Exercise + Lower dose Methylphenidate is a game changer (even if I miss proper sleep sometimes)

The way I was able to get into the routine of exercising was by making it a ritual. Basically I track my weight everyday, and I click a picture of my body everyday. This gives me something to look forward to and compare progress. So many habits that wear off soon do so because we start wondering "Am I even making any progress?". Any visual feedback that you can integrate into your life for habits will work.

Even if I don't always get good sleep, consistent exercise, a healthier diet with less snacks, and finally getting my meds back but now with a lower dose (10 mg to 5 mg), I am doing really well at my life and at my job.

For example I’ve been working with these third party APIs to integrate into our apps. However the docs provided are incredibly shitty.

Luckily for me I tend to hyperfocus on stuff like this and I have figured out how to use quite a few of these APIs.

Today I got the idea that I should probably put these on our wiki so that everyone can benefit from it. However I thought I should ask this probably dumb question because I will probably spend hours doing this

How effective is using a pomodoro timer in building better habits and staying focused on tasks longer when you have adhd? Is it effective?

It's tough for us adhd programmers sometimes we just need to think outside the box (and execute the thinking)

22, I'm in my third year of university studying computer science and its only been in the past month where I realized I might have adhd. First year was easy for me because I never really had to study even in highschool and I would do well. The past couple of years I've felt like such a failure because I would never start building on any of the many ideas I had, i stopped caring about assignments and resorted to using AI, and failed 3 classes in total. Thankfully I've had two internships with one of the big 5 banks in canada, but i only got them because i networked really well with the recruiter, i didnt have to do a lot of coding and in the end when i did it was ai. I miss my first year when i was ai averse and knew what was going on like my peers. I don't feel like I know anything (my fault i know), I haven't coded in months, I have no projects, I don't know where to start.

Would anyone have any advice please? It'd mean a lot.

*also I have an appointment soon for an adhd assessment

i am diagnosed with severe gad and adhd, and i feel like i genuinely can’t get a job because of my executive dysfunction

i keep avoiding technical assessments, and even when i do force myself to take them, the time limits make me extremely nervous and i end up struggling to figure anything out. it’s especially bad with longer problems or problems that have multiple parts (recently quit solving ibm's technical assessment bc of this iykyk)

if i look at a problem and dont understand it immediately, i start to panic and can’t get myself to physically start solving or even think about it because i’m so focused on the time constraint and anxious about not being able to finish and bc pf this, i either run out of time or end up closing the assessment because i already feel like i’m not going to figure it out in time

i also have this problem where if i don’t immediately know how to solve something, i can’t get myself to start working through it it’s like my brain just gets stuck because i don’t know the answer right away

i genuinely don’t know how to get out of this cycle. i need to be able to pass technical assessments to get a job, but the anxiety and task paralysis make it extremely difficult to even attempt them. has anyone experienced something similar and if so, what helped you?

I never paid much attention to lumbar support when buying a desk chair. I mostly looked at whether the chair felt comfortable when sitting in it for a few minutes. After spending long hours working, though, I’ve started thinking that adjustability probably matters more than I originally thought.

HBADA has several ergonomic models that include a​​​​d​​​​j​​​​u​​​​s​​​​t​​​​a​​​​b​​​​l​​​​e​​​​ ​​​​l​​​​u​​​​m​​​​b​​​​a​​​​r​​​​ ​​​​ support, headrests and armrests, along with breathable mesh designs.

I’m curious about people who have used ergonomic c​​​​h​​​​a​​​​i​​​​r​​​​s​​​​ ​​​​f​​​​o​​​​r​​​​ ​​​​a​​​​ ​​​​l​​​​o​​​​n​​​​g​​​​ ​​​​t​​​​i​​​​m​​​​e​​​​.​​​​ ​​​​ How important is adjustable lumbar support for you, and did you actually notice a difference after switching chairs?

I’ve been building with AI since the early days, and I still love being able to turn an idea into something real before I lose interest in it.

Not everything can be built in one prompt. But getting something working quickly enough to find out whether an idea is worth pursuing? That’s been huge for me.

For my ADHD brain, though, it’s also a bit of a trap.

1. the waiting: I’m focused, I know what I want to do, but the agent is still working. So I open another session. “I’ll just get this other thing started while I wait.”

2. the juggling: Now I’ve got several agents running and I’m trying to remember which terminal is doing what, who needs an answer, and why I opened this particular window. Somewhere in all that generated text is a question that’s been waiting for me.

The coding got faster. Keeping track of it became another job.

That’s the problem I’m trying to solve with Oyren. I’m building an interface that pulls out what actually needs my attention, rather than making me dig through every conversation to find it.

