22nd
Pondering on ADD.
I’ve been recently self-diagnosed with mild ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder). Obviously self-diagnosis is not very reliable, but I am reluctant to get a real diagnosis, it doesn’t really matter wether I have ADD or not. I just have this constant feeling I could be more productive. I trust this feeling, and want to figure out why I am not productive, and fix it.
The main issue seems to be a sort of restlessness which makes me unable to focus well enough on certain tasks. I dismissed my procrastination in recent years as just lazyness at first, but I’ve recently noticed there is more to it. I sometimes have trouble focusing and thinking clearly even when I’m not distracted. It tends to increase during busy periods and calm down a lot after one or two days of being home alone, not interacting with people.
Still, the distractions are an important cause of not being productive. Being productive for me means sitting behind a computer and coding — both in my private life and at work. This is fraught with peril, as the internet provides all sorts of distractions. To combat this, I want to implement this idea by Paul Graham in my new home. I plan to have two desks in my home, one with an internet connection, and one without (I use a macbook as my main workstation but don’t use wireless).
Something which I noticed at work is that Anti-RSI software helps me to spring back from distractions in time. I’ve configured it to remind me to take a 30 second micro-break every 15 minutes. Everytime this break reminder pop ups it forces me to reflect on what I am currently doing, If I am already being productive and “in the zone”, I can just click “skip” and continue working (because I don’t use it for the Anti-RSI qualities). Sadly AntiRSI for mac doesn’t seem to have the same effect on me at home, it just doesn’t pop up the reminder often enough.
I’m still not sure how to tackle the restlessness yet, perhaps a solution will present itself when I have eleminated the distractions.
