Hey all! I’m a software developer that was diagnosed with ADHD a few months ago.

My productivity went to complete shit during Covid and hasn’t recovered. Part of the issue is that I’ve learned body doubling is one of the most effective ways for me to get stuff done. And, unfortunately for me, no one has wanted to come back into the office. I’ve tried setting reminders for myself to get routine-but-not-daily tasks done, but those only worked for a couple weeks. Pomodoro timers the same.

Anyone have any tips for being more productive at work? Ideally oriented toward software development, but I’ll take anything.

  • @sunbytes
    6•2 years ago

    I find on the days where I’m getting constant focus breakers, that half-listening to a podcast can help me not have to spend “executive function points” every time I need to start working after my focus is broken (could happen 20-30 times a day).

    For example I’m waiting for someone to reply to a message, so rather than breaking coding focus, I just “hear” the podcast for a minute, and then switch back into the coding when possible.

    It’s very weird that it works, but it kind of forms a layer over the “second voice” in my brain and keeps me from wandering off for 15 minutes while I wait 30 seconds for someone to DM me back.

    Obviously it only works with lightweight stuff I can do with muscle memory (CSS, testing etc), and it takes a bit of practice, so maybe no good for your situation.

    Also don’t drink during the week. I notice how much my brain/motivation shuts down if I have so much as a single beer the night before.

    • loreasaurusOP
      2•2 years ago

      I don’t generally drink at all, so that part is easy haha.

      I’m definitely a “show on in the background” kind of person when I’m working from home. Podcasts I end up getting too into them and ignore my work.

      I find myself wandering when I’m doing anything requiring mental effort. Debugging a weird test (mocking axios requests is currently the bane of my existence), writing API routes, that kind of thing. Anything I can do without having to think too hard about it gets done pretty effectively. The problem is that I’m almost senior, so I’m expected to do the hard tickets!