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I break up my day. Like 10:30 is a run up and down stairs then 11:45 restroom. 1:30 lunch and a stroll outside. 3:15 restroom. 4:30 up and downstairs. Etc. Move around get the blood rolling. I make up reasons but my coworkers that know me well KNOW I’m trying to keep my wits about me.
This is brilliant thank you. I have considered going for walks since it's quite nice out and the office building is in a quiet private land. But my coworkers have expressed to me multiple times about how the person I replaced would go on "walks" and they were convinced he was just wasting time. I personally don't see one or two 10 minute walks throughout a 9 hour day a waste of time, but ever since I heard them complaining about it and how much they didn't like him I've been terrified to go do it or even speak up about how it might be helpful.
I told my manager I have ADD right off. They were super helpful asked if I needed “accommodations”. Nope just let me stretch my legs. People who smoke get breaks all the time just chuck it into that bucket. Good luck 🍀 oh and I keep a revolving stash of fidgets and desk doilies.
Honestly taking a quick walk is good for health reasons, if anyone says anything you could say your doctor advised you to get more steps in during the day or whatever. I think your coworkers were being judgy because they didn’t like that person but taking a real quick walk even just around the building isn’t hurting anyone and probably isn’t any longer than it takes someone else to smoke a cigarette or get water or make coffee
Eff your coworkers they are inhumane robots who are probably going to get heart disease and ddd young because literally breaking up \*sitting every 45 mins with just 10 body weight squats is shown to reduce all cause mortality (Dr. Rhonda Patrick). Walks are one of the healthiest things you can do for body or mind.
Why is it socially acceptable for people to take smoke breaks or instagram breaks but not walks / squats?
I don't have much else to add, I worked a desk job 40 hrs/week for 6 months before I absolutely lost my ish and went back to first response where my chaotic little brain could have some peace. Good luck!
And it also depends how high a performer you are (perhaps unfortunately). I’ve had directors and execs tells me “go on a 2 hour bike ride in the middle of the day if you need to. Whatever you are doing, keep it up” because the team I am tech lead of is constantly ahead of schedule, constantly developing better features, and every one of them tells their performance evaluators that I am the reason the team runs smoothly when other departments are struggling (it’s the jumping around to do a billion things that means I can constantly unblock team members or give them a direction to go in, combined with just insane hyper focusing on tech over the last 25-30 years meaning I know bits of everything and all sorts of weird bugs and solutions to stuff and can debug/spot issues faster than anyone on the team).
Do you have a standing desk? I do 30-90 mins sitting and then switch to standing. Standing combined with something on headphones can make the day go faster.
Taking a quick walk is good for health reasons, if anyone says anything you could say your doctor advised you to get more steps in during the day or whatever. I think your coworkers were being judgy because they didn’t like that person but taking a walk even just around the building isn’t hurting anyone and probably isn’t any longer than it takes someone else to smoke a cigarette or get water or make coffee
this is so real, I schedule lunch, and also will do 10 minutes in the bathroom twice a day lol. Just in there taking a deep breathe not actually using it. Too long of a stretch of work is killer.
I also take really long bathroom breaks. Half the time it's because I need space, and the other half is because I'm lactose intolerant and I'm in denial 🙃
I use time-boxing. What I *attempt* to do is be at my desk and working six hours a day: 07:00-09:00, 11:00-13:00 and 15:00-17:00.
In between those times I get to do whatever I want, which could be surfing the web, going for a walk, doing some chores or doing a bit more work etc
(of course sometimes people schedule meeting in my gaps that I have to adapt to)
*When* it works it is really, really great. I can get more than enough done in those six hours (plus the extra bits that I do in the gaps) and it means I don't need to slog my guts out for 60 hours. And I get to make progress in the rest of my life. But sadly when it doesn't work I sit down at the desk at 7:00 and don't get up until 19:00, often after having done zero work in the 12 hours and not really realised I've sat there pissing my life away for 12 hours until I finally get up.
And it has been a while at the moment since the time-boxing actually worked 🙁 And writing this I realise I've forgotten to even attempt it for weeks now.
This answers my question to your first comment. Just like yesterday, I finished at 8pm and really had a productive day, thought it would be the same today but I just keep scrolling on my phone wasting a day
Yeah, it has been a couple of months now since I've managed to put the time boxing into effect for more than the occasional day, which means my non work life is really suffering.
I feel so similarly. Don't most people in an office only really get 4 hours if work done in 8 hours anyway? Do you have any advice on how to get through your 60 hour week?
Same also Templates templates templates and OCD levels of Google Drive organization. I’d never get through it otherwise but I’m great at repeating my own self created repeatable processes: I can’t follow someone else’s organizational structure or reports to save my life but I have my own system and it works. I’d probably be screwed if I ever had to go back to Windows vs Mac though. At my last company I almost got fired by having a micromanaging boss combined with a rigid unintuitive software setup and robotic assembly line process built by someone else with no flexibility to work around it.
This so much. For a new task at my work, the SOP was a 15 page document in 5 sentence paragraphs, written by a philosophy PhD PM. I spent 20+hrs breaking it down into a 20 row to do list in Excel. My manager gave me talking to about time wasted, but co-workers all asked for a copy and praised me in reviews.
The hardest part for me is setting up all those processes, figuring out what works, ask that jazz. I’m knee deep in it now for a job I started a couple months ago.
Yah know... Some days I am sitting there logged in at work and I think about that story or whatever about some turtle that's sitting on top of a fence post like...
Yeah, dunno how I got here, kinda afraid of the way down.
What metric are you being evaluated by? It sounds dumb, but my supervisor needed to clarify that my metric is NOT number of emails sent.. or number of meetings attended.
My new perspective on my office job is that, all the time that I'm not physically typing on the keyboard.. I'm collaborating with everyone else.
The most efficient way to collaborate is to develop a good relationship with people.. so that they're comfortable sharing their "dumb" ideas with me. They're never really dumb ideas.
Even though it looks like we are wasting time.. the team is stronger as a whole.. I provide perspective on everyone else's projects.. and they mine. Our departmental output quality is higher and the younguns learn better... and less work for the senior engineers because we more effective delegate and advise.
OMG! I'm not the only one??
I used to be in customer support... But I moved to a more engineering role in one of the products at the company ..
But I still have all my logins to the support ticket systems...
And I'll just kinda scan recent support tickets when I'm bored and randomly comment helpful things or ping the support engineer that's assigned (usually a n00b)...
I'll catch stuff that falls between the cracks and sometimes can shave days off a customer getting something fixed just by taking the time to identify where n00bs go awry..
The time that their managers do not have cuz reasons...
So in this process, I've gotten pretty friendly with all of support and they'll just ping me questions when they're really stuck for it...
My current manager is kinda shrug about it... As long as my product isn't catching fire it's basically agreed that it's best to let me roam the ticket systems looking for problems to fix.
That sounds like a dream! I wish I could just roam our backlog for projects that interest me, instead of boring updates and crap that is probably important, but bores me out of my mind. Let me run wild and fix stuff I see broken. I'm actually working on a project I've been suggesting since I started two years ago, and it really helped my motivation levels. I built it in like, a week. But now I have other things to focus on, and I'm supposed to 'share' the workload of building the thing.
But I built it. It's my brainchild. Mine. My own. My, precious.
You gotta learn to let it go... You can't do everything and can't be everywhere at once. I know it's hard to share the workload... It's probably difficult for you to even think where you could draw a line to cut a chunk out as it's own bit in order to delegate it...
Just think of how well you will understand it after you've managed to explain it to someone else in detail... Let your co-workers surprise you with how they attack their piece of the problem...
This. When I was the Accounts Payable Clerk for a small company that was acquired, my until-then-manageable workload became a backlog of invoices due to all the meetings and trainings I had to attend for the transition. Cut to the days leading up to our blackout day, during which we would switch over to the parent company's software, and EVERY invoice has to be entered by that day. I was usually good at getting all my work done, even if I had to stay late to do it, but I was not good at asking for help or delegating. So now everybody finds out that I'm buried and getting behind when I need to get ahead and it's, "what can I help with?"
I couldn't divide my system into steps and give early steps to other people. I had to instead give them a stack of invoices and check their work after, because at the end of the day, I'm responsible for the accuracy of the entries. Sometimes, fixing their errors took longer than doing it myself, which I think is a big part of why I was hesitant to share the load. I was convinced it would be faster if I did it myself. "How can I help?" By actually allowing me to get it done. They recused me from meetings for the last few days, and It helped immensely.
Appreciate it! Logically, I *know* I can delegate, and it might actually work out better once someone else puts their eyes on it because they might have cool improvement ideas I haven't thought of. It's just that's where my current hyperfixation is, therefore everything else is boring.
Because everything else is boring it's taking twice as long to get done, because my brain is fighting me the whole time. Because it's taking twice as long, it's pushing me into the "I'm not doing a good job and I suck" feedback loop, which is demotivating, and I'm going even slower.
I like the job (low code/no code automation), the company, and the team, but the things I'm working on are not stimulating enough so I cling to anything that sparks joy.
I usually have problems limiting myself to 60hours. It’s easy for me to focus and get lost within my excel spreadsheets (pretty much tune out the rest of the world). I am a workaholic and hadn’t stopped even with 3 kids. Which has led to my house never being clean and my eventual diagnosis of adhd.
That's the real nice thing about working remote / no fixed hours. I work fewer hours, but get more work done because they are almost all productive hours...if I'm going to be productive, I go do something else.
For those that don't do well in it, office 8-5 is a waste for everyone, in so many ways. (But happy to have a place for people to go, that don't have good options or prefer it.)
It’s apparently less than that. I was listening to someone who claimed the average person does about 2.5hours a day of actually productive work. The rest is fillers or talking etc.
There’s a book called Deep Work I keep meaning to read (started, never finished) that talks about this idea as well.
But to answer your original question, not too well as it turns out.
I can only get an hour tops or zero hours of work from myself
I’m resentful, tired, annoyed, and restless most of the time im working
I feel imprisoned and it’s torture
I spent years looking for the job I have currently. As an account manager it's a very frontloaded career, it's a lot of really hard work at the start to build relationships and find clients and develop a book of business.
But once you have that established you basically get paid all day to call people and shoot the shit and process their orders for them.
2 years in I spend my day listening to interesting podcasts or YouTube videos while processing pretty simple orders.
I regularly get more done in a single 20-25 minute spurt than some people do in an entire day. But I need frequent breaks if in the office, too much stimulation and concentrating is really hard so I get overloaded. My meds definitely help, but they don’t make it not happen, it just takes longer and I can handle more before needing isolation.
Same, I wish I didn’t need to continue working at home during the weekends just to be able to keep up.
And how to do it? Well, try to find something you don’t find boring. I work in projects, and they’re a very fun mess for me. Keeps me really busy which is good, but I have some weeks that are just for filling paperwork, and those are by far the worst.
Have to keep food on the table, though… And certainly don’t want to get fired again.
