Thriving as a Developer With ADHD

6 snips

Sep 20, 2024

Chris Ferdinandi, a web developer and creator of "ADHD For the Win!", shares his personal journey with ADHD and its impact on productivity. He discusses effective time management strategies tailored for developers, the benefits of creating structured work environments, and the challenge of maintaining focus in meetings. Chris emphasizes the power of downtime and movement for boosting creativity and offers insights into navigating workspaces, whether traditional or remote. He also highlights the importance of embracing imperfection to enhance productivity.

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INSIGHT

Coding and ADHD

Coding offers tight feedback loops, like a game, which can be stimulating for ADHD brains.
Each successful code execution or error provides a dopamine spike, making it engaging.

INSIGHT

ADHD and Focus

People with ADHD can experience both scattered attention and hyperfocus.
Hyperfocus, an intense flow state, can lead to increased productivity but also neglecting essential needs.

ADVICE

Managing Meetings

Block out work time on your calendar to minimize meeting disruptions.
This allows flexibility for essential meetings while protecting focus time.

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What are strategies for being a productive developer with ADHD? How can you help your team members with ADHD to succeed and complete projects? This week on the show, we speak with Chris Ferdinandi about his website and podcast “ADHD For the Win!”

Chris struggled with productivity early in his career as a developer. He shares systems and strategies he’s discovered to harness the focusing power of ADHD.

We discuss time management, meetings, and maintaining productivity in a hectic world. Chris also shares resources for learning more about defining ADHD, self-evaluation, and how to keep getting things done.

This episode is sponsored by InfluxData.

Course Spotlight: Build a GUI Calculator With PyQt and Python

In this video course, you’ll learn how to create graphical user interface (GUI) applications with Python and PyQt. Once you’ve covered the basics, you’ll build a fully functional desktop calculator that can respond to user events with concrete actions.

Topics:

00:00:00 – Introduction
00:02:30 – Defining ADHD and how it aligns with coding
00:05:47 – Analogy for focus
00:06:51 – Can you sense the change in focus?
00:07:46 – The challenge of meetings
00:11:45 – Tips for managing time
00:15:44 – Capturing notes and defragging
00:18:48 – Sponsor: InfluxData
00:19:33 – Downtime and interruptions
00:25:26 – Remote work and focus
00:33:16 – Sitting still and meetings
00:37:39 – Video Course Spotlight
00:39:13 – Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly
00:47:36 – Prototypes and working on interesting things
00:50:26 – Deadlines and pomodoro timers
00:54:21 – Have your symptoms changed over time?
00:56:18 – Starting ADHDftw.com
00:59:12 – Decision to keep podcast episodes short
01:00:01 – Deciding on medication
01:02:02 – Resources available
01:03:29 – What motivates you to continue to learn programming?
01:04:06 – What do you want to learn next?
01:04:55 – What are other ways to follow your work online?
01:05:28 – Thanks and goodbye

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