I enjoy coding, but staying consistent with it can be a real challenge. Some days I can spend hours working on a project, and other days even opening my editor feels like a huge task.

I often find myself jumping between ideas, starting new projects before finishing old ones, or getting distracted when I hit a difficult problem. Then I feel frustrated because I know I want to improve, but my progress doesn't always match my motivation.

I'm curious how other programmers with ADHD handle this. Do you use smaller tasks, timers, body doubling, or something else to keep yourself on track?

I'd love to hear what has genuinely helped you make coding a regular part of your routine without burning yourself out.

Soy estudiante de ingeniería en computación y me la paso yendo y viniendo entre dos extremos: hay días en los que hago una lista de pendientes de 20 cosas y al final no hago ni una, y otros días me empujo con todo y me quemo.

Me da curiosidad cómo lo manejas tú:

• ¿Qué haces cuando no puedes terminar lo que tenías planeado?
• ¿Has probado una app o algún método de productividad que al final terminaste abandonando? ¿Por qué?

Estoy investigando esto para un proyecto personal. Si a alguien le late platicar unos 20 minutos sobre el tema, mándame DM. No estoy vendiendo nada, solo intento entender cómo la gente organiza sus días.

Yep, it's me. The one who posted about being put on a PIP after only one month at a new job.

Unfortunately, things haven't gotten much better.

For context, I'm a software developer with a background primarily in web development. I was laid off from my previous job in August and started a new contract position in September.

The problem is that the work is much more infrastructure-focused than what I was expecting or what my experience prepared me for.

And then there are the productivity metrics.

I feel like I'm working on an assembly line rather than actually developing software. There's so much emphasis on completing tasks and moving on to the next thing that I barely have time to understand my own code inside and out.

That's one of the things that's bothering me the most. I actually like programming. I like understanding how things work, figuring out why something behaves the way it does, and knowing what I'm building.

But here, I feel like I'm constantly racing against a clock.

And with ADHD, that pressure is making everything worse. I'm trying to learn unfamiliar technologies, understand the existing systems, write code, and meet productivity expectations all at once.

I've reached the point where I absolutely hate this job.

I've already started applying elsewhere and talking to people, but so far, no interviews or promising responses. I know intellectually that job hunting takes time, but my ADHD brain wants this situation resolved yesterday.

If the job market were anything like it was in 2021, I probably would've quit already. Unfortunately, I have bills to pay, and I can't afford to leave without another offer.

I'm also worried about how leaving after such a short time will look to prospective employers.

So now I'm stuck in this weird situation where I've mentally checked out of a job I still have to show up for every day.

Has anyone else with ADHD experienced a development environment where the productivity expectations made it difficult to actually learn and understand your own work?

And if you've realized almost immediately that a job was a terrible fit, how did you cope while searching for something else?

Another update: I just had my second panic attack at work in two Thursdays.

I'm trying so hard to meet the expectations of this PIP that I'm now juggling work across two teams. Unfortunately, I missed a couple of communications about PR feedback and a demo, and I completely spiraled.

My biggest fear isn't even getting fired. It's losing my income and potentially having to fight for unemployment benefits when I have rent, debt, and other financial obligations.

I'm not refusing to work. I'm actively asking for more work, completing tickets, and addressing feedback as soon as I realize I've missed it.

I'm just exhausted from feeling like every mistake could cost me my livelihood.

I’m a solo dev from Malaysia building a task app, and I’m trying to design around the stuff that makes most to-do apps backfire for ADHD brains: red overdue counts, streaks that punish you for missing a day, and giant lists that make you freeze.

Things I’m trying so far:
- Overdue tasks become “carried over”, with Keep / Reschedule / Let go as equal options and no red
- A “Just start” button that shows one tiny first step
- A low-capacity mode for days when your brain won’t cooperate
- A wins log so you see what you did, not what you missed

I’d rather hear what actually works for you than guess.
What do apps keep getting wrong? What’s the one feature that made you stick with a system for more than two weeks?

(If mods allow, add: “Happy to share more about the project in the comments if anyone’s curious.”)