This! I am coming to the realization though that I should work less. It's healthier. As my manager put it, generally my 6 hours are the equivalent of 8-12 hours of colleagues. He said to just stick to the work hours.
Sometimes, because of the inability to focus combined with guilt or responsibility and drive, one makes 10 to 12-hour days. Whilst generally it isn't efficient or healthy.
I'm transitioning to a new role in my company, and for some god awful reason I'm excited because it should mean I actually only should have 40 hr weeks. Like... I've become so accustomed to this BS that 40 hours doesn't seem that bad
Oh my god this hurts. I’m salary and I might lose my job for working different hours than the schedule I made (?) even though I work WELL over the salaried 40 hours. I procrastinate my ass off though. Like when they look at cameras, I’m working .. but somehow not actually getting anything done ?
This is it for me. The I-don't-want-to-be-homeless override.
Also I try to find roles that are to do with business change so opportunities for varied tasks instead of same thing every day.
And lastly, It funds my hyper fixation hobbies
After 26 years of badly managing ADHD, I've found two strategies that are very successful for me:
* **The Constructed Inconvenience:** Every day when I sit down at my desk, the first thing I do is place my phone underneath a paperweight. Any time I want to check my phone, I have to hold the paperweight up with my other hand. I can't set it back down until it's on top of my phone. Holding the phone gets progressively more annoying the longer I do it, so I'm unlikely to be on it for more than a minute or so at a time.
* **The Gentle Panopticon**: I hate to admit it, but the best improvement to my focus was being moved to share an office with a more senior coworker. Find a coworker who is better at staying on task than you, and position your desk so that they can always see your screen. Even if they never say a word, you'll have a constant peripheral awareness that when you slack off, someone else might see it, (and conversely, when you focus and do your job well, someone else might see it!)
Basically, reframe things that you *shouldn't* do as active decisions that require constant awareness and re-commitment. You don't need to go too far with this - it's not about punishing or surveilling yourself (if you do that, it'll stress you out too much, and you'll burn out and stop adhering to the structure). The goal is to add tiny bits of friction to your life, and then trust your own tendency to follow the path of least resistance to guide your decisions.
Honestly, the "Constructed Inconvenience" strategy works so well, I've started applying it everywhere. At home, I set my yoga mat in front of my desk so I have to step over it whenever I want to play videogames and suddenly I'm exercising way more. My guitar goes on my bed every morning so that I'm more likely to practice before I go to sleep at night. My first cup of coffee is too hot to drink, which gives me time to fill out a morning journal while it cools. Find (or create) mundane inconveniences in your life and tie them to habits you want to build or break.
Edit: Also meds. I never realize quite how bad I've let things get until I refill my prescription and suddenly I enjoy my job and care about being good at it again.
I've been working as a programmer for a year now and honestly, feedback whether I'm doing good or not would be much appreciated. My team just sorta lets me do whatever I want as long as I do my part, which is fine, but sometimes I get no will to do the tasks and feel like I haven't done anything by the end of the day. Fairly frustrating when you don't have anyone to be accountable to
I have this same problem! It's the usual ADHD story - get a new job, pick things up quickly, impress everyone so they think I can be trusted on my own. Then they stop checking in on me and I stop getting things done.
That's why the "coworker looking over your shoulder" works so well. When I'm floundering alone, I'm filled with that looming dread that a deadline will pass or someone will ask to see my progress, and I'll have to admit I haven't done shit. But it's dread in anticipation of *future* events, which I find (like a lot of ADHD folks I'm sure) isn't a very effective motivator.
Replacing that with the smaller but more immediate pressure of a coworker seeing me slack off in real time is both less stressful and more motivating.
I use a relatively small dose of Adderall in the morning. The tricky thing is, whatever I'm thinking about when the Adderall kicks in, that's what I'll likely be thinking about for the next several hours, so I have to take it when I feel confident I'll be able to wrench my focus onto something important, otherwise I'll spend half the workday workshopping a TTRPG one-shot or something.
Sit-stand desk, body doubling with the homies, tons of walking breaks, scheduled days off, listening to background music, coming to terms with the fact that it’s impossible to be productive for a whole 8 hours. You let us know if you figure it out 🙃
I wish I had body doubling with work so I could get my documentation done. My friends are also at work and I wouldn’t want all my coworkers to know I’m struggling. Is there an option for this somewhere?
Could be a great social platform idea though. If someone knows code I’ll handle business parts lmao.
I used to body double with a coworker, also suspected ADHD, it was amazing. We would check on each other and when Yellow for too long on Teams just ping and for sure the other one was rotting in bed or something. Quick chat and something random, and then « ok focus time » of camera on and muted mics.
She left the company 2 weeks ago and I’ve barely got anything done. Atrocious.
Do you have any WFH ability? I call my friends who also WFH and we just chat while we all do our own thing. Really helpful for documentation, refactoring, boring data pipeline watching, etc.
Yeah I can WFH doing notes. I haven’t wanted to bother friends with this but I I think that this could be good with my husband. We could just stay on a video call and he could check in whenever but also do whatever he wants to do around the house/play video games/whatever. That could work! Thank you!
My sister does this at home so it’s prob not allowed at work, but she’d stream herself doing a studying stream so she’d have the impression of ppl watching and having to do smth. Also, you don’t necessarily have to tell your coworkers you’re acc struggling, you could for example say that it’s just smth that makes stuff easier and more productive for you (in itself that doesn’t directly imply struggle), and that having all acquaintance do smth at the same time/place helps (chances are it’ll help them too tbh).
Idk how much you can avoid your coworkers knowing you struggle if you ask someone to body double (the less you explain why it works and phrase it more as a funny little quirk, the more plausible deniability you have). Maybe you can phrase it like smth a friend of yours does at work and you wanna try it out bc you can’t believe smth so simple works?
By working on stuff that is well below my potential, but in line with what I can tolerate. And by pasting on a happy, can-do mask that occasionally cracks. And depression.
Kinda same. I work as an inventory manager in a warehouse and it’s far below the career path laid out for me (computer science degree, I’d be making at least double what I make now if I’d stuck with it instead of soul searching for 2 years and finding myself here). But the work includes a good bit of physical labor while also being 0% customer service. I literally can’t be at the computer all day, I have to get up and move to check inventory physically. And I’m working towards proficiency so that I can share an hour of my time every day to helping the rest of the operational team who does pretty much all the physical labor, which will be an ever better break in the day for me.
I have tons of PTO saved up and started taking off 1 day a month. I also realized that every other month I could take of 2 days and still accrue PTO. It’s been super beneficial for getting things done I didn’t get to do during the week and also for taking some time off for me. I work government though which I believe tends to have better PTO than most jobs.
Aww that sucks! We started off with a good amount of sick and vacation time, but I barely ever used it for the first year which is how I saved up so much.
My husband went from bartending to an office job for 4 years when the pandemic hit. It was the most depressing thing for him. He despised it and only kept it as long as he did for the amazing insurance for our kid and me.. once he left it and went back to the restaurant life he was so much happier and excited for work again.
The office life isn’t for everyone and that is okay. Find what keeps you happy.
ADHD or not - no one is capable of 8 hours of total focus and work. You’re not alone. Just play the game and look busy and do enough to not get fired, nothing more
Yeah I have had to have people remind me that no matter what the job there are some times where things are slower or people get tired or distracted. Few people can consistently work 100% of the time. Maybe I zoned out for fifteen minutes but Chad over there was gossiping with people while looking like he was answering emails. The only difference is Chad doesn’t feel bad about it whereas I have to stop myself from feeling constantly guilty that I’m wasting time I’m being paid for if I’m not doing something every second
I feel guilty for wasting time, but also, my coworkers who seem to work the most amount of time don’t always put the highest quality of work. I pride myself on the details, but that can be tedious and take me more time to complete. I try to accept that and recognize my strengths.
If you have flexibility in managing your own day-to-day activities, pick what your brain is interested in at that moment and do that. If it’s not working, switch to a different task. My job requires lots of different tasks, some small and quick, some larger that take days to complete. As long as I meet deadlines and stay on budget, I’m okay. If I start a task and notice my attention slipping too much, I switch to something else. I’ve been doing this for about 9 years now (by far the longest I’ve ever stayed in a job!!), so I’m pretty good at realizing when I’m wasting time on a task or when I’m having a “good brain day” and can do one of my more focus-heavy tasks. Today was not one of those days… I took a couple hours of PTO at the end of the day when I realized I wasn’t going to get anything done.
Edit to add: sometimes I try to “reset” my brain if I’m having trouble focusing by going on a walk outside, drinking ice cold water, or (if I’m at home) doing jumping jacks or stretches. It sometimes works…
That's definitely why I thought this job would be much better. It's some developing, some consulting, some sales, and some QA Testing. But over time these things sound less and less fun to switch back and forth from.
It's definitely way better than coding on one feature for days. It's just the act of forcing myself to do repetitive tasks over and over on a weekly basis. Regardless of the number or variation of tasks there are.
My bills keep me at work. Otherwise I would sit on my phone all day. I do have days where I absolutely cannot focus but I have to find a way to do something tangible by 4:30 so I don’t get fired.
Oh, and staying over to make up if I’ve had a bad brain day but telling all my subordinates that if they stay one minute over they must record time… yeah, hypocrisy, but… kind hypocrisy? I don’t want them burning out, or working for free!!!
To clarify, this is my first 40 hour in-office job. It’s definitely a little better than being remote because I get the genuine social interaction, the work vs home atmosphere, and the buddy system to keep me more motivated and focused. But it is still really hard to continue doing the same thing every day for 8-9 hours straight.
I made it work for 5 years because it came with constant promotions and different responsibilities. I claimed to be a workaholic and would come in on Saturdays to help our department make end of month.
Eventually I stopped getting raises, promotions, and recognition. I climbed the ladder as far as they would let me. They stopped promoting me because I was too good where I was.
During covid I was classified as an essential employee. Thirty others in my department were furloughed. About ten of us were classified as essential and we fell behind having to do the work of forty. We didn't catch up for months.
Things eventually went semi back to normal. The powers that be decided to keep our department understaffed because technically we didn't make the company money.
They attempted to automate most of our tasks, but that was a huge shit show due to the IT department never informing us of the next patch and what to expect or the changes we needed to make. We would make the changes and then they would release another patch. Fuck you John..
The essential employees never got any recognition for holding down the fort through covid. I fell into a slump and left shortly after.
I guess even a workaholic can burn out.
TLDR: Room for growth, raises and recognition.
I'm definitely the punching bag in my role at this job at times. I struggle with motivation when I feel like people are upset at me, and it makes the whole cycle much worse
I automate tasks I don't want to do to and work closely with my interests, in that I foster a good enough relationship and trust with my boss so I'm given some choice on projects that pique my interest and let me hyperfocus.
Multi-tasking / simultaneously listening to music or watching a video, sit-stand desk so I can stand and boogie while working and regular breaks. WFH helps.
