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Throwaway for maximum honesty: I am pretty sure I spend at least 75% of my time "at work" not working. HN, Reddit, messing around with side projects or learning

Throwaway for maximum honesty: I am pretty sure I spend at least 75% of my time "at work" not working. HN, Reddit, messing around with side projects or learning a new language or framework. This has been the case for my entire working life. I seem to get as much done as other people (sometimes better) so part of me wonders if I'm not as unusual as I feel. Part of me wonders if I should get evaluated for ADHD, since I find it such a struggle to focus on my work. And part of me is just frustrated with myself, that theoretically I could spend like 3 good hours at work each day, get more done, and have more quality time to myself.

yoodenvranx 9y ago
> I seem to get as much done as other people (sometimes better) Perhaps all the other people are also as unproductive as you? ;)
- knodi123 9y ago
  Yes, that's what he said, in the second half of the sentence you quoted: "so part of me wonders if I'm not as unusual as I feel"
- lazythrowawayd 9y ago
  Or they're "productive" in a different way. There's one developer on our team who spends large portions of his day creating diagrams, documents and largely unneeded JIRA tickets. It's busy work, but since he has nothing else to do, he just creates document exhaust.
barsonme 9y ago
The best way to describe ADHD is: The TV is always on, but you don't get to choose the channel. Some things are easy to focus on—I can sit down to program for a bit and lose track of time for 5 hours. On the other hand, if something is boring, it's mind-numbingly boring. It was the worst while I was in school, since teachers and professors just thought, "oh, he's unmotivated" when in reality it was more along the lines of, "I'd rather cut my toenails with a rusty butter knife than write the paper." (Okay, perhaps that's a slight exaggeration.) Anyway, if it affects your life and managing it yourself isn't working (give it an honest effort, of course) definitely speak with a doctor. While too many parents think their kids have ADHD when the kids are really just, well, kids, trying to cope with ADHD without some sort of guidance sucks. A lot. It's amazing how much more productive you can be if you get some help coping with it. Just my $0.02.
- tedajax 9y ago
  Unrelated but I felt compelled to share a similar sentiment: > It was the worst while I was in school, since teachers and professors just thought, "oh, he's unmotivated" when in reality it was more along the lines of, "I'd rather cut my toenails with a rusty butter knife than write the paper." (Okay, perhaps that's a slight exaggeration.) Oh man I can relate so much. So many conversations with teachers asking why I wasn't motivated while every night I went home to program and build side projects and was singularly focused on becoming a programmer in the game industry. The answer was of course I was motivated just not by anything they had to offer and that never went over very well.
  - jackgolding 9y ago
    I feel the same but only recognise this now that I'm out of education
  - BoorishBears 9y ago
    I've never seen someone describe my education so accurately, down to: > went home to program and build side projects and was singularly focused on becoming a programmer in the game industry
    - tedajax 9y ago
      Based on my discussions with other game programmers over the years, I can conclude that it is not an uncommon story.
- snowpanda 9y ago
  > "I'd rather cut my toenails with a rusty butter knife than write the paper." > Okay, perhaps that's a slight exaggeration. I have ADHD, this is not an exaggeration. I actually really like your example. It's literally how it feels like. I remember being in school and doing things like lining up my pencil with the rays of light coming from outside, and then trying to outline the shadow of my pencil with a different pen. I would spend an entire class on that instead of listening to a single word the professor said. The worst part about it is that part of you knows the professor is sharing interesting stuff, it just that your brain tells you its boring.
snowpanda 9y ago
> Part of me wonders if I should get evaluated for ADHD I would highly recommend doing this, I have ADHD and knowing I wasn't crazy, and that it has a name, has helped me a lot.
dntrkv 9y ago
I had this same issue until I stopped visiting Reddit completely (even in my off work hours) and gave up my addiction to news. It's amazing the difference it has made in my productivity.
- nevster 9y ago
  But not HN?
  - dntrkv 9y ago
    Nah, I don't spend much time on HN. I just scan the front page 2-3 times a day. Plus, I gain a lot of value out of it. I would probably not be where I am in my career were it not for HN.
- flukus 9y ago
  I've had similar success in the past. But I went back to a single monitor instead of giving up reddit entirely. Not having the distraction always present on the second screen helps.
- MattSayar 9y ago
  I use the reddit app on my phone to fill those <10 minute gaps in my day where I would otherwise be bored, eg waiting in line, waiting for a long loading screen, etc. It's simple to pick up and put down in a moment's notice. Assuming you did the same thing, what do you do now without it?
  - dntrkv 9y ago
