I feel like I am at odds with the scheduling one so much. If I time box all these little things, I get so distracted and I hate switching. I would rather go all in on something for a few days and ignore everything else, then circle back around and clean up the damage. I feel like this leverages the hyperfocus aspect of ADHD some might have.
Agreed. I feel like I have 3 or more hyperfocus modes. At the furthest end of the scale, I can get into a multi-week (or month) obsessive hyperfocus on some topic. This is where I really shine at work and can develop whole componets, libraries, etc. in a very short period of time. Maybe that turns me into a "10x developer" in the negative sense. But without leveraging hyperfocus, I don't think I'd ever have made it beyond my first position.
I schedule things. I put nice long stretches of time (we are talking about 4-6 hours about) and it’s pretty much ONLY time I ever get anything done. I need long periods of time cause the start is all about building focus but not forcing it so YMMV. I think experimentation is super helpful.
Agreed. I have to schedule the "big" stuff, but for the rest the best I can do is work productively, following the connections between things.
I'll have a day doing the tasks using one sort of tech, and another doing something else - a python day, a sysadmin day, a writing day. I can't tell when a thing will get done, but by working this way as long as it's on a list I know I'll get to it. If I try to schedule it, my productivity plummets.
Well, I wrote down everything(Joplin). And now I have an absolute mess of half a zillion notes with no structure whatsoever. Trying to bring some structure in the madness.
Now a while ago, I saw on HN a system of 7 folders, each containing 7 folders,.... It seemed to make sense. The person named it after himself, something like JeffFolder. But I can't seem to find it. Does someone remember the name?
I spent a year getting maybe 75% of my stuff into a Johnny Decimal filesystem with the remaining maybe 25% firewalled off into an "unsorted" backlog. It's going to be a major pain to do the last 25%, but I can say with some longevity of experience at this point that I will definitely do it because having that first 75% so well structured has been awesome. The key to it was accepting that you can always move things around and restructure. You don't have to get it 100% perfect out of the gate.
I use Joplin, and am with you on the half a zillion notes thing.
What is helping me is the "bidirectional links" plugin (so I'm linked to the the first version of the notes and don't forget it exists and keep starting again), and the "home note" plugin (so there is a hub for all those spokes).
It's a lot of work "curating" stuff, but I haven't found a better way for the way my mind works.
I intentionally do a bi-modal system. Digital content can live forever and be everywhere, which paper is easier to capture but harder to sort and search and transmit. Digital notes are forever, and searchable, and likable, etc. Digit notes store things I have decided I want to remember forever (or things like URLs that are already digitized).
Everywhere I exist, I keep a legal pad - but any notebook will do. Near the couch, at my desk at home, at my desk at work, etc. the notebook is a list of facts/todos/whatever - each one its own line, and it gets crossed out when not relevant either because it’s done or I’ve decided I don’t care anymore. Literally like “don’t forget taxes” or “email John” or “bug at library X file Y line Z”. If enough items on a page are crossed out, I rewrite the items on a new page and rip that page out. Throw it away. Paper is ephemeral, and temporal. I typically go through at least page a day when working at my desk. Whenever I’m bored and procrastinating, I’ll read through the notes. They remind me important things I’m thinking about that I can’t keep top of mind. Anything particularly important I’ll cross out and write up digitally in my digital notes.
Importantly this lets me meet the information where it is. Work notebook is mostly work notes. Home notebook is mostly home stuff etc. there is no timeline or formal system to copy things over. If something was deadly important, I might take the time to digitize it immediately but generally a pen and pad favor speed of capture with minimal opportunity for distraction.
I sometimes write down notes in my reMarkable notebook (and sometimes just paper as well) as interim storage, but then transfer the notes to Obsidian when I have more time available to me.
All the different syncing tools help as well.
I do mostly electronic, but still let myself use a notebook and just add a date to the top of every page. I find it helps me to know I _can_ re-order and contextualize things in the future if I want, even if I never actually do.
This post describes my note taking/task management system pretty well.
Some points from my experience that have stuck out for me:
- Timestamp. Every. Single. Page. ISO8601 works nicely here. You can now link to other notes. You can also use the context provided by the timestamp to corelate your note with emails and call history around that time. Huge leap in QoL here.
- Being flexible and adaptable is important. As long as your note is timestamped, it can be anything. Your notes should be able to adapt to the task at hand, if you're trying to fit the task into your note taking system you're just creating overhead. Think of your notes as capturing raw analog output. You can do all sorts of post processing later, but your task notes should basically just be a raw dump of what happened at that time.
- One thing under "write everything down" is to take notes on all of your business related phone calls. I even do a preamble before each call, where I write down the number I'm calling, any information I might need for that call, links to other relevant notes, etc. During the phone call I write down the person's name, the gist of the call and and any information they give me. This has saved my ass more than once.
- Just use a paper notepad. There's no batteries to run out, no software to go wrong, and by writing everything by hand with pen and paper, you'll be more likely to remember it. Legal pads work nicely, they lay flat and the binding rings dont get hung up when you remove it from your backpack.
I tear them off and put them in a filing box in hanging folders labeled by month. The nice thing about tearing them off is that you can pull out the sheets that you might need while you're working on something. Sometimes I just spread out everything I need on the floor so I can see it all at once. I've got a keeper clipboard that usually just has my legal pad and pen in it with a calendar sheet and all the task sheets that it links to, but sometimes I have to refer to things from years ago so I may have a few sheets from 2016 or whenever when I'm working away from home.
If you do use this method, I should add that when you link to a note, you only need to add the significant digits to the link. For instance, say you're making a list which has the timestamp 202403261200. One of the list items has a link to another note, say, 202403251123. Instead of writing out the full link, you just write [251123] since the only difference between the links of the paper you're writing on and the paper you're linking to is the day and time fields. Later, when you read the shortened link, you know it must share the same year and month as the sheet it's written on.
Another thing. Try using a calendar sheet for each month. I carry around the current month and at least the next three as well. Each event on the calendar links to a sheet that has all the info I need for that event. This has been enormously helpful for me. It helps if you use graph paper legal pads for this so you can draw the calendar easily.
I know several very high productivity - as in ultra-productive, super human level with the compensation to match - people that use timers. Everything they want to follow up on they toss into a phone timer. When it goes off they deal with it. Whether that's putting it into a formal calendar whatever. Pretty no-muss no-fuss solution.
interesting. Like "I've started a 5 min timer and I will use this time to work on organizing documents for a package." or setting an alarm to remind themselves to set a timer for task?
Surprisingly, his rules are applicable to what I came up with over the years of my ADHD as well! What I learned is that the tools must be as simple as possible, and the complexity kills quite many intentions.
Paper and pen not just for endless todo lists, but also for dumping out whatever thoughts you might have the time, even emotional processing. Good way to externalize a clouded internal state, figure out what's really worth focusing one, banishing anxieties.