Perspective. Similar to you I have an extensive employment history unable to keep due to adhd and as much as I love my job now, i can feel the familiar feeling of wearinesss on the precipice. But I have an incredible boss and cushy, flexible role compared to the other fields I worked. i am a believer that we work to sustain the activities we love. So I'm already lucky in that I like what I do now. Not taking that for granted
I find front loading the day helps. I try start as early as I can, usually 8am but hoping to get myself to 7:30am eventually. Then I find getting outside and getting a walk or exercise at lunch helps. I think getting a full hour of break helps too if you can at lunch. I also find noise cancelling headphones helps, recently I’ve found drum and bass helps tune my brain signals the right amount to turn off noise enough to help focus. I have the Sony WH-1000XM5 (Sony has the worst naming systems, people colloquially call them the XM5s). Good noise cancelling helps I can’t believe I used to be able to work in an office before I had them.
Also, blocking out certain parts of the day or even a whole day a week for focused working I find helpful. I try not have meetings on Fridays so I can do focused work, especially cause co-workers are usually extra slack on Fridays so meetings are never as productive on Fridays. I also like to try work from home on Fridays as much as I can too, so that I can have focused time in the quiet where no one can bother me. Also means I can use text to speech if I need to do any writing but I’m having a typing-writing block - I just set up a transcription and ramble at it as if I’m explaining the thing to a friend or co-worker, then I edit it to be coherent as a written doc
Oh also you cannot underestimate how much of a difference an electric sit stand desk can make to your productivity and to help when you have brain fade. I find it significantly helps when I have that blood flow to the brain zone out in the afternoon to change to standing
I am also an exhausted vegetable. I get nothing done at home at all. I've stopped attempting to make dinner when I get home. But I'm also not eating breakfast... or lunch. Which is why I need some help figuring this life style out.
Well, I work from home. It’s the best thing ever for me. 1, no one knows that I’ve completely a week worths of work in 2 days or I did nothing for a day. 2, I function very well on a schedule(even though emergency situations pop up). 3, I strategize and plan(everything must be planned!!). I plan how much work I must get done before I’m able to take 10 or 15 min break. 4, I’m able to take multiple breaks without people watching. I found that taking breaks often resets your brain. 5, No one can judge me for being me.🥹
I try to take my lunch really late, like 2pm, so that the rest of the day goes by very quickly. I eat my lunch at my desk at the normal time, then on my lunch break I go on a bike ride or somn.
I really should do that. A lot of my coworkers either don't eat or eat at their desk while working. I prefer to take a break, but I've never considered eating while working and then taking a break out and about. I'm going to try this. Thank you
I work in an open seating office (and WFH a couple days a week), which means that anyone can sit anywhere at anytime. All of the desk set-ups are identical, and you take all your belongings with you every day.
It’s the BEST. I can literally just get up and move somewhere else if I’m having trouble focusing. We have a patio and chairs outside where we can work. A cafeteria. Chairs facing the windows, etc.
I had an internship with this set up... but everyone sat in the same place every day and there was only one or two options left. So I was practically forced to choose a permanent spot like everyone else.
I only do stuff when it’s an emergency and my job is to solve unexpected issues that pop up. It fits me well because the issues are always different so it keeps things interesting, and being “distracted” by whatever comes up is part of the job. Even still, I’m on my 5th “career” and expect I’ll probably keep switching.
When I was in an entry level process driven role, I really struggled and would spend most of my day doing nothing and then rushing through it right before deadlines. In my opinion, there are some roles that are just not suitable for people with ADHD.
Got a job as it consultant, mostly do household stuff/play video games until I really have to get stuff done for client deadlines. Cramp everything I should have done over the last days in a few hours and then repeat the whole process...
I do some consulting in my new job too, and it's motivating when clients really need something and are actively working with you. But the worst for me is when there's down time to get the busy work done. I'm good for about 45 minutes before I just want to get up and walk around or stare at my phone.
When I got hired at my current employer about 6 years ago, it was as senior customer support ... And everyone was in the office...
I'd get whatever after an hour or two, get up to get a snack... Wander over to the junior support team's area just hang out and chat...
And end up randomly assisting on a few cases before finally being told by their manager I was being disruptive and too loud...
Which is totally fair - I do tend to get loud and excitable... And in any case I had my own cases to look into back at my desk so...
I’m in a similar situation, I have been working in an office job for some time, and my parents urged me to stick with it because if I job hop, I won’t look committed. I legitimately dislike paper work and processing orders but I thought I had to force myself in order to earn money. It ended up destroying my mental health within 2 years and during the most stressful months I also had physical symptoms like indigestion and fatigue.
What really prolonged this was that I was a fast learner and there was a large amount I had to study so during the first year, I spent a lot of the time training and studying. everyone had high hopes because I picked things up fast. However, once the work focused on output, I quickly became tired and had difficulty concentrating. I was terrified of being a disappointment, which later ended up happening.
It turns out, I need a job that requires endless learning and less mundane tasks that require concentration. I’m working on switching to this career now.
I don't have a lot of hyperactive symptoms, so this may not be as applicable for you, but I'm also a programmer, also switched from hobbyist to professional, and have also had times where I simply could not force myself to care about work for that long every day.
For me, it has a lot to do with the team and project I'm on. If I'm not being challenged I almost want to put a bullet in my brain. I just do not care if all you're asking me to do is shuffle some configuration files or build boiler plate crud apps. When I'm working on a team with really good developers and we're building something cool though, I'm all over it. I can hyperfocus through pretty much the whole work day.
I take walks during breaks (smokers always get breaks), wear headphones, use timers because calendar blocking doesn’t work for me.
I’m able to pace when I work from home and I have a stand up desk at home.
Medicine, a journal to keep track of everything I do and everything that needs to get done, and lots of Excel to do all my thinking and number-checking for me - plus noise cancelling headphones with plenty of music. Been here just about 7 years and things are great. On days when there was nothing to do I could skip the medicine and just space out for 8 hours.
Also a programmer and also struggle. Pomodoro time blocking and instrumental music helps. Pausing notifications on Slack for those 30 minutes. Closing browser tabs. Not joining unnecessary meetings. I watch general meetings or informational presentations, like the all hands or presentations from other teams, afterwards at 2x speed.
For the not so healthy coping strategies, I officially work “part time” and tend to work full time to make up for it. I spend way too much time going over and over my code before feeling confident enough to create an MR, and even then I feel apologetic asking for a CR. Imposter syndrome is extremely common in programming because it’s actually impossible to estimate time so we always get it wrong and if it’s a deadline, we’re constantly behind and under pressure to finish. For me, it’s my own sense of shame that I “should” be better at this by now and I kind of punish myself to keep to my estimates even though my team is pretty relaxed. So, not great and something to talk about with a therapist if I ever find one.
I audit other people's work, so it allows me to hyper focus on the tiniest details, and I have to be a subject matter expert in 3 to 5 different functions in a multi thousand person company. I have to be able to accurately determine various guidelines and processes are being performed correctly by our team members. So I constantly research process guides and knowledge bases. Every time I see a mistake I have to document it, if it needs to be corrected I have to email the team member, their leader and next level leader, then issue an error in a data base. The errors can affect other people's bonuses or their ability to remain in a higher tier position. The work itself is so perfect for the way my brain works, some times I have to work out a full time line to see who made the error and when. I know it's pure evil but I excel at it and out perform my entire QA team. Everything else in my life is a chaotic mess of barely contained chaos, but my work allows me to work at my own pace, without interruptions, wearing headphones and blasting jpop and metal all day. I make plenty of money, I own my own condo, and I play a shit ton of Magic the Gathering the rest of my time when I'm not hanging out with my awesome wife. She understands how my disability work and helps to keep me more accountable.
I get up A LOT. Like every hour I at least go to the bathroom, take a lil walk to the end of the hall, look out the window.
It also helped to have a really flexible job. At my job you just have to get your 40 in somehow. Some days I work 10 hours, some days I only work 1.
Having snacks also helps. My whole diet during the week probably consist of snacks.
If you can, make friends with the person near you, so you can kind of mirror them lol.
Good luck!
I am not in this boat, but whenever I was a college student during covid, I would go to coffee shops all the time and work from there. Even though I work onsite now, I try to work at a coffee shop whenever possible!
Managing expectations with my manager, who I lucked out a lot with and will miss when he leaves.
I work in IT so a lot of my work is immediate problems that need immediate solutions and give immediate positive feedback when done. Project work I was just upfront that it'll get done, probably on time, but it may not look like I'm working all the time. He doesn't really care as long as shit gets done, and most of my project work is self assigned anyway (he lets me just find shit to automate and do it).
I didn’t. ADHD, little bit autistic, experienced peak burnout fr trying to live a life that wasn’t aligned. Turned into depression and ones at the point where I’d rather die than continue. So…
I’m quitting my job August 2nd and training by replacement now. I literally couldn’t do the work any longer. My mind and body won’t allow it and medication helped me simply get through that hell vs helping me thrive.
I want to thrive. I can’t do that in my current state.
No clue what’s next. Fuck it.
There’s no paycheck nor comfort worth that struggle and the way it’s changed me.
Heal first. Then thrive or die.
My wfh job gives us unlimited PTO and my days can have as many similarities as novelties. My boss is also pretty chill when it comes to needing time off for mental health or any other reason. One of my coworkers takes off almost an entire consecutive month every year to do his side hustle. Also, it’s a startup, which can be an interesting place to work when you need novelty to thrive—my boss is super open to me learning about other departments and helping with tasks that aren’t really in my JD if I’m interested in it.
Software engineering. Work from home. In the beginning of my career it was tough as I was consulting and traveling a lot.
I got into lead technical role about 6 years ago. So I’m largely left to my own devices. Some days I work 1-2 hours, and some days 8-10 hours. Usually around 6-7. I lean more technical architecture and solutioning. So these are long term initiatives and not a lot of daily pressure.
But, sometimes it’s still hard.. this condition doesn’t make it easy at all. I’m fortunate to have a job where I have lots of flexibility.
Most jobs can truly be done in 2 - 4 hours. I get up and walk my dog, come home and work until the momentum is gone. Workout at lunch and work until the momentum is gone. Usually this warrants a few hours of solid work.
I really enjoy my field and am the only person in it at the company I work for, so I am constantly diving super deep/reading tons into topics. The topics are also a very broad variety, which spices things up. Also, I regularly get up and go on walks (outside) and chat with people.
Another big thing is I regularly ask for feedback. Often, I feel like I'm doing a poor job but when I ask about how I'm doing, the feedback is always very positive, so I feel more relaxed.
Lots of reminders and calendar events set to keep me in line. Rules to manage my inbox and schedules break periods where I can let my mind wander a bit before I force myself to try to focus for the next hour. And working longer hours when I get behind.
I'm the same way, but the hyper focus only lasts a few consecutive days. Then I'm just a ball of anxiety because I'm afraid my coworkers can tell I'm losing focus and motivation and getting on my phone more often.