    I carry my kindle around and try to read any chance I get. Or if there is not enough time to read, I try to do... nothing. Haha I know it may seem like a crazy concept but I have been trying to resist the urge of always looking through Instagram, Snapchat, HN, etc. That's not to say I never do it, a lot of times I still find myself checking social accounts when I'm in line or whatever, but I try to avoid reddit entirely because of how it always manages to suck up more time than you expect and I have found it seriously feeds the addiction to content, especially news.
imjustsaying 9y ago
>part of me wonders if I'm not as unusual as I feel It's probably not as unusual as it feels https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iiOEQOtBlQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iiOEQOtBlQ
badworkguy 9y ago
I never thought I'd have to create a throwaway for HN, but here I am This is me. On a good day, I might work for 3 hours of my 7 hour day. On a bad day, 1 hour. Somehow, I get the work done, and even get praised for it, though it's not taxing or particularly good code. I think my firm is afraid to lose me, and let me get away with too much, but that could be paranoia / imposter syndrome. That said, my productivity is on a par with others I work with (surpassing some) and I don't consider myself to be a better coder than they are. I spend the larger part of my day on side projects, learning new languages, trying new apps, painstakingly reorganising my local file system, reducing the size and complexity of my dropbox folders (even though I'm using less than half of my free space), reading HN, tinkering with electronics at my desk, reorganising my workspace, blogging, reading, listening to podcasts or audiobooks (I find I can't do anything that involves typing at the same time, but I can do graphics) I have curtailed my reddit / browsing a lot, but its still more than I'd like. Lately, I've decided that my job is not challenging me enough, and I want to leave it. And so I blame that on my lack of focus. But if I'm honest, I've always been like this. In previous jobs, in college, in school, I've always done the minimum required to get by because I have other "more important" things to do. I'm easily distracted. I don't think I'd go so far as to say I have ADHD, but I do have trouble focussing on tasks when a computer is involved. I have a theory that this is a side-effect of the modern computing experience itself. Switching tabs and multitasking is so easy these days, with the amounnt of RAM / Bandwidth / CPU we have at our disposal, that doing several things at once is very tempting. I barely bother to close apps. I would normally have 4-5 VS windows, Android Studio, Photoshop, Sublime, etc all open at once, and while I'm not switching between them every five minutes, I might alt-tab to one by accident and lose an hour fixing some bug or trying some thing out. There were some college projects that really captured my interest, but those were an exception.
Mz 9y ago
In "Office Space*, the guy says he spends all his time appeasing his many bosses and only gets 10 minutes of real work done in a week. At my corporate job, I spent at least two hours a day doing necessary tasks that didn't really count towards production, but would cause problems if not taken care of. I also routinely cleaned up messes left by the people being actively rewarded by management for their speed who achieved that by doing sloppy work. I do freelance work these days. My corporate experience helps me not stress overly much about how little actual work seems to happen. There are always a bunch of tasks necessary to getting other things done that "don't count" as work.
mars4rp 9y ago
does anybody have experience with neurofeedback? I've heard it works very well for ADHD, but it is a bit pricey for me and insurance doesn't cover it.
abuani 9y ago
This really hits close to home for me. The first four years of my career I had the exact same sentiment. I would be able to complete my work in the first few hours of the day and just screw around after that. It was often misguided and didn't accomplish much other then learning random factoids. 15 months ago I finally brought myself to see a psychiatrist for depression, and between therapy and medication I was able to snap out of it and get on my feet again. The only thing is, while I started to love what I was doing again, I still felt no true inspiration to focus on something that wasn't truly challenging. And that turned out to be a major issue for me, and I had conversations with my therapist and she recommended I consider getting treatment for ADHD. One of my friends came by that weekend and happened to have a few extra extended release aderall, so I split it up over the two weeks between my next appointment with my psychiatrist. But I knew almost immediately after taking aderall that I likely had ADHD. I had a moment of clarity where my own thoughts didn't consume me while I worked for 30 minutes. The last time I felt that was probably a decade ago when I was still considering going to school for music performance. I've now been on medication for ADHD for a month and it's had a profound impact on my quality of life. I used to always be tired, regardless of how much sleep I got. I would find myself having difficulty in completing what should be minor tasks with any bit of precision. I was making so many little mistakes here and there that I didn't realize how much of an impact it was having on my morale. This is a really long and roundabout way of saying, there's no reason not to go see a therapist and a psychiatrist if you feel like it's starting to impact you're quality of life. The worst thing that happens is you go to a doctor and get a comprehensive health examination to rule out any other factors or you take medication for a month that doesn't help.