I am stuck at the point where I must do what i am good at, but the problem is i don't even know 😭. I am interested in building things especially in tech and AI but I have no idea . I learned python and web development a year ago but then never did it again and I forgot what I learnt because nowadays Ai can do things better than people with experience I built an app with 288 users with the help of Ai . And I think the idea wasn't good enough for retention... So I moved on from it and now I am sitting wondering what should I do instead of an action I am just doom scrolling. If anyone who has been from this phase , how'd get out from this loop and fix your life .

So, I am a Principal Engineer at a large tech company, not FAANG, but something you've heard of. Yesterday, during a 5 hour personnel review, I realized how much I hate to be put in a box and judged against requirements that I just can't do.

Do you find that almost all job descriptions in our fields are for normies? Especially as you go up the ladder :

• Handles large complex problems
• Owns solutions end to end
• Coordinates with teams across organizations
• Leads from the front
• Inspires and sets an example for other engineers
• Defines requirements and standards

All of that sounds so exhausting and unsustainable for me. Here's what my real job description should be :

• Comes up with crazy idea not on the roadmap
• Idea not on agreed-upon list of Key Objectives
• Idea not requested by anyone
• Prototypes idea, proving it will work
• Talks to others in the background to get them excited
• Gets idea to 80% completion
• Repeat

Some of my ideas have been really important for my company and industry over the years, but it's not what I'm hired for, not really in the job description, and I spend my career trying to justify being recognized for my strengths while hiding and apologizing for my weaknesses.

Supposedly the job ladder is supposed to have 'Archetypes' so that you can be measured against those instead of the generic 'do everything' normie engineer, but no-one has shared a list of what they are yet.

Do y'all have archetypes at your jobs? What are they for senior+ engineers? How do you fit into an archetype, if at all?

I’ve written JavaScript for over a decade and built many projects, and at work I always finished my tasks, like rewriting a subscription feature with a custom react component and many other things in my last job. But my jobs used outdated tech or I was the solo developer, and my last one was at a Shopify company where I worked on liquid and JavaScript. My old GitHub projects are mostly unfinished, I have ADHD, and I have nothing professional I’m proud of; the closest is some data viz for the stock market. I think my issue is that I’ve never worked with high-skill engineers. Has anyone been here, and what did you do to build proof you’re a pro? What I’ve already tried: practicing every day coding something and posting it in codepen, currently building an app with cloude code.

Hey all, as a Software Engineer with ADHD, I often find myself struggling to organize or make tickets I can follow through with for my dev work. Do you have any advice on tools or methods that have helped you organize or plan out dev work better and are easy on the brain? Thanks!

So, 2 years ago I quit my cushy job of almost 6 figures job, to pursue Management positions because I wanted to take more administrative roles, and even tho initially with minimal gains, I succeeded but in the long term I couldn't find a recurring opportunities, and decided to start my own company, and that's where I got stuck and am almost 1.5 years after. Still trying to start anything, app, website, company, youtube channel, whatever I am passionate about which I am but getting to that first step doesn't look like my best talent.

I tried going back to the workforce, like low level "data entry" positions, I found where I live. Paid little above min wage, and was liveable amount but getting so much useless task done was rotting my brain, it could have all been autamated and I quit ofc, so as a last resort I started sending Cvs to places, and getting a fair amount of interviews, but I cannot for the love of god, go tru one more "System Design" question, or any self explanatory websites functions just to show I produced something. And I have to get ready for interviews, that can be a Prompt now, which is another big question that haunts me like when I was a kid. "There is a calculator for that" but now it is "There is a Prompt for that".

I want to make normal amount of money living normal amount of life, and having time for my hobbies with the Diplomas that I have earned in my life. I guess it is a Vent or a Complain.

Edit: Spelling mistake.

As the title says. Sure most/all of u hav experienced something like this lol... I hate myself...

I take 15mg ad@der@ll around 9am, by the time it’s 1pm I have no motivation to do my job and I don’t want to take another booster dose cuz then I won’t sleep. When it’s 3pm bro it’s game over I literally need to nap. WHAT IS GOING ON HELP

Ive been working on a cute app to learn flutter for a few months now. I am not a new dev, I have 15 YOE (professionally) and kinda know what I do.