Nobody actually works 40 hours with these types of jobs, power through a couple hours, then take a lunch break, have a smoke, go for a walk, whatever you need to recharge, then power through a couple more, then take another break, then maybe one or two more at most, leave the menial tasks for the end of the day so you can tackle them once your brain is starting to be uncooperative lol also if you’re good at your job, you can probably do just 5-6 hours of focused work and still be as productive as others.. that’s what I do, it has helped to see how little my coworkers seem to get done.. I was like oh I guess I don’t gotta try so hard.. remember to work your wage, and good luck!
I might be at my desk 40hrs. But I'm not working 40hrs. I have plants, nano tanks, 3d prints and laser cutting going on constantly. I have 4 screens plus my Playstation. 45 minutes of work, 15 minutes of distraction.
It's called the pomodoro technique
Never around long enough. Got fired from my first 3 jobs because I couldn’t keep up in an accounting job, asked too many questions in a manufacturing job that they wouldn’t train me in, and something else at another place that was a total non-joyous place to work. But that all between the ages 17-20.
I finally found an IT job that was a lot of moving around dealing with installs and Helpdesk trouble tickets that they couldn’t figure out on the phone.
Been doing that for 30 years. Variety and change kept me interested and motivated until I got a job writing sql queries for reports. Drove me nuts sat in one place all the time doing one thing. My productivity dropped to doing 1/3 of what I could. I hated it.
Went back to the ‘fixing IT stuff’ job. I guess I’ll drop dead under someone’s desk one day when I’m 75 plugging in a computer that is “oh, it’s plugged in, we double checked” and my heart stops.
Diagnosis and meds helped but by that time I was 50. Thanks for all the wasted years ‘US medical system’. failing to see the obvious each time I’d see them about some other thing all listed as symptom of ADHD. When I got diagnosed they even tried to fight it saying it was a fad. Hmm, a fad eh? Since I was 6 in 1981? Yeah. Great fun those fads.
My room is a fkn pigsty, Im burnt out as hell, my bathroom is probably low key growing a new brand of bacteria, I've gotten fat from the lack of exercise and I'm hitting new personal lows in my mood.
Yeah its brilliant love it.
I have a 9/80 schedule... I schedule all my appointments that I need on the fridays I have off. I don't have to worry about missing work.
I work out Monday thru Thursday in the evening, Saturday, and sunday in the morning. I shop for groceries on the weekend. I have time on the weekends to hang out with family and friends.
The one thing I struggle with is doing laundry on a set schedule.
I don't like it, but I tolerate it. And if it ever gets too much to bear, I always remind myself of the even worse jobs I could be doing...
I did factory work for a while, never again. They are almost always toxic work environments, you bear the brunt of it for having ADHD. It is hard on your body with repetitive motion and heavy lifting. I remember putting in 10-12 or even 14 hour days, 6-7 days a week, so much of my life robbed from me. Worst of all, I would be left with no time or energy to do what what i enjoyed after work.
To me, office jobs aren't that bad.
I am a litigation paralegal, I spend all day going down weird research rabbit holes
Works pretty much perfectly for me, I could literally do it all day every day until I run out of gas, it feeds my ADHD
You need to find fulfillment in your job - seek some therapy bro i mean it.
Everyone works 40h per week, and many work more... Asking "how do you survive" is either being extra dramatic or you have issues that won't be solved within a reddit post.. I would just go to a psychologist honestly but idk
Luckily, with most of my positions I’ve had bosses that care more about what I get done than when, so they’re usually not counting my hours. Between that and the fact that I will work evenings if my brain happens to be cooperating, I usually don’t sweat being a little flexible with my office hours. I will come late or leave early, but also come early and stay late, depending on what I’m doing. I don’t think it’s hurt me so far.
WFH tech I was 9:30-5 with lunch. Job now is 8-5 flex hours but they emphasize 40 hours or overtime and WFH M/F. Internship at midwestern corp was 8-5 commute and that sucked.
Lots of coffee and energy drinks. Also my job is intense, high stakes and fast paced enough to keep my attention at pretty much all times. There’s always something critical to get “distracted” by. For reference I work in institutional banking
It's hard. I can't believe I still have this job myself but to be fair, I am running away to try something new in about a month so... maybe I shouldn't be the one giving advice here. But I will say that I've been sitting in a cubicle 40 hours a week for quite a long time now (for me) and it never gets easier. There just happen to be aspects of this job that I really enjoy, like my boss who is the sweetest guy ever (and also has ADHD). I'm fortunate enough that I've been able to take care of my mental health fairly well as my boss will let me take a mental health day off if I ask for it. Asking for it is another question but having that policy in place is helpful (this isn't just for me, it's everyone at my work). Also, because I'm in my own space, I kinda have the freedom to do things my way. Not gonna lie, I am distracted and doing other stuff pretty often but it's not a problem for me as long as I get all my work done by the end of the week and I make it look like I'm focused when people walk by. So basically, faking it? I really don't think I could last here forever and that's a shame because I like where I work. But alas, the brain wants to move on.
I think it doesn't bother me because I'm basically alone in an opposite corner of the office. There's a bit more fuck-about opportunity when I get bored or have to Google a celebrity age for no good goddamned reason.
I’m a mechanical engineer. We receive assignments and are left to our own devices. So sometimes I come in late, leave early, long lunches or stay late when I’m in the zone. Take whatever breaks you want or just shoot the shit with your work buddies.
Only issue is meetings they suck. But I can sometimes just be on my laptop doing other stuff.
I work for myself and just what you said earlier I literally only plan on 4 hours of “deep work” a day. But basically self employment is super hard but I would rather do that than feel all personality and soul get sucked out of me at a corporate job. When I was working in an office I would get fake tattoos from inkbox to switch things up, and I’d try to go out doing fun things at night like swing dancing bc you can go alone but find people to dance with!
Im a developer and kind of a workoholic.. love solve puzzles and O get obsessed until I get it done... O try to avtually step away arround 6pm to be with my family and do my other passion... cooking
I’ve been in software engineering for nearly 20 years. I finally got on meds at the beginning of this year, but prior to that I would often have days where I got absolutely nothing done, just totally unable to focus. Now that I’ve found meds that work for me, I find myself working into the evening sometimes. I just get this momentum going and I don’t want to stop.
I just got a new job and I can definitely say this is the happiest Ive been working at a desk job. I love the variety, creativity, and autonomy my job entails but for the most part it’s my medication that is keeping me from falling back into the ditch (emotional and mental state being in decline) I had to claw my way out of. I hate that I live in a for profit healthcare country.
Good question because I have never survived an office job longer than 2 months. But I didnt know I had ADHD until last year. So many jobs I couldn’t take it and didn’t know why. Only jobs I could keep were jobs I was actively doing stuff like working in a restaurant and retail. If the jobs fast paced and I was on my feet I’d get in a zone state. It was awesome. I miss that feeling so much but I’m older now and I can’t run around a restaurant anymore. I haven’t attempted an office type job since being diagnosed and getting on meds but I still can’t imagine sitting at a computer full time.
If your working 8 hour days straight, something is wrong. Most people realistically can only focus for like 3 and half hours on work a day. Anything more than that and the work quality starts to degrade. I used to think I needed to be active all 8 hours, but if your in that position, it's more than likely an issue with the job and not yourself.
I don’t. I can’t work 40 hours a week. I have other things along with ADHD and I’m on disability while working Part time. There is a limit to how much you can make part time though, because the government needs to keep people in poverty I guess. My disability income alone doesn’t even cover rent, so always broke, so my part time income hardly covers any other expenses. I worry about money so much, but anytime I’ve ever tried 40 hrs I’ve ended up hospitalized.
With medication...
and I really am only working sporadically for 5 ish hours a day. With getting coffee and lunch and then talking with coworkers about shit and then browsing reddit inbetween actually doing stuff its really not a solid 8 hours. Yes I am in the office for 8+ hours, but I am not working the whole time.
If you have to take a break then take a break. So long as you get your work done and are a decent person to talk to then you will get a lot of leeway with how you handle your time.
I dont. I have a 40 hour a week salaried job, but I don’t think I’ve spent more that 25 hours a week at my desk on average over the last four years. I have a challenging home life to balance, which my boss understands and supports. As long as my work is getting done, no one actually asks how much I’m working.
I can’t do it. My mental health is so bad in an office setting. I’ve tried a few times. But… Probably career bartender it is. All the shit going on in the bar is great for my ADHD and anxiety. I hope you can make it work!
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I break up my day. Like 10:30 is a run up and down stairs then 11:45 restroom. 1:30 lunch and a stroll outside. 3:15 restroom. 4:30 up and downstairs. Etc. Move around get the blood rolling. I make up reasons but my coworkers that know me well KNOW I’m trying to keep my wits about me.
This is brilliant thank you. I have considered going for walks since it's quite nice out and the office building is in a quiet private land. But my coworkers have expressed to me multiple times about how the person I replaced would go on "walks" and they were convinced he was just wasting time. I personally don't see one or two 10 minute walks throughout a 9 hour day a waste of time, but ever since I heard them complaining about it and how much they didn't like him I've been terrified to go do it or even speak up about how it might be helpful.
I told my manager I have ADD right off. They were super helpful asked if I needed “accommodations”. Nope just let me stretch my legs. People who smoke get breaks all the time just chuck it into that bucket. Good luck 🍀 oh and I keep a revolving stash of fidgets and desk doilies.
Love when people rather than play victim and complain, take charge and find ways to make things work. You’re the role model adhd person
Some people just don’t know what they need to make things work.
Honestly taking a quick walk is good for health reasons, if anyone says anything you could say your doctor advised you to get more steps in during the day or whatever. I think your coworkers were being judgy because they didn’t like that person but taking a real quick walk even just around the building isn’t hurting anyone and probably isn’t any longer than it takes someone else to smoke a cigarette or get water or make coffee
Eff your coworkers they are inhumane robots who are probably going to get heart disease and ddd young because literally breaking up \*sitting every 45 mins with just 10 body weight squats is shown to reduce all cause mortality (Dr. Rhonda Patrick). Walks are one of the healthiest things you can do for body or mind. Why is it socially acceptable for people to take smoke breaks or instagram breaks but not walks / squats? I don't have much else to add, I worked a desk job 40 hrs/week for 6 months before I absolutely lost my ish and went back to first response where my chaotic little brain could have some peace. Good luck!
Depends on how long you take each time. I always take two 15 min walks during my working hours. I just need that reset in order to kind of function.
And it also depends how high a performer you are (perhaps unfortunately). I’ve had directors and execs tells me “go on a 2 hour bike ride in the middle of the day if you need to. Whatever you are doing, keep it up” because the team I am tech lead of is constantly ahead of schedule, constantly developing better features, and every one of them tells their performance evaluators that I am the reason the team runs smoothly when other departments are struggling (it’s the jumping around to do a billion things that means I can constantly unblock team members or give them a direction to go in, combined with just insane hyper focusing on tech over the last 25-30 years meaning I know bits of everything and all sorts of weird bugs and solutions to stuff and can debug/spot issues faster than anyone on the team).
Do you have a standing desk? I do 30-90 mins sitting and then switch to standing. Standing combined with something on headphones can make the day go faster.
