I think of my ADHD brain like a computer with three little cores (as opposed to one big core), shitloads of cache and barely any RAM.

Using three cores on the same thing is harder than using one core and the same is true for my brain. But if you do have something that works well with it, it works really well.

Lots of cache mean I can quickly pick up topics and do well with them as long as they fit the cache. If there’s too much to fit in the cache, normal people can just put that into RAM and pick it back up later without problems.

But my lack of RAM means I can’t keep a lot of tasks in my head that I’m not actively working on. And what does a computer do when it’s out of RAM? That’s right, it writes the RAM to a hard drive so it can pick it up later when it’s needed. So I do the same thing. If there’s a lot on my mind that isn’t useful right now , I write it down and actively tell myself to forget it and trust the list.

If I don’t do that, my RAM will get filled up very quickly and I get into this weird state of ADHD paralysis where I don’t get anything done and feel stressed out about it.

Recognizing when that happens and using this simple tool has helped me a lot already. And it’s important to take the 5 minutes to do this instead of trying to do your work if you see it isn’t working.

Another thing that helps me a lot is tight deadlines. On stuff that should be be done yesterday, I usually have no trouble focusing. The same is true for prod being broken. I can drop everything and go full steam ahead for 4 hours straight when it happens. I used to just procrastinate until that happened and when I actually didn’t have enough time to do it properly, I’d be able to focus.

Now that I found out about my ADHD, I’m trying to build myself a situation where this plays out to my favor instead of leading to super-stressed all-nighters. That means regularly (almost daily) talking to my boss about my tasks and having her set micro-deadlines. The important takeaway for me is that setting my own deadlines doesn’t work. Like not at all. I need someone else to hold me accountable and it becomes easy.

One more thing that works well for me is pair programming. If I can explain what I’m doing to someone else or work on someone else’s problem, time just flies. Even if it’s just five minutes of walking around and helping people with little things, it gives me a lot of energy.

But I also don’t work from home even though I could because having colleagues around me helps me focus, so I’m not sure if that would also help you.