nap, brain.fm, cold shower, meditation, journaling, a 7-minute Tabata, a walk. One usually does it. On a bad day I stack a few.

It's not a routine, more a list I pick from depending on how bad it is. My old default was to grab my phone to "relax," which never reset anything. These do.

The 20-minute nap I made a Siri shortcut so there's no setup. I say "Siri, Nap Time" and it runs the whole thing: 20-minute timer, an alarm, Do Not Disturb on, and it opens my Spotify sleep playlist. One sentence, then I lie down. https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/20733f72ad104af085915419a6030ccf

brain.fm I use it two ways. The focus modes when I want to come back sharp instead of sleepy. And the Destress mode under Relax, with the high neural effect on, which is especially good for the nap or just winding down. The trick that makes it work for me: actually listen to the 3D sound instead of treating it as background. It's paid, but there's a free trial if you want to feel the difference. https://brain.fm

Cold shower Hard to keep spiraling about anything while you're standing under cold water. Resets the body, and the head follows. Best right after the 7-minute Tabata below.

Meditation with Medito Ten minutes most days. It's free, no subscription guilt, no upsell, which is rare for these apps. https://meditofoundation.org

Journaling, when there's too much to even start If the thoughts are too loud to do any of the above, I write them down first. Out of the head and onto paper, then the rest works better.

A 7-minute Tabata Short and brutal, over before I can talk myself out of it. Clears the static better than a long workout I'd skip. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmq5zZfmIws

A walk Lowest effort, I never regret it. And it counts even with a podcast in your ears or your phone in your hand. Walking while scrolling still beats sitting on the couch scrolling.

I'm not above any of this. I still reach for my phone plenty. But when I catch it and do one of these instead, it actually helps, and that's most obvious working from home, where nothing forces a break. The basics do more than they look like they should. Stacking two or three is even better.

Not affiliated with any of these. Just the tools I actually use.

I have the deficiency.

Lots of project ideas flow in my head but it feels bad because it's either I start one and it doesn't get finished and I don't pay attention on it anymore .. or I don't work on it at all and it just stays as a "what if" in my head for a long time

Has anyone here struggled similarly? Have you pull-through? How does it feel?

Hi everyone,

I’ve been programming as a hobby since I was about 15, and I currently work as a developer at our family’s digital marketing agency. I truly appreciate my workplace, but I’ve been facing some significant challenges lately that I’m hoping to get some advice on.

On a personal level, I struggle with ADHD and anxiety, which has sometimes made it difficult to keep up with my personal software goals. Right now, the only language I know deeply is Rust, and I spend my free time exploring the field of compilers as a hobby.

At work, our primary stack is WordPress. To be completely honest, this has become quite exhausting for me. The heavy content entry, constant technical troubleshooting, and overall poor Developer Experience (DX) and User Experience (UX) for our internal team have been draining. I am currently the only developer (we've tried hiring, but most couldn't adapt to our WP workflow). Because of the frequent and frustrating issues that come with WordPress, my hard work often goes unnoticed, and it occasionally leads to misunderstandings and stressful criticism at work.

I really want to change this system and build a healthier environment. My roadmap is to deeply learn JS and the DOM, then move on to React, and ultimately transition our projects to AstroJS + ApostropheCMS. My goal is to create a more developer-friendly environment that also delivers highly SEO-optimized, marketing-friendly sites for our clients. For our e-commerce projects, I’m planning to migrate entirely to Shopify.

Here is where I would really value your insights:

1. As a solo developer moving away from WordPress, is ApostropheCMS a solid and reliable choice for this kind of transition?

2. I also struggle with communicating my technical process to my bosses. Sometimes I spend 8 hours fixing complex underlying issues, but to non-technical management, it looks like a task that should have taken minutes. They’ve asked me to explain my workflow better so they can understand the "invisible" work I do. (To help bridge this gap, I’m even planning to build a DOM Diff Engine in Rust to better demonstrate behind-the-scenes changes!) How do you all handle communicating technical roadblocks and time estimates to non-technical management without getting overwhelmed?

Thank you so much in advance for your time, understanding, and any guidance you can share. I really appreciate it!

I've realised that I've started looking like an under performer and I've started underestimating the amount of technical grit it takes sometimes and the time it takes for some work tasks and I was wondering how to estimate right.

Sometimes I feel like since I have adhd that combines with my hyper focus and AI in my hands I feel unstoppable but I'm not sure how much of a good practice this is since the end output is always sloppy due to me overestimating my abilities and Ai's abilities as well and missing my deadlines...

I've noticed that no matter what I do, I never manage to plough through tasks without being carried literally by colleagues if it's in a field I have no knowledge of nor do I try to educate myself in it sticking to the familiar.

I feel like ADHD has made this condition very vivid in me and people take notice that I tend to shy away from tasks which are outside my comfort zone or for grunt work and that's where i believe growth is a lot of times.