Taking a quick walk is good for health reasons, if anyone says anything you could say your doctor advised you to get more steps in during the day or whatever. I think your coworkers were being judgy because they didn’t like that person but taking a walk even just around the building isn’t hurting anyone and probably isn’t any longer than it takes someone else to smoke a cigarette or get water or make coffee
One of my first managers did our 1:1 as we walked around the building. It was great to take a break and have an excuse to leave the desk.
this is so real, I schedule lunch, and also will do 10 minutes in the bathroom twice a day lol. Just in there taking a deep breathe not actually using it. Too long of a stretch of work is killer.
I also take really long bathroom breaks. Half the time it's because I need space, and the other half is because I'm lactose intolerant and I'm in denial 🙃
real! I continuously eat foods that mess my gut up, who has the mental capacity to remember, track it, and care, not me. Lol.
Pavlovs poop
I use time-boxing. What I *attempt* to do is be at my desk and working six hours a day: 07:00-09:00, 11:00-13:00 and 15:00-17:00. In between those times I get to do whatever I want, which could be surfing the web, going for a walk, doing some chores or doing a bit more work etc (of course sometimes people schedule meeting in my gaps that I have to adapt to) *When* it works it is really, really great. I can get more than enough done in those six hours (plus the extra bits that I do in the gaps) and it means I don't need to slog my guts out for 60 hours. And I get to make progress in the rest of my life. But sadly when it doesn't work I sit down at the desk at 7:00 and don't get up until 19:00, often after having done zero work in the 12 hours and not really realised I've sat there pissing my life away for 12 hours until I finally get up. And it has been a while at the moment since the time-boxing actually worked 🙁 And writing this I realise I've forgotten to even attempt it for weeks now.
This answers my question to your first comment. Just like yesterday, I finished at 8pm and really had a productive day, thought it would be the same today but I just keep scrolling on my phone wasting a day
Yeah, it has been a couple of months now since I've managed to put the time boxing into effect for more than the occasional day, which means my non work life is really suffering.
How do you deal with the need for variety in your schedule? Or am I just weird in that I can't have a routine lol?
By working 60 hours a week to get 40 hours of work done, for the last 35 years. 😕
I feel so similarly. Don't most people in an office only really get 4 hours if work done in 8 hours anyway? Do you have any advice on how to get through your 60 hour week?
I work from home with a boss who trusts me to get the work done in the end. I’m not quite sure how you get to that point though…
Same also Templates templates templates and OCD levels of Google Drive organization. I’d never get through it otherwise but I’m great at repeating my own self created repeatable processes: I can’t follow someone else’s organizational structure or reports to save my life but I have my own system and it works. I’d probably be screwed if I ever had to go back to Windows vs Mac though. At my last company I almost got fired by having a micromanaging boss combined with a rigid unintuitive software setup and robotic assembly line process built by someone else with no flexibility to work around it.
I’m the same — I can follow my own systems quite happily, but when I have to follow a system devised by someone else I just can’t.
Much like Legos as a child I never could follow the instructions without getting distracted by my own thoughts but had fun building my own stuff.
This so much. For a new task at my work, the SOP was a 15 page document in 5 sentence paragraphs, written by a philosophy PhD PM. I spent 20+hrs breaking it down into a 20 row to do list in Excel. My manager gave me talking to about time wasted, but co-workers all asked for a copy and praised me in reviews.
The hardest part for me is setting up all those processes, figuring out what works, ask that jazz. I’m knee deep in it now for a job I started a couple months ago.
Yah know... Some days I am sitting there logged in at work and I think about that story or whatever about some turtle that's sitting on top of a fence post like... Yeah, dunno how I got here, kinda afraid of the way down.
What metric are you being evaluated by? It sounds dumb, but my supervisor needed to clarify that my metric is NOT number of emails sent.. or number of meetings attended. My new perspective on my office job is that, all the time that I'm not physically typing on the keyboard.. I'm collaborating with everyone else. The most efficient way to collaborate is to develop a good relationship with people.. so that they're comfortable sharing their "dumb" ideas with me. They're never really dumb ideas. Even though it looks like we are wasting time.. the team is stronger as a whole.. I provide perspective on everyone else's projects.. and they mine. Our departmental output quality is higher and the younguns learn better... and less work for the senior engineers because we more effective delegate and advise.
OMG! I'm not the only one?? I used to be in customer support... But I moved to a more engineering role in one of the products at the company .. But I still have all my logins to the support ticket systems... And I'll just kinda scan recent support tickets when I'm bored and randomly comment helpful things or ping the support engineer that's assigned (usually a n00b)... I'll catch stuff that falls between the cracks and sometimes can shave days off a customer getting something fixed just by taking the time to identify where n00bs go awry.. The time that their managers do not have cuz reasons... So in this process, I've gotten pretty friendly with all of support and they'll just ping me questions when they're really stuck for it... My current manager is kinda shrug about it... As long as my product isn't catching fire it's basically agreed that it's best to let me roam the ticket systems looking for problems to fix.
That sounds like a dream! I wish I could just roam our backlog for projects that interest me, instead of boring updates and crap that is probably important, but bores me out of my mind. Let me run wild and fix stuff I see broken. I'm actually working on a project I've been suggesting since I started two years ago, and it really helped my motivation levels. I built it in like, a week. But now I have other things to focus on, and I'm supposed to 'share' the workload of building the thing. But I built it. It's my brainchild. Mine. My own. My, precious.
You gotta learn to let it go... You can't do everything and can't be everywhere at once. I know it's hard to share the workload... It's probably difficult for you to even think where you could draw a line to cut a chunk out as it's own bit in order to delegate it... Just think of how well you will understand it after you've managed to explain it to someone else in detail... Let your co-workers surprise you with how they attack their piece of the problem...
This. When I was the Accounts Payable Clerk for a small company that was acquired, my until-then-manageable workload became a backlog of invoices due to all the meetings and trainings I had to attend for the transition. Cut to the days leading up to our blackout day, during which we would switch over to the parent company's software, and EVERY invoice has to be entered by that day. I was usually good at getting all my work done, even if I had to stay late to do it, but I was not good at asking for help or delegating. So now everybody finds out that I'm buried and getting behind when I need to get ahead and it's, "what can I help with?" I couldn't divide my system into steps and give early steps to other people. I had to instead give them a stack of invoices and check their work after, because at the end of the day, I'm responsible for the accuracy of the entries. Sometimes, fixing their errors took longer than doing it myself, which I think is a big part of why I was hesitant to share the load. I was convinced it would be faster if I did it myself. "How can I help?" By actually allowing me to get it done. They recused me from meetings for the last few days, and It helped immensely.
Appreciate it! Logically, I *know* I can delegate, and it might actually work out better once someone else puts their eyes on it because they might have cool improvement ideas I haven't thought of. It's just that's where my current hyperfixation is, therefore everything else is boring. Because everything else is boring it's taking twice as long to get done, because my brain is fighting me the whole time. Because it's taking twice as long, it's pushing me into the "I'm not doing a good job and I suck" feedback loop, which is demotivating, and I'm going even slower. I like the job (low code/no code automation), the company, and the team, but the things I'm working on are not stimulating enough so I cling to anything that sparks joy.
Whoever is your employer is lucky to have you acting proactively like that
I usually have problems limiting myself to 60hours. It’s easy for me to focus and get lost within my excel spreadsheets (pretty much tune out the rest of the world). I am a workaholic and hadn’t stopped even with 3 kids. Which has led to my house never being clean and my eventual diagnosis of adhd.
I keep reading 2-4 productive hours out of 8.
That's the real nice thing about working remote / no fixed hours. I work fewer hours, but get more work done because they are almost all productive hours...if I'm going to be productive, I go do something else. For those that don't do well in it, office 8-5 is a waste for everyone, in so many ways. (But happy to have a place for people to go, that don't have good options or prefer it.)
It’s apparently less than that. I was listening to someone who claimed the average person does about 2.5hours a day of actually productive work. The rest is fillers or talking etc. There’s a book called Deep Work I keep meaning to read (started, never finished) that talks about this idea as well. But to answer your original question, not too well as it turns out.
I can only get an hour tops or zero hours of work from myself I’m resentful, tired, annoyed, and restless most of the time im working I feel imprisoned and it’s torture
I spent years looking for the job I have currently. As an account manager it's a very frontloaded career, it's a lot of really hard work at the start to build relationships and find clients and develop a book of business. But once you have that established you basically get paid all day to call people and shoot the shit and process their orders for them. 2 years in I spend my day listening to interesting podcasts or YouTube videos while processing pretty simple orders.
4 hours is generous.
I regularly get more done in a single 20-25 minute spurt than some people do in an entire day. But I need frequent breaks if in the office, too much stimulation and concentrating is really hard so I get overloaded. My meds definitely help, but they don’t make it not happen, it just takes longer and I can handle more before needing isolation.
Same, I wish I didn’t need to continue working at home during the weekends just to be able to keep up. And how to do it? Well, try to find something you don’t find boring. I work in projects, and they’re a very fun mess for me. Keeps me really busy which is good, but I have some weeks that are just for filling paperwork, and those are by far the worst. Have to keep food on the table, though… And certainly don’t want to get fired again.
I have never felt more seen in my entire life. 😭
This! I am coming to the realization though that I should work less. It's healthier. As my manager put it, generally my 6 hours are the equivalent of 8-12 hours of colleagues. He said to just stick to the work hours. Sometimes, because of the inability to focus combined with guilt or responsibility and drive, one makes 10 to 12-hour days. Whilst generally it isn't efficient or healthy.
I'm transitioning to a new role in my company, and for some god awful reason I'm excited because it should mean I actually only should have 40 hr weeks. Like... I've become so accustomed to this BS that 40 hours doesn't seem that bad
Oh my god this hurts. I’m salary and I might lose my job for working different hours than the schedule I made (?) even though I work WELL over the salaried 40 hours. I procrastinate my ass off though. Like when they look at cameras, I’m working .. but somehow not actually getting anything done ?
I commute 3 hours a day to my 10 hour shifts. I'm going insane 😭
The threat of not starving is pretty compelling to go… but I’m barely surviving
Lmao this system is bound to collapse
This is it for me. The I-don't-want-to-be-homeless override. Also I try to find roles that are to do with business change so opportunities for varied tasks instead of same thing every day. And lastly, It funds my hyper fixation hobbies
Yeah...:(
After 26 years of badly managing ADHD, I've found two strategies that are very successful for me: * **The Constructed Inconvenience:** Every day when I sit down at my desk, the first thing I do is place my phone underneath a paperweight. Any time I want to check my phone, I have to hold the paperweight up with my other hand. I can't set it back down until it's on top of my phone. Holding the phone gets progressively more annoying the longer I do it, so I'm unlikely to be on it for more than a minute or so at a time. * **The Gentle Panopticon**: I hate to admit it, but the best improvement to my focus was being moved to share an office with a more senior coworker. Find a coworker who is better at staying on task than you, and position your desk so that they can always see your screen. Even if they never say a word, you'll have a constant peripheral awareness that when you slack off, someone else might see it, (and conversely, when you focus and do your job well, someone else might see it!) Basically, reframe things that you *shouldn't* do as active decisions that require constant awareness and re-commitment. You don't need to go too far with this - it's not about punishing or surveilling yourself (if you do that, it'll stress you out too much, and you'll burn out and stop adhering to the structure). The goal is to add tiny bits of friction to your life, and then trust your own tendency to follow the path of least resistance to guide your decisions. Honestly, the "Constructed Inconvenience" strategy works so well, I've started applying it everywhere. At home, I set my yoga mat in front of my desk so I have to step over it whenever I want to play videogames and suddenly I'm exercising way more. My guitar goes on my bed every morning so that I'm more likely to practice before I go to sleep at night. My first cup of coffee is too hot to drink, which gives me time to fill out a morning journal while it cools. Find (or create) mundane inconveniences in your life and tie them to habits you want to build or break. Edit: Also meds. I never realize quite how bad I've let things get until I refill my prescription and suddenly I enjoy my job and care about being good at it again.