yoodenvranx 9y ago

> I seem to get as much done as other people (sometimes better) Perhaps all the other people are also as unproductive as you? ;)

knodi123 9y ago
Yes, that's what he said, in the second half of the sentence you quoted: "so part of me wonders if I'm not as unusual as I feel"
lazythrowawayd 9y ago
Or they're "productive" in a different way. There's one developer on our team who spends large portions of his day creating diagrams, documents and largely unneeded JIRA tickets. It's busy work, but since he has nothing else to do, he just creates document exhaust.

barsonme 9y ago

The best way to describe ADHD is: The TV is always on, but you don't get to choose the channel. Some things are easy to focus on—I can sit down to program for a bit and lose track of time for 5 hours. On the other hand, if something is boring, it's mind-numbingly boring. It was the worst while I was in school, since teachers and professors just thought, "oh, he's unmotivated" when in reality it was more along the lines of, "I'd rather cut my toenails with a rusty butter knife than write the paper." (Okay, perhaps that's a slight exaggeration.) Anyway, if it affects your life and managing it yourself isn't working (give it an honest effort, of course) definitely speak with a doctor. While too many parents think their kids have ADHD when the kids are really just, well, kids, trying to cope with ADHD without some sort of guidance sucks. A lot. It's amazing how much more productive you can be if you get some help coping with it. Just my $0.02.

tedajax 9y ago
Unrelated but I felt compelled to share a similar sentiment: > It was the worst while I was in school, since teachers and professors just thought, "oh, he's unmotivated" when in reality it was more along the lines of, "I'd rather cut my toenails with a rusty butter knife than write the paper." (Okay, perhaps that's a slight exaggeration.) Oh man I can relate so much. So many conversations with teachers asking why I wasn't motivated while every night I went home to program and build side projects and was singularly focused on becoming a programmer in the game industry. The answer was of course I was motivated just not by anything they had to offer and that never went over very well.
- jackgolding 9y ago
  I feel the same but only recognise this now that I'm out of education
- BoorishBears 9y ago
  I've never seen someone describe my education so accurately, down to: > went home to program and build side projects and was singularly focused on becoming a programmer in the game industry
  - tedajax 9y ago
    Based on my discussions with other game programmers over the years, I can conclude that it is not an uncommon story.
snowpanda 9y ago
> "I'd rather cut my toenails with a rusty butter knife than write the paper." > Okay, perhaps that's a slight exaggeration. I have ADHD, this is not an exaggeration. I actually really like your example. It's literally how it feels like. I remember being in school and doing things like lining up my pencil with the rays of light coming from outside, and then trying to outline the shadow of my pencil with a different pen. I would spend an entire class on that instead of listening to a single word the professor said. The worst part about it is that part of you knows the professor is sharing interesting stuff, it just that your brain tells you its boring.

snowpanda 9y ago

> Part of me wonders if I should get evaluated for ADHD I would highly recommend doing this, I have ADHD and knowing I wasn't crazy, and that it has a name, has helped me a lot.

dntrkv 9y ago

I had this same issue until I stopped visiting Reddit completely (even in my off work hours) and gave up my addiction to news. It's amazing the difference it has made in my productivity.

nevster 9y ago
But not HN?
- dntrkv 9y ago
  Nah, I don't spend much time on HN. I just scan the front page 2-3 times a day. Plus, I gain a lot of value out of it. I would probably not be where I am in my career were it not for HN.
flukus 9y ago
I've had similar success in the past. But I went back to a single monitor instead of giving up reddit entirely. Not having the distraction always present on the second screen helps.
MattSayar 9y ago
I use the reddit app on my phone to fill those <10 minute gaps in my day where I would otherwise be bored, eg waiting in line, waiting for a long loading screen, etc. It's simple to pick up and put down in a moment's notice. Assuming you did the same thing, what do you do now without it?
- dntrkv 9y ago
  I carry my kindle around and try to read any chance I get. Or if there is not enough time to read, I try to do... nothing. Haha I know it may seem like a crazy concept but I have been trying to resist the urge of always looking through Instagram, Snapchat, HN, etc. That's not to say I never do it, a lot of times I still find myself checking social accounts when I'm in line or whatever, but I try to avoid reddit entirely because of how it always manages to suck up more time than you expect and I have found it seriously feeds the addiction to content, especially news.

