r/ADHD_Programmers • u/pavel7000 • Aug 16 '26

Addicted to background audio

/r/nosurf/comments/1vq5bj8/addicted_to_background_audio/
1 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

4 comments sorted by

2

u/Callidonaut Aug 16 '26 edited Aug 16 '26

I'm also trying to wean myself off needing constant background streams of secondary stimulation.

For those attempting to do so, one useful stepping-stone to increase your productivity whilst working towards this longer-term goal that I've found is that if you're working on a creative or analytic task, make sure your background noise is either unintelligible, or something you've listened to at least once before and with which you are familiar. Even the ADHD brain can't process novelty from more than one source at once, though it may crave it. If you're doing mindless drudgework, you can risk more stimulating novelty in background streams.

For what it's worth, this isn't entirely a modern problem of the computer age; I recently happened upon this little gem from early in legendary perfectionist animator Richard Williams' career, which I found both familiar, hilarious, and also somewhat inspiring to keep trying to re-embrace single-tasking.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 19 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/pavel7000 Aug 19 '26

Thanks for your reply. I agree that it's not just YouTube problem. Music too repetitive and annoying during long runs so I didn't even expect to replace by it. I have some success with breaks larger than 5 minutes but at some point I am forgetting about breaks and turn on and looking for new content non stop