This is actually amazing, thank you.
This is good advice.
I've been working as a programmer for a year now and honestly, feedback whether I'm doing good or not would be much appreciated. My team just sorta lets me do whatever I want as long as I do my part, which is fine, but sometimes I get no will to do the tasks and feel like I haven't done anything by the end of the day. Fairly frustrating when you don't have anyone to be accountable to
I have this same problem! It's the usual ADHD story - get a new job, pick things up quickly, impress everyone so they think I can be trusted on my own. Then they stop checking in on me and I stop getting things done. That's why the "coworker looking over your shoulder" works so well. When I'm floundering alone, I'm filled with that looming dread that a deadline will pass or someone will ask to see my progress, and I'll have to admit I haven't done shit. But it's dread in anticipation of *future* events, which I find (like a lot of ADHD folks I'm sure) isn't a very effective motivator. Replacing that with the smaller but more immediate pressure of a coworker seeing me slack off in real time is both less stressful and more motivating.
What meds work best for you
I use a relatively small dose of Adderall in the morning. The tricky thing is, whatever I'm thinking about when the Adderall kicks in, that's what I'll likely be thinking about for the next several hours, so I have to take it when I feel confident I'll be able to wrench my focus onto something important, otherwise I'll spend half the workday workshopping a TTRPG one-shot or something.
I bought a k-safe with time lock I can put my phone and tablet in for a few hours
This is one of the most helpful comments I've ever read, not just related to ADHD but in general.
Sit-stand desk, body doubling with the homies, tons of walking breaks, scheduled days off, listening to background music, coming to terms with the fact that it’s impossible to be productive for a whole 8 hours. You let us know if you figure it out 🙃
This. There is no magic formula, just throwing shit at the wall until it doesn’t work anymore. We all just surviving
I wish I had body doubling with work so I could get my documentation done. My friends are also at work and I wouldn’t want all my coworkers to know I’m struggling. Is there an option for this somewhere?
Could be a great social platform idea though. If someone knows code I’ll handle business parts lmao. I used to body double with a coworker, also suspected ADHD, it was amazing. We would check on each other and when Yellow for too long on Teams just ping and for sure the other one was rotting in bed or something. Quick chat and something random, and then « ok focus time » of camera on and muted mics. She left the company 2 weeks ago and I’ve barely got anything done. Atrocious.
Check out Flown.
Do you have any WFH ability? I call my friends who also WFH and we just chat while we all do our own thing. Really helpful for documentation, refactoring, boring data pipeline watching, etc.
Yeah I can WFH doing notes. I haven’t wanted to bother friends with this but I I think that this could be good with my husband. We could just stay on a video call and he could check in whenever but also do whatever he wants to do around the house/play video games/whatever. That could work! Thank you!
My sister does this at home so it’s prob not allowed at work, but she’d stream herself doing a studying stream so she’d have the impression of ppl watching and having to do smth. Also, you don’t necessarily have to tell your coworkers you’re acc struggling, you could for example say that it’s just smth that makes stuff easier and more productive for you (in itself that doesn’t directly imply struggle), and that having all acquaintance do smth at the same time/place helps (chances are it’ll help them too tbh). Idk how much you can avoid your coworkers knowing you struggle if you ask someone to body double (the less you explain why it works and phrase it more as a funny little quirk, the more plausible deniability you have). Maybe you can phrase it like smth a friend of yours does at work and you wanna try it out bc you can’t believe smth so simple works?
Twitch has some body doubling streams sometimes.
By working on stuff that is well below my potential, but in line with what I can tolerate. And by pasting on a happy, can-do mask that occasionally cracks. And depression.
Kinda same. I work as an inventory manager in a warehouse and it’s far below the career path laid out for me (computer science degree, I’d be making at least double what I make now if I’d stuck with it instead of soul searching for 2 years and finding myself here). But the work includes a good bit of physical labor while also being 0% customer service. I literally can’t be at the computer all day, I have to get up and move to check inventory physically. And I’m working towards proficiency so that I can share an hour of my time every day to helping the rest of the operational team who does pretty much all the physical labor, which will be an ever better break in the day for me.
I have tons of PTO saved up and started taking off 1 day a month. I also realized that every other month I could take of 2 days and still accrue PTO. It’s been super beneficial for getting things done I didn’t get to do during the week and also for taking some time off for me. I work government though which I believe tends to have better PTO than most jobs.
I only have one day of pto because I just started. I really wish I could take a vacation or even a few consecutive long weekends
Aww that sucks! We started off with a good amount of sick and vacation time, but I barely ever used it for the first year which is how I saved up so much.
gotta put food on the table
Gotta put healthcare on the table
Gotta put on a fursuit and dance on the table. So I can put food on it after
Exactly, but I tend to lose my work performance over a matter of months and have the urge to job hop every few months.
Are you on meds? This is a very real struggle for those of us with ADHD.
I am but they only do so much. I can't up my dose because I get heart palpitations if I do.
My husband went from bartending to an office job for 4 years when the pandemic hit. It was the most depressing thing for him. He despised it and only kept it as long as he did for the amazing insurance for our kid and me.. once he left it and went back to the restaurant life he was so much happier and excited for work again. The office life isn’t for everyone and that is okay. Find what keeps you happy.
Generic adderall
ADHD or not - no one is capable of 8 hours of total focus and work. You’re not alone. Just play the game and look busy and do enough to not get fired, nothing more
Yeah I have had to have people remind me that no matter what the job there are some times where things are slower or people get tired or distracted. Few people can consistently work 100% of the time. Maybe I zoned out for fifteen minutes but Chad over there was gossiping with people while looking like he was answering emails. The only difference is Chad doesn’t feel bad about it whereas I have to stop myself from feeling constantly guilty that I’m wasting time I’m being paid for if I’m not doing something every second
I feel guilty for wasting time, but also, my coworkers who seem to work the most amount of time don’t always put the highest quality of work. I pride myself on the details, but that can be tedious and take me more time to complete. I try to accept that and recognize my strengths.
If you have flexibility in managing your own day-to-day activities, pick what your brain is interested in at that moment and do that. If it’s not working, switch to a different task. My job requires lots of different tasks, some small and quick, some larger that take days to complete. As long as I meet deadlines and stay on budget, I’m okay. If I start a task and notice my attention slipping too much, I switch to something else. I’ve been doing this for about 9 years now (by far the longest I’ve ever stayed in a job!!), so I’m pretty good at realizing when I’m wasting time on a task or when I’m having a “good brain day” and can do one of my more focus-heavy tasks. Today was not one of those days… I took a couple hours of PTO at the end of the day when I realized I wasn’t going to get anything done. Edit to add: sometimes I try to “reset” my brain if I’m having trouble focusing by going on a walk outside, drinking ice cold water, or (if I’m at home) doing jumping jacks or stretches. It sometimes works…
That's definitely why I thought this job would be much better. It's some developing, some consulting, some sales, and some QA Testing. But over time these things sound less and less fun to switch back and forth from. It's definitely way better than coding on one feature for days. It's just the act of forcing myself to do repetitive tasks over and over on a weekly basis. Regardless of the number or variation of tasks there are.
Become a nurse. Especially Trauma! It’s different every day and it’s a 12 hour shift but I only work 3 or 4 days a week. And the $$ is good!
My bills keep me at work. Otherwise I would sit on my phone all day. I do have days where I absolutely cannot focus but I have to find a way to do something tangible by 4:30 so I don’t get fired.
Being a manager. If everything’s on fire, it has my attention. If nothing is happening, I can brain wander. Also I’m medicated now.
Oh, and staying over to make up if I’ve had a bad brain day but telling all my subordinates that if they stay one minute over they must record time… yeah, hypocrisy, but… kind hypocrisy? I don’t want them burning out, or working for free!!!
To clarify, this is my first 40 hour in-office job. It’s definitely a little better than being remote because I get the genuine social interaction, the work vs home atmosphere, and the buddy system to keep me more motivated and focused. But it is still really hard to continue doing the same thing every day for 8-9 hours straight.
Noise canceling headphones when I was in the office. Now I wfh and it’s same headphones and meds.
I made it work for 5 years because it came with constant promotions and different responsibilities. I claimed to be a workaholic and would come in on Saturdays to help our department make end of month. Eventually I stopped getting raises, promotions, and recognition. I climbed the ladder as far as they would let me. They stopped promoting me because I was too good where I was. During covid I was classified as an essential employee. Thirty others in my department were furloughed. About ten of us were classified as essential and we fell behind having to do the work of forty. We didn't catch up for months. Things eventually went semi back to normal. The powers that be decided to keep our department understaffed because technically we didn't make the company money. They attempted to automate most of our tasks, but that was a huge shit show due to the IT department never informing us of the next patch and what to expect or the changes we needed to make. We would make the changes and then they would release another patch. Fuck you John.. The essential employees never got any recognition for holding down the fort through covid. I fell into a slump and left shortly after. I guess even a workaholic can burn out. TLDR: Room for growth, raises and recognition.
Depression, and I don’t know many people only working 40 hours/week.
Got lucky to get a job where I can partially make some IT support or formations, lots of quick wins. Struggle is hard if I have a long time task
Until you then get fed up with having issues you want to fix but don’t have access or time. Along with realizing you’re the punching bag.
I'm definitely the punching bag in my role at this job at times. I struggle with motivation when I feel like people are upset at me, and it makes the whole cycle much worse
I don't have much of a choice. Miserable at work all day exhausted by the time I get home. Not much energy to do anything else usually.