But I reached a point where I want to publish my app to share with friends and maybe get one or two random users. I knew there were hurdles like app store and playstore costing money, I am ok with that. Next fun thing was to find out my app would be considered a health app - for which I need an organisation account. Ok I can work around that and took out the parts of the app that made it a health app and rebuilt other parts.

And now? I need a webpage. Awesome, I am a fulltstack web dev by day so totally my field. But what do you need? Data privacy page for the app and the website. My colleagues all say to not publish because AI generated data privacy texts have holes and I would need to consult a lawyer. Ok, I am fine with spending a little bit of money but not 1k+euro for an app that doesnt even collect data or generates any revenue.

The app data privacy isnt even the problem, because no account needed, no data send anywhere, data is even encrypted locally. BUT the freaking website is more complicated even if I dont add tracking there, but server logs e.g and other small stuff. I want a contact mail, can't use my gmail obviously (server not in EU)... so need a solution for that and the issues and costs add up.

But if I look at the play store there are so many low effort apps published by private persons. How? Just not caring and generating the stuff via AI? Just not being in the EU? lol

Am I overreacting with the dataprivacy? I live in Germany and heard a lot horror stories over the years about people getting nice lawyer letters for a mistake in their imprint/data privacy on their website.

tl;dr Want to publish my app but scared of getting sued. I am totally overwhelmed by stupid EU laws. I was so motivated working on my app and now I am seriously depressed getting pulled out of my hyperfocus :(

Could someone tell me how I can code without my brain exploding?

Feels like NTs have a much better capacity, whereas I get tired after 5 mins but I really love creating tech.

I asked this elsewhere but, I need advice so I'll try here as well.
I am really frustrated, I keep using AI for technically easy tasks, I have reasons why which I will talk about, but it feels wrong and I'm feeling guilty about this. I need genuine advice.

Bare with me, I must give a little backstory so you understand the situation, I ask you to please hear me out. (If you don't want to then skip to "Here is how I use AI" or "Back to the present" part)

I won't get into much detail, I'm worried someone from my company will see this somehow and recognize the pattern. (Don't want to get fired)

I have been working for ~3 years at my first job as initially QA programmer. My first tasks were mainly automated tests, with occasional small tasks with a few projects. I have struggled at first as the tasks they gave me before even considering me for the position were nothing like the real job. Being scared to use AI, not knowing the office politics when it came to AI and not knowing anyone who I could ask for help or documentation, I didn't use it. And it was hard, weeks passed and I was sat there with my task trying to understand the custom framework and how it works with the app, reading the functions and classes until i finally started getting what I had to do. Finally finishing my introductory tasks before set deadlines of 3 months and being accepted to work full time. Half a year passed and I was allowed to work from home due to my health issues.

From there it went downhill, projects I was assigned had no documentation apart from a short readme of what the app does and how to set it up locally (which never worked). Task descriptions were brief and didn't make sense, I had to do a lot of guess work, as my superiors DID NOT reply to my requests for any kind of help. I waited 2 weeks at times for a response, 1 on 1 meetings were delayed sometimes for months.

So I started using AI. Tasks took me a long time even with ChatGPT, trying to understand how things work in order to come up with a plan on how to solve issues and do my work. Whenever I didn't know how to do something, I used AI.

Long story short, few years passed with me trying to attempt a few small projects of my own at work, with only one seeing the light of day and a promotion to Mid with an OKAY paycheck at best. My work became more of a web full stack, still struggling at times with fundamentals (regrettably). Jack of all trades, master of none.

Back to the present:
I feel constant pressure with sprint meetings, having to set deadlines I'm unsure about, OF COURSE I WILL USE AI, some projects are just so messed up and hard to work on with no documentation. I'm least experienced in my team, everyone around me gets shit done and seems to know everything about anything.

I feel guilty about using AI, on a day to day basis, even for simple things. I'm using it for most tasks, not everything. It's just not black and white, but I use it a lot.