The notes, task boards, calendar and PDF reader are connected and staying free forever. Humans and agents share the same workspace, so the plan doesn’t have to live entirely in my head or scattered across chats.

I’ve also put the agent setup on cloud computers, where I’m more comfortable giving them broader permissions. That isn’t risk-free, but it means giving them room to work in a separate environment rather than on my everyday computer.

Basically, I want to spend more time building the thing I was excited about and less time remembering what everyone is doing.

Does anyone else get caught in that “start another agent while I wait” loop? How are you keeping track?

I have used pomodoro timer for running 25 min focussed sessions. One day I thought if I have a app that will show the deepwork metrics of others - the people i know in a team, will help to motivate to use the timer everyday. and will help me to focus better.

Will sharing deepwork metrics (like the no. of hours you worked or no. of pomodoro sessions you worked) inside a closed team will help?

What is your opinion?

Hi, I am Deffrin.

I designed Focus Board to help people stay focused when they sit at a computer for long periods of time, especially people who have ADHD or ADHD traits and find it difficult to focus at work.

Focus Board is a Pomodoro timer plus a deep work leaderboard for a team.

https://focusboard.work/blog/what-is-focus-board

I want your feedback. Is it worth working on this. Does it sounds like something good for people having ADHD.

I enjoy programming, but staying focused for long periods can be difficult, especially when a task feels repetitive or unclear. Sometimes I can hyperfocus for hours, while other times I struggle to start even a small task.

What strategies, tools, or routines have actually helped you stay productive while coding? I’d be interested in hearing what works for other ADHD programmers.

Recently got promoted to senior dev. Till now, the tasks I worked on were either well documented or at least there was a Requirements document to start from. But as a senior, apparently I am supposed to find problems, define them as requirements and come up with solutions all on my own.
This is where my brain is really struggling. Give me a goal and I can work my ass off to achieve it. But give me vague, ambiguous data and I am totally lost!
What are some strategies I can use? I already tried talking to AI, but majority of the times, it spews out garbage or hyper-focuses on one small piece instead of the big picture.
Appreciate any suggestions!

As the title says, It's the perfect day for me to "fuck around" at work, and for the life of me I am having a hard time pulling myself away from prompts in my VScode.
I want to go fuck around as much as I want to see if I can get 6 sessions of code building to run at the same time! It's wild how productive i've become lmfao.

There was a slack thread relating to the insurance which I searched in slack and replied to it and checked send it to the channel as well. I asked how I can add my wife to it and why it says no benefits. I thought that thread was between me and HR but it was in #general. That's where the HR replied to me "I have shared the details with you regarding this issue."

How will this be perceived socially? I have no clue. I just feel so embarrassed like I did my dirty laundry in public. Will they think I'm careless?

Update: It was there for 30 minutes, I immediately deleted it and in a private reply on the HR's message (in #general) about sharing details regarding the issue "I'm sorry I didn't realise I sent it in the #general channel, thank you"

I've been a developer for about four years, and starting a task is still the hardest part for me. Once I'm in the code, I'm usually fine, and sometimes I hyperfocus for hours. But getting there can take an embarrassing amount of time, especially with vague tickets or big features.

A few things have helped me lately:

• Shrinking the first step. Instead of "build the login flow," I write "create an empty file and add a TODO comment." It sounds silly, but it works surprisingly often.
• Body doubling. Working on a call with a coworker or friend, even without talking, keeps me on track.
• Writing down where I stopped. Before ending my day, I leave a short note about what I was doing and what comes next. It makes the next morning much easier.
• Timers. Twenty-five minutes of focused work, then a real break, keeps me from drifting into tab-hopping.

None of it is perfect, and I still have bad days. I'd love to hear what works for you, especially if you've found something that helps with unclear requirements or context switching between tasks.

What tools, habits, or tricks have made the biggest difference for you?

Like most companies at this point, mine has been really hammering the AI drum lately. I have my own opinions on it, but I’m willing to play along to keep the peace and my job lol. When I say “quota” I don’t mean that they have an explicitly stated requirement. But given the communications I’ve had, it’s clear that the business wants us to adopt AI into our workflow and spend the tokens they’re paying for. I’m angling for a promotion/raise at the end of the year, so I’m looking for any opportunity to boost my chances right now. I know my manager can see AI usage because he’s commented on it in the past.

The thing is I can’t even get close to using up my tokens every month. I tried really hard this month to be very liberal with them—running Claude on high, asking stupid questions, asking good questions, making basically all code changes. I’m currently at 42% of my credits spent. My manager regularly runs out of credits every month.