I automate tasks I don't want to do to and work closely with my interests, in that I foster a good enough relationship and trust with my boss so I'm given some choice on projects that pique my interest and let me hyperfocus. Multi-tasking / simultaneously listening to music or watching a video, sit-stand desk so I can stand and boogie while working and regular breaks. WFH helps. Perspective. Similar to you I have an extensive employment history unable to keep due to adhd and as much as I love my job now, i can feel the familiar feeling of wearinesss on the precipice. But I have an incredible boss and cushy, flexible role compared to the other fields I worked. i am a believer that we work to sustain the activities we love. So I'm already lucky in that I like what I do now. Not taking that for granted
I find front loading the day helps. I try start as early as I can, usually 8am but hoping to get myself to 7:30am eventually. Then I find getting outside and getting a walk or exercise at lunch helps. I think getting a full hour of break helps too if you can at lunch. I also find noise cancelling headphones helps, recently I’ve found drum and bass helps tune my brain signals the right amount to turn off noise enough to help focus. I have the Sony WH-1000XM5 (Sony has the worst naming systems, people colloquially call them the XM5s). Good noise cancelling helps I can’t believe I used to be able to work in an office before I had them. Also, blocking out certain parts of the day or even a whole day a week for focused working I find helpful. I try not have meetings on Fridays so I can do focused work, especially cause co-workers are usually extra slack on Fridays so meetings are never as productive on Fridays. I also like to try work from home on Fridays as much as I can too, so that I can have focused time in the quiet where no one can bother me. Also means I can use text to speech if I need to do any writing but I’m having a typing-writing block - I just set up a transcription and ramble at it as if I’m explaining the thing to a friend or co-worker, then I edit it to be coherent as a written doc
Oh also you cannot underestimate how much of a difference an electric sit stand desk can make to your productivity and to help when you have brain fade. I find it significantly helps when I have that blood flow to the brain zone out in the afternoon to change to standing
I’m EXHAUSTED. that’s how. I am a total vegetable on weeknights from the sheer effort every day. 😂
I am also an exhausted vegetable. I get nothing done at home at all. I've stopped attempting to make dinner when I get home. But I'm also not eating breakfast... or lunch. Which is why I need some help figuring this life style out.
I learned to get 40 hours of work done in 10 hours, and then mastered the art of disassociating to leap forward in time to the end of the day.
Well, I work from home. It’s the best thing ever for me. 1, no one knows that I’ve completely a week worths of work in 2 days or I did nothing for a day. 2, I function very well on a schedule(even though emergency situations pop up). 3, I strategize and plan(everything must be planned!!). I plan how much work I must get done before I’m able to take 10 or 15 min break. 4, I’m able to take multiple breaks without people watching. I found that taking breaks often resets your brain. 5, No one can judge me for being me.🥹
WFH is the best for me too. What do you do for work?
I try to take my lunch really late, like 2pm, so that the rest of the day goes by very quickly. I eat my lunch at my desk at the normal time, then on my lunch break I go on a bike ride or somn.
I really should do that. A lot of my coworkers either don't eat or eat at their desk while working. I prefer to take a break, but I've never considered eating while working and then taking a break out and about. I'm going to try this. Thank you
I work in an open seating office (and WFH a couple days a week), which means that anyone can sit anywhere at anytime. All of the desk set-ups are identical, and you take all your belongings with you every day. It’s the BEST. I can literally just get up and move somewhere else if I’m having trouble focusing. We have a patio and chairs outside where we can work. A cafeteria. Chairs facing the windows, etc.
I had an internship with this set up... but everyone sat in the same place every day and there was only one or two options left. So I was practically forced to choose a permanent spot like everyone else.
I only do stuff when it’s an emergency and my job is to solve unexpected issues that pop up. It fits me well because the issues are always different so it keeps things interesting, and being “distracted” by whatever comes up is part of the job. Even still, I’m on my 5th “career” and expect I’ll probably keep switching. When I was in an entry level process driven role, I really struggled and would spend most of my day doing nothing and then rushing through it right before deadlines. In my opinion, there are some roles that are just not suitable for people with ADHD.
Got a job as it consultant, mostly do household stuff/play video games until I really have to get stuff done for client deadlines. Cramp everything I should have done over the last days in a few hours and then repeat the whole process...
I do some consulting in my new job too, and it's motivating when clients really need something and are actively working with you. But the worst for me is when there's down time to get the busy work done. I'm good for about 45 minutes before I just want to get up and walk around or stare at my phone.
When I got hired at my current employer about 6 years ago, it was as senior customer support ... And everyone was in the office... I'd get whatever after an hour or two, get up to get a snack... Wander over to the junior support team's area just hang out and chat... And end up randomly assisting on a few cases before finally being told by their manager I was being disruptive and too loud... Which is totally fair - I do tend to get loud and excitable... And in any case I had my own cases to look into back at my desk so...
I’m in a similar situation, I have been working in an office job for some time, and my parents urged me to stick with it because if I job hop, I won’t look committed. I legitimately dislike paper work and processing orders but I thought I had to force myself in order to earn money. It ended up destroying my mental health within 2 years and during the most stressful months I also had physical symptoms like indigestion and fatigue. What really prolonged this was that I was a fast learner and there was a large amount I had to study so during the first year, I spent a lot of the time training and studying. everyone had high hopes because I picked things up fast. However, once the work focused on output, I quickly became tired and had difficulty concentrating. I was terrified of being a disappointment, which later ended up happening. It turns out, I need a job that requires endless learning and less mundane tasks that require concentration. I’m working on switching to this career now.
My fear of change and new environments prevents me from changing jobs so often. I don't know how I haven't gotten fired as my output sucks.
I crawl in bed as soon as I get home and try to erase all work and responsibility from my thoughts. I am constantly burned out and exhausted
Meds, and doing something I like.
I take lots of fake shits and realized if I walk around with a purpose people assume you're busy
I don't have a lot of hyperactive symptoms, so this may not be as applicable for you, but I'm also a programmer, also switched from hobbyist to professional, and have also had times where I simply could not force myself to care about work for that long every day. For me, it has a lot to do with the team and project I'm on. If I'm not being challenged I almost want to put a bullet in my brain. I just do not care if all you're asking me to do is shuffle some configuration files or build boiler plate crud apps. When I'm working on a team with really good developers and we're building something cool though, I'm all over it. I can hyperfocus through pretty much the whole work day.
I take walks during breaks (smokers always get breaks), wear headphones, use timers because calendar blocking doesn’t work for me. I’m able to pace when I work from home and I have a stand up desk at home.
Medicine, a journal to keep track of everything I do and everything that needs to get done, and lots of Excel to do all my thinking and number-checking for me - plus noise cancelling headphones with plenty of music. Been here just about 7 years and things are great. On days when there was nothing to do I could skip the medicine and just space out for 8 hours.
Also a programmer and also struggle. Pomodoro time blocking and instrumental music helps. Pausing notifications on Slack for those 30 minutes. Closing browser tabs. Not joining unnecessary meetings. I watch general meetings or informational presentations, like the all hands or presentations from other teams, afterwards at 2x speed. For the not so healthy coping strategies, I officially work “part time” and tend to work full time to make up for it. I spend way too much time going over and over my code before feeling confident enough to create an MR, and even then I feel apologetic asking for a CR. Imposter syndrome is extremely common in programming because it’s actually impossible to estimate time so we always get it wrong and if it’s a deadline, we’re constantly behind and under pressure to finish. For me, it’s my own sense of shame that I “should” be better at this by now and I kind of punish myself to keep to my estimates even though my team is pretty relaxed. So, not great and something to talk about with a therapist if I ever find one.
I work remotely after my job was moved permanently after Covid. I need money so I have to work.
I audit other people's work, so it allows me to hyper focus on the tiniest details, and I have to be a subject matter expert in 3 to 5 different functions in a multi thousand person company. I have to be able to accurately determine various guidelines and processes are being performed correctly by our team members. So I constantly research process guides and knowledge bases. Every time I see a mistake I have to document it, if it needs to be corrected I have to email the team member, their leader and next level leader, then issue an error in a data base. The errors can affect other people's bonuses or their ability to remain in a higher tier position. The work itself is so perfect for the way my brain works, some times I have to work out a full time line to see who made the error and when. I know it's pure evil but I excel at it and out perform my entire QA team. Everything else in my life is a chaotic mess of barely contained chaos, but my work allows me to work at my own pace, without interruptions, wearing headphones and blasting jpop and metal all day. I make plenty of money, I own my own condo, and I play a shit ton of Magic the Gathering the rest of my time when I'm not hanging out with my awesome wife. She understands how my disability work and helps to keep me more accountable.
I found a job I don't hate because I'm kinda good at it and its super low stakes. Pays very decently and its only 4-10s instead of 5-8's.
I get up A LOT. Like every hour I at least go to the bathroom, take a lil walk to the end of the hall, look out the window. It also helped to have a really flexible job. At my job you just have to get your 40 in somehow. Some days I work 10 hours, some days I only work 1. Having snacks also helps. My whole diet during the week probably consist of snacks. If you can, make friends with the person near you, so you can kind of mirror them lol. Good luck!
I like my job. and Adderall.
My hyperfocus is working 😂
I am not in this boat, but whenever I was a college student during covid, I would go to coffee shops all the time and work from there. Even though I work onsite now, I try to work at a coffee shop whenever possible!
I need to ask my boss if this is an option! I really used to love working on my laptop at coffee shops. I miss it a lot.
I burned out. Twice. In a year.
Managing expectations with my manager, who I lucked out a lot with and will miss when he leaves. I work in IT so a lot of my work is immediate problems that need immediate solutions and give immediate positive feedback when done. Project work I was just upfront that it'll get done, probably on time, but it may not look like I'm working all the time. He doesn't really care as long as shit gets done, and most of my project work is self assigned anyway (he lets me just find shit to automate and do it).
Podcasts.
I am so jealous of people who can listen to things while working without losing the ability to do the work.
I didn’t. ADHD, little bit autistic, experienced peak burnout fr trying to live a life that wasn’t aligned. Turned into depression and ones at the point where I’d rather die than continue. So… I’m quitting my job August 2nd and training by replacement now. I literally couldn’t do the work any longer. My mind and body won’t allow it and medication helped me simply get through that hell vs helping me thrive. I want to thrive. I can’t do that in my current state. No clue what’s next. Fuck it. There’s no paycheck nor comfort worth that struggle and the way it’s changed me. Heal first. Then thrive or die.
My wfh job gives us unlimited PTO and my days can have as many similarities as novelties. My boss is also pretty chill when it comes to needing time off for mental health or any other reason. One of my coworkers takes off almost an entire consecutive month every year to do his side hustle. Also, it’s a startup, which can be an interesting place to work when you need novelty to thrive—my boss is super open to me learning about other departments and helping with tasks that aren’t really in my JD if I’m interested in it.
Software engineering. Work from home. In the beginning of my career it was tough as I was consulting and traveling a lot. I got into lead technical role about 6 years ago. So I’m largely left to my own devices. Some days I work 1-2 hours, and some days 8-10 hours. Usually around 6-7. I lean more technical architecture and solutioning. So these are long term initiatives and not a lot of daily pressure. But, sometimes it’s still hard.. this condition doesn’t make it easy at all. I’m fortunate to have a job where I have lots of flexibility.
I work from home which helps massively In fact it's an accomidation
Hold onto hope that this job will afford me the winning lottery ticket
I've gotten to the point where I can't seem to work at all. I rarely keep a job more than a year. My finances are a mess. I wish I had answers!
Me too! That's why I'm here.