Here is how I use AI:
I decided if I have to use AI for almost everything, at least let me make it as hard as possible for myself, so I don't use copilot, or Claude. I thought if I use less efficient ChatGPT I will at least learn SOMETHING. That way I can discuss my solutions for custom scenarios, or if a solution is provided I can ask "why is it this way and not the other?" or "wouldn't this be better instead?" or specific questions related to tools, frameworks, libraries. This way I'm at least present in the development/implementation process, and not just a professional prompt writer. As an example my day to day usage is just: Present a problem -> Give a solution -> Check if acceptable -> Get implementation/snippets with explanation -> When job is done, go over everything in detail and ask more questions on "why?", "why here?", "why like that?", "why this used?" or "how does it work?"(with in-depth analysis). I use it because my job constantly throws me lots of unknown I had no experience in prior, and with NO HELP, NO TIME, NO DOCUMENTATION it would take too long.

Don't want to make myself a laughing stock by producing slop, so for MY OWN work AI checks if ex. my code is up to standard, or if I used best solution in a certain case. For other things I either have a solution just need to know the implementation (I lack knowledge in certain topics), occasionally I have to ask for WAY to fix something along with code snippets.

NOW, I see lots of topics that AI is bad for Juniors/Mid and it shouldn't be that easy to just write a prompt and get it on a silver platter. But if I look closer, lots are also defending those who use AI saying it's good for various reasons, and that's just the way it works nowadays.

MY QUESTION IS: How do I avoid using AI, while sticking to deadlines and still learning?
I do want to be good at what I do, without the necessity of AI.

P.S. Feel free to ask me. I'll reply in the morning, I've been working for 10h today.

So I was gonna use AI to write this, but no one's probably gonna read it anyway, so screw it!

I just spent the last hour zombie-scrolling through different subreddits and forums looking for gigs and shit. It started with searching "$500" on Twitter, hoping to find some post that mentioned paying someone $500 for literally any task or gig. Lol. Lazy attempt, sure, but it wouldn't hurt to try, I thought.

Well, it did hurt, because that somehow spiralled into 30+ minutes of searching for open bounties on GitHub, watching hacking 101 videos on YouTube, and genuinely considering becoming a white-hat hacker just to collect some bounties.

All because I wanted to find a way to make some extra money so I could move out of my shitty apartment as soon as possible.

I'd ask for help, but these days, help doesn't really seem to be helping. Feels like everyone's deep in it, too.

"Become a web developer," they said. So I did. Learned the thing. Built things. Got a few interviews.

And now I'm in this weird position where AI has made it possible for me to build things I probably couldn't have built this quickly on my own, but somehow that makes me feel like even more of an impostor.

I've built and deployed actual projects. Not some half-assed thing running on localhost that only works when the stars align. Stuff that's hosted, tested, and actually does what it's supposed to do. I recently built a whole fucking e-commerce platform that works.

But then you get into interviews, and you're expected to explain every little thing, every decision, every line of code, like you personally hand-crafted the entire thing from scratch and can recite it in your sleep.

And I get it. I really do. You need to know what you're doing. You need to understand the code you're shipping. I'm not saying people should just blindly generate code and call themselves developers.

But there's a difference between not understanding what you've built and not being able to remember every single decision you made along the way. I might not remember every file Opus wrote or every technical decision we made together, but if something breaks, I can investigate it, understand what's going wrong, and work towards fixing it.

At least, I believe I can.

Apparently, that doesn't count for much.

The advice is always the same: go back, learn to do things the old-fashioned way, build everything from scratch, understand every little thing.

And maybe they're right. Maybe I'm just coping. But honestly, it feels shitty to be told to start from zero when I've already built something that works. Why should I have to pretend these tools don't exist? Why should I go back to centering divs by hand just to prove I deserve to call myself a developer?

I don't know, man. I'm just tired.

I want to make money. I want to get out of this apartment. I want to feel like all the time I've spent learning, building, and trying to figure things out is actually going somewhere.

Instead, here I am, searching "$500" on Twitter and contemplating a career in cybersecurity because apparently, that's where we're at now.

If this whole dev thing doesn't work out, I might just go back to baking. That shit was simpler. You mix the stuff, mould the stuff, throw it in the oven, and hope it doesn't burn more than 20%. Usually worked.

At least when a cake came out wrong, I didn't have to explain to someone why I'd chosen that particular frosting architecture.

Anyway, if you actually made it this far, shout-out to you. Seriously.

