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by readme 4804 days ago
Stop blaming ADD. Even if it is related to ADD, this situation could not possibly have been caused by ADD alone. You know that at the crux of it, poor planning was to blame. Poor time management followed, and you screwed yourself.

If you want to get out of this hole, you've got to get off HN now, (I use noprocrast). After that, do 1 project per night at a time. Yes. You will need to work in the dead of night, all notifications off. 1 project at a time, only. It is also incredibly important that your projects are broken down into microtasks so you can cross them off one at a time. I find often the easiest way to become late is to not understand how much work was left. Break it down. Think about 1 task at a time, ONLY. Don't think about B while you're doing A. Not even a tiny bit!

When you've made considerable progress on each project, submit the latest work, say what you've done, and then gather specific requirements and make it clear, that after you finish these next things that the project is "done" and by that I mean, you are at the end of your first iteration of development.

If you can't get those final requirements, and establish an agreed upon state that is "done" the client will drag out the project as far as you're willing to go. Hope it's not fixed price! That's just what people do. You need to put your foot down about what constitutes complete, have a mutual understanding of it, and execute those objectives.

If your client keeps asking for new stuff, put it on a separate list and tell him not until XYZ is done and we're agreed on this.

You can get out of this, but it's important to realize, you won't get out of this using the same time or project management strategies that got you into it.

1 comments

Spoken like someone who hasn't the slightest clue how mental illness and mental disorders work, or what it feels like to suffer from them.

"Just do X"! If only it were so easy, the world would be a much different place.

1. I never said the commenter above didn't have ADHD.

2. There's nothing we can do to help him other than say "just do it" because frankly if he doesn't "just do it" pretty soon he's fucked.

3. ADHD 1/3 scapegoat 1/3 misdiagnosed 1/3 ? maybe. Neurological evidence for disease? Yes. Vague diagnostic criteria for actual patients? Check.

I see you're an expert on ADD. You should write a book based on your expertise, you could make a lot of money and help a lot of people.
ADHD patient here.

I do agree with him. Most ADHD/ADD patients put too much focus on the disease, when the only thing that matters is to be willing to do something about it, asap!