Work from home - office burned me out.
But at home I doom scroll until I lose my job... speaking from experience
Most jobs can truly be done in 2 - 4 hours. I get up and walk my dog, come home and work until the momentum is gone. Workout at lunch and work until the momentum is gone. Usually this warrants a few hours of solid work.
I really enjoy my field and am the only person in it at the company I work for, so I am constantly diving super deep/reading tons into topics. The topics are also a very broad variety, which spices things up. Also, I regularly get up and go on walks (outside) and chat with people. Another big thing is I regularly ask for feedback. Often, I feel like I'm doing a poor job but when I ask about how I'm doing, the feedback is always very positive, so I feel more relaxed.
Lots of reminders and calendar events set to keep me in line. Rules to manage my inbox and schedules break periods where I can let my mind wander a bit before I force myself to try to focus for the next hour. And working longer hours when I get behind.
I get more done in the office. The pressure of others around me makes me hyper focus.
I'm the same way, but the hyper focus only lasts a few consecutive days. Then I'm just a ball of anxiety because I'm afraid my coworkers can tell I'm losing focus and motivation and getting on my phone more often.
I’m paranoid I’ll lose my job so I think that’s the only thing keeping me in “the zone”. I was called out once and that’s all it took.
Nobody actually works 40 hours with these types of jobs, power through a couple hours, then take a lunch break, have a smoke, go for a walk, whatever you need to recharge, then power through a couple more, then take another break, then maybe one or two more at most, leave the menial tasks for the end of the day so you can tackle them once your brain is starting to be uncooperative lol also if you’re good at your job, you can probably do just 5-6 hours of focused work and still be as productive as others.. that’s what I do, it has helped to see how little my coworkers seem to get done.. I was like oh I guess I don’t gotta try so hard.. remember to work your wage, and good luck!
I survive because I have my own office where I can shut out all the extra stimuli that make me go bonkers.
I might be at my desk 40hrs. But I'm not working 40hrs. I have plants, nano tanks, 3d prints and laser cutting going on constantly. I have 4 screens plus my Playstation. 45 minutes of work, 15 minutes of distraction. It's called the pomodoro technique
Never around long enough. Got fired from my first 3 jobs because I couldn’t keep up in an accounting job, asked too many questions in a manufacturing job that they wouldn’t train me in, and something else at another place that was a total non-joyous place to work. But that all between the ages 17-20. I finally found an IT job that was a lot of moving around dealing with installs and Helpdesk trouble tickets that they couldn’t figure out on the phone. Been doing that for 30 years. Variety and change kept me interested and motivated until I got a job writing sql queries for reports. Drove me nuts sat in one place all the time doing one thing. My productivity dropped to doing 1/3 of what I could. I hated it. Went back to the ‘fixing IT stuff’ job. I guess I’ll drop dead under someone’s desk one day when I’m 75 plugging in a computer that is “oh, it’s plugged in, we double checked” and my heart stops. Diagnosis and meds helped but by that time I was 50. Thanks for all the wasted years ‘US medical system’. failing to see the obvious each time I’d see them about some other thing all listed as symptom of ADHD. When I got diagnosed they even tried to fight it saying it was a fad. Hmm, a fad eh? Since I was 6 in 1981? Yeah. Great fun those fads.
My room is a fkn pigsty, Im burnt out as hell, my bathroom is probably low key growing a new brand of bacteria, I've gotten fat from the lack of exercise and I'm hitting new personal lows in my mood. Yeah its brilliant love it.
Also I work a job where people can die if I don't do my job. Its very motivating ahahah
I have a 9/80 schedule... I schedule all my appointments that I need on the fridays I have off. I don't have to worry about missing work. I work out Monday thru Thursday in the evening, Saturday, and sunday in the morning. I shop for groceries on the weekend. I have time on the weekends to hang out with family and friends. The one thing I struggle with is doing laundry on a set schedule.
I don't like it, but I tolerate it. And if it ever gets too much to bear, I always remind myself of the even worse jobs I could be doing... I did factory work for a while, never again. They are almost always toxic work environments, you bear the brunt of it for having ADHD. It is hard on your body with repetitive motion and heavy lifting. I remember putting in 10-12 or even 14 hour days, 6-7 days a week, so much of my life robbed from me. Worst of all, I would be left with no time or energy to do what what i enjoyed after work. To me, office jobs aren't that bad.
I am a litigation paralegal, I spend all day going down weird research rabbit holes Works pretty much perfectly for me, I could literally do it all day every day until I run out of gas, it feeds my ADHD
You need to find fulfillment in your job - seek some therapy bro i mean it. Everyone works 40h per week, and many work more... Asking "how do you survive" is either being extra dramatic or you have issues that won't be solved within a reddit post.. I would just go to a psychologist honestly but idk
I like to find efficiencies in my processes and exploit them, giving me more down time to do…. Stuff… With.
Meds man. Changed my life
I am on meds but they don't fix everything. I wish they did.
I'm sorry to hear that. Talk to your doc/provider? It took us a while of trying difference meds and dosages to get the ones that work for me.
Luckily, with most of my positions I’ve had bosses that care more about what I get done than when, so they’re usually not counting my hours. Between that and the fact that I will work evenings if my brain happens to be cooperating, I usually don’t sweat being a little flexible with my office hours. I will come late or leave early, but also come early and stay late, depending on what I’m doing. I don’t think it’s hurt me so far.
Started listening to "8D" music on noise cancelling headphones.. almost too good..
I just started a couple weeks back too, thanks for asking imma come back to this thread.
You realize you either live on the street or you work.
WFH tech I was 9:30-5 with lunch. Job now is 8-5 flex hours but they emphasize 40 hours or overtime and WFH M/F. Internship at midwestern corp was 8-5 commute and that sucked.
I keep getting fired so it doesn't matter.
I teach, and do so many different things everyday, and move around the classroom and the school all day.
Lots of coffee and energy drinks. Also my job is intense, high stakes and fast paced enough to keep my attention at pretty much all times. There’s always something critical to get “distracted” by. For reference I work in institutional banking
It's hard. I can't believe I still have this job myself but to be fair, I am running away to try something new in about a month so... maybe I shouldn't be the one giving advice here. But I will say that I've been sitting in a cubicle 40 hours a week for quite a long time now (for me) and it never gets easier. There just happen to be aspects of this job that I really enjoy, like my boss who is the sweetest guy ever (and also has ADHD). I'm fortunate enough that I've been able to take care of my mental health fairly well as my boss will let me take a mental health day off if I ask for it. Asking for it is another question but having that policy in place is helpful (this isn't just for me, it's everyone at my work). Also, because I'm in my own space, I kinda have the freedom to do things my way. Not gonna lie, I am distracted and doing other stuff pretty often but it's not a problem for me as long as I get all my work done by the end of the week and I make it look like I'm focused when people walk by. So basically, faking it? I really don't think I could last here forever and that's a shame because I like where I work. But alas, the brain wants to move on.
I think it doesn't bother me because I'm basically alone in an opposite corner of the office. There's a bit more fuck-about opportunity when I get bored or have to Google a celebrity age for no good goddamned reason.
Haha. I Google random shit all the time and then jump when I hear someone walking by.
I’m a mechanical engineer. We receive assignments and are left to our own devices. So sometimes I come in late, leave early, long lunches or stay late when I’m in the zone. Take whatever breaks you want or just shoot the shit with your work buddies. Only issue is meetings they suck. But I can sometimes just be on my laptop doing other stuff.
I work for myself and just what you said earlier I literally only plan on 4 hours of “deep work” a day. But basically self employment is super hard but I would rather do that than feel all personality and soul get sucked out of me at a corporate job. When I was working in an office I would get fake tattoos from inkbox to switch things up, and I’d try to go out doing fun things at night like swing dancing bc you can go alone but find people to dance with!
Im a developer and kind of a workoholic.. love solve puzzles and O get obsessed until I get it done... O try to avtually step away arround 6pm to be with my family and do my other passion... cooking
I’ve been in software engineering for nearly 20 years. I finally got on meds at the beginning of this year, but prior to that I would often have days where I got absolutely nothing done, just totally unable to focus. Now that I’ve found meds that work for me, I find myself working into the evening sometimes. I just get this momentum going and I don’t want to stop.
Hello 👋, Of my 126±14 work week, I understand my purpose, sometimes I slack off and sometimes I make weird noises.
Necessity, mostly. Gotta eat & pay the bills.
I just got a new job and I can definitely say this is the happiest Ive been working at a desk job. I love the variety, creativity, and autonomy my job entails but for the most part it’s my medication that is keeping me from falling back into the ditch (emotional and mental state being in decline) I had to claw my way out of. I hate that I live in a for profit healthcare country.
Good question because I have never survived an office job longer than 2 months. But I didnt know I had ADHD until last year. So many jobs I couldn’t take it and didn’t know why. Only jobs I could keep were jobs I was actively doing stuff like working in a restaurant and retail. If the jobs fast paced and I was on my feet I’d get in a zone state. It was awesome. I miss that feeling so much but I’m older now and I can’t run around a restaurant anymore. I haven’t attempted an office type job since being diagnosed and getting on meds but I still can’t imagine sitting at a computer full time.
If your working 8 hour days straight, something is wrong. Most people realistically can only focus for like 3 and half hours on work a day. Anything more than that and the work quality starts to degrade. I used to think I needed to be active all 8 hours, but if your in that position, it's more than likely an issue with the job and not yourself.
I like money.
I don’t. I can’t work 40 hours a week. I have other things along with ADHD and I’m on disability while working Part time. There is a limit to how much you can make part time though, because the government needs to keep people in poverty I guess. My disability income alone doesn’t even cover rent, so always broke, so my part time income hardly covers any other expenses. I worry about money so much, but anytime I’ve ever tried 40 hrs I’ve ended up hospitalized.
I'm scheduled 40 but work 32-36hrs/week. Been with my agency for 12yrs. I like the flexibility/seniority i earned plus the benefits.
With medication... and I really am only working sporadically for 5 ish hours a day. With getting coffee and lunch and then talking with coworkers about shit and then browsing reddit inbetween actually doing stuff its really not a solid 8 hours. Yes I am in the office for 8+ hours, but I am not working the whole time. If you have to take a break then take a break. So long as you get your work done and are a decent person to talk to then you will get a lot of leeway with how you handle your time.
the existential threat and panic of not wanting to lose my apartment
I dont. I have a 40 hour a week salaried job, but I don’t think I’ve spent more that 25 hours a week at my desk on average over the last four years. I have a challenging home life to balance, which my boss understands and supports. As long as my work is getting done, no one actually asks how much I’m working.
I’m winging it and not really sure where I’m at. But it’s going
Honestly? Elvanse!
Vyvanse and time blocking. And stress.
I really like my job as a software enginieer. Basically constant hyperfocus (albeit medicated...)
I can’t do it. My mental health is so bad in an office setting. I’ve tried a few times. But… Probably career bartender it is. All the shit going on in the bar is great for my ADHD and anxiety. I hope you can make it work!