imjustsaying 9y ago

>part of me wonders if I'm not as unusual as I feel It's probably not as unusual as it feels https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iiOEQOtBlQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iiOEQOtBlQ

badworkguy 9y ago

I never thought I'd have to create a throwaway for HN, but here I am This is me. On a good day, I might work for 3 hours of my 7 hour day. On a bad day, 1 hour. Somehow, I get the work done, and even get praised for it, though it's not taxing or particularly good code. I think my firm is afraid to lose me, and let me get away with too much, but that could be paranoia / imposter syndrome. That said, my productivity is on a par with others I work with (surpassing some) and I don't consider myself to be a better coder than they are. I spend the larger part of my day on side projects, learning new languages, trying new apps, painstakingly reorganising my local file system, reducing the size and complexity of my dropbox folders (even though I'm using less than half of my free space), reading HN, tinkering with electronics at my desk, reorganising my workspace, blogging, reading, listening to podcasts or audiobooks (I find I can't do anything that involves typing at the same time, but I can do graphics) I have curtailed my reddit / browsing a lot, but its still more than I'd like. Lately, I've decided that my job is not challenging me enough, and I want to leave it. And so I blame that on my lack of focus. But if I'm honest, I've always been like this. In previous jobs, in college, in school, I've always done the minimum required to get by because I have other "more important" things to do. I'm easily distracted. I don't think I'd go so far as to say I have ADHD, but I do have trouble focussing on tasks when a computer is involved. I have a theory that this is a side-effect of the modern computing experience itself. Switching tabs and multitasking is so easy these days, with the amounnt of RAM / Bandwidth / CPU we have at our disposal, that doing several things at once is very tempting. I barely bother to close apps. I would normally have 4-5 VS windows, Android Studio, Photoshop, Sublime, etc all open at once, and while I'm not switching between them every five minutes, I might alt-tab to one by accident and lose an hour fixing some bug or trying some thing out. There were some college projects that really captured my interest, but those were an exception.

Mz 9y ago

In "Office Space*, the guy says he spends all his time appeasing his many bosses and only gets 10 minutes of real work done in a week. At my corporate job, I spent at least two hours a day doing necessary tasks that didn't really count towards production, but would cause problems if not taken care of. I also routinely cleaned up messes left by the people being actively rewarded by management for their speed who achieved that by doing sloppy work. I do freelance work these days. My corporate experience helps me not stress overly much about how little actual work seems to happen. There are always a bunch of tasks necessary to getting other things done that "don't count" as work.

mars4rp 9y ago

does anybody have experience with neurofeedback? I've heard it works very well for ADHD, but it is a bit pricey for me and insurance doesn't cover it.

abuani 9y ago

This really hits close to home for me. The first four years of my career I had the exact same sentiment. I would be able to complete my work in the first few hours of the day and just screw around after that. It was often misguided and didn't accomplish much other then learning random factoids. 15 months ago I finally brought myself to see a psychiatrist for depression, and between therapy and medication I was able to snap out of it and get on my feet again. The only thing is, while I started to love what I was doing again, I still felt no true inspiration to focus on something that wasn't truly challenging. And that turned out to be a major issue for me, and I had conversations with my therapist and she recommended I consider getting treatment for ADHD. One of my friends came by that weekend and happened to have a few extra extended release aderall, so I split it up over the two weeks between my next appointment with my psychiatrist. But I knew almost immediately after taking aderall that I likely had ADHD. I had a moment of clarity where my own thoughts didn't consume me while I worked for 30 minutes. The last time I felt that was probably a decade ago when I was still considering going to school for music performance. I've now been on medication for ADHD for a month and it's had a profound impact on my quality of life. I used to always be tired, regardless of how much sleep I got. I would find myself having difficulty in completing what should be minor tasks with any bit of precision. I was making so many little mistakes here and there that I didn't realize how much of an impact it was having on my morale. This is a really long and roundabout way of saying, there's no reason not to go see a therapist and a psychiatrist if you feel like it's starting to impact you're quality of life. The worst thing that happens is you go to a doctor and get a comprehensive health examination to rule out any other factors or you take medication for a month that doesn't help.