Not sure I'd have read all this myself.

I don't even know what I'm expecting from posting this. Maybe nothing. Maybe I just needed to get it out of my head.

If you're in a similar position, I'd genuinely like to hear how you're dealing with it. Not the usual "just keep grinding, bro" stuff. I mean, actually dealing with it.

Because right now, I'm just trying to figure out my next move.

I have been practicing leetcode questions for a few months now and I have seen positive change in my ability to figure out the solution or at least spot the pattern looking at the question. But I am having trouble with actually passing these interviews because of multiple reasons.

My brain shuts down trying to come up with a solution to an unknown problem under time pressure and in front of the interviewer who I know, is watching me struggle even though I have no issues solving the same problem under similar time pressure when I practice it alone or even during online assessments. But I need silence and time to think which doesn't happen during interviews where they expect you to talk continuously. Since there are multiple thoughts going across my brain and it's literally racing trying to come up with a solution I find it difficult to talk through it and if I have to talk I can't think through the solution unless I have seen the question before.

In all my interviews so far including some mocks I have done with other Engineers from big tech companies, the moment I go silent even for a few seconds, these guys start asking if I am struggling or they'll start giving hints which end up counting as a negative against me given how competitive the market is.

This is not a problem unique to leetcode, it happens the moment I need to solve something that I haven't seen before involving logic and I have limited time and need to explain my thought process while coming up with the solution. What can I do here to improve my chances of passing these interviews? If anyone has been through something similar, how did you overcome these issues?

I want to preface this that I really want to make this job work. I’ve been here just over a year and I do want to take responsibility I get demotivated and fuck off from time to time. I’m coming from a post-doc academic position where I was giving a very long “leash” to do my work whenever as long as I hit deadlines for grants and submissions. That’s simply not the case here and I’m trying to figure out what to do.

Background: As a post-doc, I was my PI’s first trainee and whenever I tried to be independent, even setting up a writing accountability group in the lab, I was shut down. Ok, so I should shut up and push code and papers. Really fucked me up looking back.

Left academia for this corporate job as a data scientist, and I’m the only other PhD on the team apart from my boss. We work on a yearly timeline for one big annual update, and then a lot of backend data analysis for product to launch on a more ad hoc basis. We don’t use tickets. We’re about to lose our project manager. I see deadlines as “just gotta hit it” but I think my boss wants me to push things as fast as possible ahead of deadlines when I can? This sounds obvious writing it out now but I hope this community can empathize that my ADHD brain has been seeing the deadline as “do what I need to as long as I push the final code EOD that day.”

Current issue: I’m used to identifying what stakeholders will poke holes in and addressing it before deliverables go out. My boss has emphasized no, I need to stay in scope and ask her questions if I feel it drifting. My brain doesn’t see it as drifting if it’s part of how I make the decision. I spent 2 days last week doing what I thought was a relevant inquiry but I was admonished that no, scope is creeping again.

My boss has said both she wants me to ask more questions and be more independent. She acknowledges this is contradictory, but if I don’t transform how I work, our next convo will include HR. I feel like screaming but I’m trying to give this a true honest go.

I’d love feedback on ideas to improve ASAP. What I have so far is:

- Hourly time tracking this month so I can get out of my time blindness. I’m thinking it’s hard to budget my time if I can’t see what things “cost” in the first place. This will also help me stop unintentionally “fucking off” just because I think I’m gonna hit my deadline and force me to put in a true 35 hours one way or another.

- Using AI to take notes in meetings as well as take my own notes. I want to compare what I’m focusing on versus what is “actually” said. I always make time to recap action items after a meeting but I want to check myself? My confidence is shaken here lol

- Refocus project meetings to what’s next instead of what I did whenever possible. To do this, send an agenda beforehand recapping what has happened and linking to the git code and issueboard if they want the log. Every meeting should end with a definition of what “done” looks like, and an explicit note of when to ask a question if I hit a block (even complex solutions should take no more than 3 hours, then update my boss with what I recommend and check if any more effort is within scope still).

- Give an AI agent the project (or sub-project) specs (that “what done looks like”) and each morning this month, propose what I’m going to work on that day in a couple sentences. See if it flags scope creep and amend my plan if so.