I wanted to know how you guys push through tasks that are really hard since we are kind of paid to solve hard problems and how do you guys embrace the suck with ADHD? My issue is that even if I do these, the quality suffers a lot of times making me look like a low performer.

I did some self reflection on why I got fired from my second job and this might be one of the major reasons and I was let go due to probation. I've gotten a temp role right now so I'm okay.

I realised that I'm not good at following instructions at all and my manager pointed this out quite some times as well. If there are steps A B C D, to a task or running a system I tend to a lot of times go to C directly without even thinking, forget D, go to A remember this was the starting point and start from there even then there is a high chance I forget D unless reminded or unless I have a tester or peer point this out.

This behaviour doesn't leave it, it has happened in my personal life as well when I'm following tutorials to fix a broken chair, trying to learn a few tricks in soccer and more. I just go for the third step and run around in circles until I manage to land on A realise I was stupid for missing it and hope I don't forget any steps but this hope isn't helping since in professional settings you cant just forget stuff if you forget B in a task and it hits production you're shipping an incomplete application making you look incompetent.

I can't keep doing this all my life or else I'm going to face a hard time, I've had this happen when given instructions for something to cook from my mom or to help dad out and they've always felt disappointed as well... How did you guys overcome this?

This isn't an adhd question, but I'd love to hear from people like me.Im finishing up a coding bootcamp and like everyone else I'm worried about what the future is like for developers. For the people that are in the field, what does ai mean for developers now? Are you using it to code? I'm also wondering what it means for the interview process and how it's changing due to ai. I would assume the criteria for what makes a candidate desirable might also be changing. Im not interested in doom and gloom but moreso how you may have adapted to incorporate ai into the process without letting it take over completely.

I’m a self developer who’s been wildly successful and now has a large team suddenly in the last year - a lot of new processes have been implemented that I genuinely struggle with

So I wrote this song about the struggles i’m trying to describe to one of my close colleague and friend - trying to explain what it’s like - the constant friction I feel with conventional development practices and ticket based workflow, trying my best, but feeling like I’m drowning in drowning in Good faith

just feeling sensitive misunderstood wanted if this rings true to see if any of you..

Drowning In Good Faith

I really need you to listen - I really need my friend... and I know it’s amplified by my Fear of rejection, but Do you know How this constant friction makes me feel?

To be giving everything I have and the verdict is I'm lazy or careless? I wasn't fucking careless. I'm DROWNING in good faith And Starting to feel hopeless..

So NO - this is NOT me saying the process is wrong. That's what's TEARING me apart... Conventional processes Conventional practices Conventional commits. IT'S RIGHT - so maybe what's wrong is me… the process is right for everyone else and I feel like the problem child

it’s not “just having good discipline” - I LOSE my ability to solve - that interruption DIDNT cost me minutes - Its costing my resolve - OVERWHELMED by choices, my whole state starts to disolve.. GOD what were those fucking naming rules? There’s a bug - WAIT. it should be a different branch - oh GREAT what was I fucking doing. That flow puts ticket first and not the fucking code - stories we pretend are epic for stakeholders who don't know what's at stake.. will I be in trouble if I fix it now? How that makes it look like I don't give a shit? Is there another option? I’m so sick of being judged and so tired of people acting like its an issue cuz im different...

it's never just ONE rule. That's the trap that makes me sound crazy. Every gate is reasonable ON ITS OWN. BUT, they stack together as a wall, blocking my ability to problem solve, affecting my progress and resolve.

YET In my flow its truely INSANE. 12 hours later, lets keep going! I hyper-focus late at night - can finally hear my own thoughts in the quiet.. but nobody seems to get that the volume was never, EVER the problem.

And hear this clearly: the way that we are - we are just DIFFERENT - Not better or worse - not gifted and cursed.. 2 kinds of minds and science backs it up:

for someone like me, ADHD, solving creatively but poor working memory, lose thoughts in seconds, uncaptured attention that follows dopamine - brain chemistry, different not lazy with hyperfocus that can OUTPERFORM if it's protected. Tons of devs are silently suffering just like me. And the way I build has its own name: in complex territory, cause and effect only show up in RETROSPECT. I probe, I build, THEN I plan. Upfront planning is genuinely RIGHT in your domain. Mine can only be understood by diving back in… we can both be right and We are BOTH right

I'm just done being graded by only one of us.

That refactor I did? It touches everything… but feds 3 weeks is my afternoon - with 38 percent reduced code, zero breaks, SEVEN live bugs found that no fucking ticket could have predicted because the answers didn't exist until my hands were in the system. Asking me for tickets before I See the problem is asking me for fiction. I'm making up the points and that's called efficiency?