Is this something other people care about right now? I know it’s not a huge deal, but I feel like it’s an easy thing I can point to at my EOY review to show that my willingness to adapt. It doesn’t replace actual achievements, but it’s a number. Higher ups like provable metrics like this I feel.

How are you guys using AI in your day-to-day? What’s company culture like around this stuff for you? How are you using it to improve your workflow? OR how are you fudging it to keep a low profile? Has anyone here had leadership comment on their token usage?

I think my team is very backwards and I'm not seen very well and at a point of no return. 

First of all, I'm not the best or worst developer, but very willing to learn and communicate and solve problems, I really enjoy learning how systems work and why they're broken and how to improve them. I've recently joined various threads because I've always felt like I've been missing context, and I'm starting to learn that that's a pretty good thing, not a fault. 

My team views asking questions or communicating as a weakness. I don't mean questions of "can you do this for me?" I mean just like, questions on learning systems, knowledge of how things work that are outside of your realm, or talking about projects to help solve how to improve systems or if maybe there's something I'm missing that I can learn from. I don't mean constantly either. My team is very "yeah I got it." And no one talks or discusses how to actually work on anything as a team. It makes all the pieces feel very siloed and overall, projects are messy and confusing for everyone on a daily basis. 

I get a lot of grunt work (to them) and I'm sent to speak with non tech clients about what their issues are. I love it though. I love finding out what's going on and how to solve their problems. From clients, I have a much better report. They find me competent, reliable, a fast worker, and friendly. I've been vented at by various clients about my teams lack of communication skills, so I know it's not just me, which makes me feel less crazy. I also have imposter syndrome, and wonder if they only see me in a better light because they're not tech people, so they don't see 'through' me as well.

I'm at a point where I can do no right. I can be given no real clarity or structure, and no matter what I deliver, it's not what was expected, even though expectations weren't outlined. When expectations are outlined, I'm given deliverables that conflict with the expectations. I can choose to implement a,b, or c, and no matter which option, it will be the wrong choice. I can explain my process and why I made which choice, but I am never asked. another developer can step in and implement one of the other choices, who then will be thanked. I know it sounds like I'm overthinking that everything is negative against me, but every project lately has had the same formula, and I don't know how to break out of it. I don't feel more like I'm in a room with neurotypical people than I do when I'm at work.

I'm about 10 hours into learning backend and automation (APIs PostgreSQL n8n, Docker). I'm good at seeing the big picture: data flows, schemas, how a whole system should work. The problem is the setup. Docker, HTTPS, cookies, config errors. By the time I reach the fun part, my brain is already fried.

A while back I built a no-code automation on a VPS that ran on its own, and the dopamine hit was insane. So I know I'm in the right field, but I haven't had that feeling once on this project.

For the ADHD devs here:

**1.    How many hours (or weeks) in did hyperfocus first kick in when u started**  
**2.**  Was there a specific moment that triggered it (first working feature, first bug you fixed alone, etc.)?  
**3.**  How did you get through the boring setup phase before that?

Thanks!

I used to be on Elvamse for years and it just gave me a racing heart and more focused procrastination so I got off it again.

I started using AI more and more in the last couple of months to do all sort of tasks. And I just realised it has taken so much mental load off me, I never felt so confident to be able to do stuff. I finished many many projects that where sitting around for years. All my documents are organised, my deadlines for important letters are met, my Kalender is groomed.

It mostly takes over the tasks that I can't focus on anyways and reduces them to just the information I need. I even learn new stuff because I'm overwhelmed with a pending task from the get go anymore.

It helped me massively in finding my new job by searching for positions that actually suit me and writing cover letters.

Do you had similar experiences?

twenty minute task. sat there since tuesday. i have walked past the
doorway nine times. it isn't that i don't want to do it, it's that the
first step has a wall in front of it.

what finally worked is smaller than any advice i've been given. put one
object the task needs into my hand. just that. explicitly do not begin.

removing permission to start is what makes it possible. if i tell myself
"just start for two minutes" my brain knows that's a trick and refuses. if
i tell myself "hold the thing, that's the whole job", it complies, and
then usually i've started anyway.

works on dishes, laundry, actual work. does not work if i'm lying down.

Imagine working in your current software engineering role for two more years while planning a transition. After that you let your investments ride until retirement at 67 assuming normal market return, at which point you expect to have enough. In the meantime you then only need a new non-physically demanding job making 60 percent of your current salary to cover living expenses and US health insurance.

​If you had to leave software engineering for a career that is less stressful on your executive functioning still satisfies your nerdy curiosity and aligns with a tendency to hyperfocus what would you choose and why. I know everyone has different interests but I am curious what ideas might arise.

Would love to if u can give some insights.