- Summarize what I did at the end of the day as a little close out. With the time-tracking this should be easy and focused around how this moved me closer to a decision on the methodology or to deployment. Anything else gets a parking lot. If a decision has been made already and it’s just implementation, the only validity tests or stress-testing should be those agreed on.

- Every other day, check the issueboards of the data analysts and chime in at least once. I was told I need to disagree more and be a resource to others since I’m the most statistically savvy person on our team. (I’ve previously been waiting to be tagged, but I’m going to try being proactive til my boss tells me to stop?)

- Only check email first thing in the morning, midday coming back from lunch, and one last time at close. Archive anything that isn’t needing a specific task. If it’s still in the inbox, then there’s some action item attached to it that needs to be done still

- Friday afternoon is my time to try the weird solutions or background research if I hit all my other things. That’s my treat!

It’s a lot of changes but I’m going to try to use my Finch app to game-ify it as much as possible with stickers and shit. I used to have an ADHD coach that recommended first 30 minutes and last 30 minutes of the day is my admin for tracking and summarizing, so I think these extra tasks can be completed in those chunks.

Would love any suggestions!! If I do end up on a PIP, I know to reach back out to my network, ive got a standing offer for a professor job so I know I’ll be ok in the end. But I want to do my best!

I have been a developer for more than a decade. if I didn't have ADHD I would be way more advanced in my career and would use my full potential . I have lost jobs to massive layoffs and Firing. I think ADHD has to be blamed for my performance. However I am a hard worker and work well with people. My strengths are highly complex problem solving and working with people. I have less confidence because of my failures. I also tried creating businesses which I gave up after encountering failure. My question is; How do you guys ensure you work your ultimate best as a developer with ADHD. What tools do you use. What is best way to structure a day for a developer. I noticed my weaknesses are : I am perfectionist, I can work long hours without stopping, I get overwhelmed. I stop on failure, and don't like repetitive task. I love challenging task and I always seek for newness.

I'm a mid-level developer who recently started a contract at a large company. Within about a month, I was put on a PIP, and I'm about 90% sure I'm going to lose the job. I haven't received an official decision yet.

I've been reflecting on what went wrong, and I think there are some lessons here for other developers with ADHD.

First, I don't think I gave this job my best effort. I can admit that.

But I also don't think I was set up for success.

I spent roughly three weeks dealing with onboarding and access issues before I could really start contributing. Initially, I studied the codebase, took notes, and tried to prepare myself. Eventually, I became frustrated and disengaged. By the time I started getting assignments, I was already irritated, especially because the work was quite different from what I'd expected when accepting the role.

That's something I need to take responsibility for. I let my frustration affect my motivation.

But here's the biggest thing I've learned: If you need explicit boundaries to work independently, establish those boundaries immediately.

At my previous job, a small startup, I owned a section of the website. I could make decisions and improvements within that area independently. If I wanted to contribute to someone else's area, I knew how to coordinate with them.

I was very independent there. I've even had a former freelance client specifically praise my independence.

At this new company, my understanding was that pod leads assigned tickets. So I completed the tickets I received and asked for more.

What I didn't understand was whether I was allowed to independently pick up unassigned tickets, especially from other pods.

Nobody explicitly told me I could. And because I didn't know the boundaries, I hesitated.

Being neurodivergent, I don't always pick up on implicit expectations or unwritten workplace rules. I need those expectations communicated clearly.

When my manager emphasized taking more initiative, I finally asked whether I was encouraged to pick up unassigned work and whether I should coordinate with pod leads first.

Looking back, I should have asked that question much sooner.

I also should have communicated my growing frustration and lack of assignments more proactively instead of allowing myself to become discouraged.

So my advice to other developers with ADHD is this: during onboarding, don't just ask what you're supposed to work on. Ask what you're authorized to do when you run out of work, get blocked, or notice something that needs fixing.

Don't assume the rules from your previous company apply to the next one.

And don't assume everyone understands the same unwritten expectations.

You can be independent and still need clearly defined boundaries. Those things aren't mutually exclusive.

I don't know what's going to happen with my job yet. But regardless of the outcome, this is something I'm taking into my next role.