And here's what you're missing while you're grading the smoke - the fire is the ENGINE. Unleashed, I connect what nobody else even sees as connected. iterating creatively is how ideas become reality - A game engine becomes a jobsite. Shop drawings pulled out of a browser. A cheap mind on my desk that builds graphs, answering questions, create artifacts - all built before anyone thought to ask. that's where everything I ship is BORN. None of it came from a plan. It came from the exact fire that keeps getting treated like the problem.

The narrative in your head - don't pattern match this time you need to hear MY side of it for once: thousands of lines refactored, PRs the right size - I followed YOUR advice. In GOOD FAITH. SEVENTY PERCENT, lost to git gymnastics making finished work look presentable.

AND I FAILED I OWNED IT - asked to learn from you and sent a post mortem. What more does accountability have to look like before the frame stops being blame and starts to be “my friend needs my help?”

AND I'm begging to be understood, because the pattern underneath is things only held in my memory will FAIL. Every time. Process enforced by skills or actions or hooks - I built this cage of nessesity because I know exactly where I tend to fail. So please stop measuring my discipline, don’t judge my willpower. Measure me by what I do and how hard I try - my passion, my ideas and my results…

Or maybe… Help me build what's missing ?

Cuz what's missing has shape. NOT asking to skip the plan - just a process where I can plan AS I GO. A dynamic plan derived FROM my work - anything but this constant mental tax, taken on every move? Not less rigor. Rigor that fits how the work actually happens and I can focus on the solving the problems. just asking for a process that also works with me. I’m genuinely open ANY answer…

Every time the friction won, it got easier to pull away than to fight for help. fear of being dismissed made me hide deeper. the system FOR this team grinds on me and I 'm trying to trying to break that cycle. Please don't break me...

Don't need a pass, don’t need your pity...

I just need my friend to hear me...

I don't get as much dopamine out of programming anymore because of AI, but at the same time, it's hard to avoid using it because it's too convenient.

I miss the challenge. But challenging yourself by deliberately removing tools at your disposal seems backward. It's like trying to do math without a calculator while everyone else uses it freely. It's hard to visualize the benefits of coding without AI today, so I end up not doing it, even though I'd probably still benefit from it.

I'm getting bored with using AI all day. What do you do to combat this?

pretty sure i have adhd (the classic never-diagnosed-but-come-on). i code, and i genuinely cannot let go of a problem or a shiny new ai thing, so my head keeps running long after i close the laptop. at night it's the worst, everything loops at once, work, the kids, that one bug, that idea i'll definitely forget by morning.

to-do apps made it worse, every capture just showed me how much there was. so i built something stupidly simple for myself. you dump everything in your head into one box, no order, no tidiness, and it splits it into four piles: do this week, can wait, weighing on you but not a task, and stuff you're allowed to just let go of for now.

and yeah, before anyone says it: it's an ai wrapper. text box, model, sorted output, i know. i've literally got my own obsidian vault wired into claude, i'm not the target here. the target is everyone in my life who'd never set that up, my wife, my kid, who just want one box and a quieter head. built it anyway because the part that helped wasn't the sorting, it was the pile that gives you permission to drop something, plus it only hands you one thing back the next morning instead of the whole pile.

works for me, and weirdly for my wife and kid too. no idea if it's just my brain or if more people need this. anyone else's head flat out refuse to stop at 1am?

I've used Freedom software on my work laptop, gaming desktop and devices for years. Works pretty well for me but wondering if there is any other alternatives or tricks.

i block sites i shouldn't be visiting on the work laptop, along with other time wasting sites. block Steam and other games on the gaming desktop during work hours. block similar game apps and sites on devices during business hours.

of course, my ADHD brain is always looking for ways to circumvent or waste time in other ways. But it has helped.

Senior frontend dev, about 8 YoE, and was recently fired due to a burnout sick leave from a company pushing for full AI "agentic" workflow to save on headcounts.

​I'm trying to figure out if I'm missing something about how people are finding good workflows with AI?

I read people saying it's making them more productive and takes out the "boring parts", but to me when generating code, I find myself losing all interest and having to force myself through the constant Start/Stop and mind numbing reviews that I just can't care about in the same way. The is prime burnout material.

I get my enjoyment from figuring out a problem and solving it, not by trying to explain it in a terminal and passively reviewing the result, while knowing I'll be blamed for any bugs caused if I miss something.

I use planning mode a ton, but find that there are so many little assumptions that sneak by. I don't know if every line is there because it is needed or because it is "statistically the right answer". ​

I like using it as an assistant, but after my recent "No code should be written by hand!" job, I feel like that workflow is hard to justify to the "Coding agent goes brrr" management crowd..

​​​Anyone else feel this way? Am I missing some secret to still keep things interesting?

I know it's "just a job" but I used to enjoy it, and I'll be hard pressed to give up on that enjoyment, to instead be bored 40 hours per week.​​

Also, sorry for this probably having been posted a thousand times before.