Mr. Hands

[takes dexamphetamines]
[opens unity]
[starts vscode]
[cracks knuckles]
alright. time to remake my old collar

i so often see takes about how adhd meds are some capitalist scam to force neurodivergent people into being better workers, but for me the way my meds actually work is that they give me energy to do the things that i really want to do, and the things that i really want to do are very rarely work

A non-exhaustive list of things I can do when I take my ADHD meds:

• Work a day job
• Write coherent sentences (allegedly)
• Start an assignment the week before the deadline
• Read a book for more than two paragraphs
• Start playing a new video game
• Get up from the couch to take a piss
• Do groceries before 10 PM

The dopamine receptors in my brain do not work properly. Meds help to regulate them. 💖

Start the video gaem before going downstairs to brew a cup of tea, so that when get back to your desk you can look at the screen and go:

Oh hey, a video gaem!

And ask:

Who did that??

coders with adhd: what do you use to keep track of the last little bits and pieces you need to do before a project release?

I have so many TODO files that get quickly outdated and become painful to sift through, and I'm not great at keeping an issue board on e.g. gitlab up to date either. if I don't start keeping track though, I keep accidentally starting new features instead of lasering in on the v1.0, and I really need to learn to finish and release some stuff.

Similarly TODO items in code comments are also not great since they're not centrally browseable and some items don't necessarily have a meaningful place in the code to stick them, and they mess with the linters who wanna chirp about unfixed TODO items.

As an (allegedly) successful programmer of video games with (medicated) ADHD, I have a bullet journal for tracking tasks, and I use TickTick on my phone for tracking tasks, and I have a whiteboard in my office for tracking tasks, and sometimes I just let things go to shit until someone yells at me.

The point is not to build a perfect system for tracking your tasks perfectly. That's unachievable even for the neurotypicals. You will use a system, get really excited about it, and then forget about it in a few weeks. It's all fine as long as the important things get done eventually. We all have to juggle too many balls. What's important is that we identify which ones are made of plastic, and which ones are made of glass.

Now that I'm in the Netherlands, I ordered some new Brain Pillz™ by logging into a website with my government-mandated QR code and clicking "Order more."

In Germany, I had to travel 45 minutes for my doctor to hand me a piece of paper that I then handed to my local pharmacy, only for them to look in the system and tell me that they were out of Brain Pillz™ so please come back tomorrow.

Unfortunately, I'm also paying through the nose for this service with my health insurance, while in Germany it was practically free. 🙃