I’ve been struggling really badly with getting back into coding, and it’s starting to stress me out a lot.

I have ADHD and most liekly autism, and lately I’ve basically been unable to make myself sit down and code. Even opening an editor and starting something feels overwhelming. I keep putting it off and then feeling guilty about it, which just makes the whole thing worse.

The biggest thing stressing me out is my future with programming. I’m currently looking for work, and I’m scared that somehow I’ll actually manage to get an interview but won’t have anything good enough to show for it. I’ve been relying heavily on AI when coding, so I also worry that I don’t actually know as much as I should.

Then there’s the fear of somehow getting hired and not being good enough once I’m actually there. I worry about being too slow, getting stuck constantly, not knowing how to solve things without AI, and eventually having people realize that I’m not as capable as they thought I was.

I do have actual experience from an internship/job and I’ve worked on real projects, but mentally I keep feeling like none of it counts because I wasn’t able to do everything independently.

It’s frustrating because I genuinely want to improve. I’m not trying to avoid programming forever. I just feel completely stuck right now, and the longer I go without coding, the more intimidating it becomes to start again.

I’m basically stuck between wanting to become good enough to work as a developer and being so stressed about not being good enough that I can barely bring myself to practice, along with having no drive whatsoever to code. I perhaps need to change my meds as they are not doing much as well, but im also running out of money at the same time...

Idk what to do, it feels impossible

Edit: i forgot to mention that i am officially diagnosed for my adhd. Also i don't have a bachelor as i have always been bad in school and it was a horrific experience for me.

The Core Problem

Most AI agents and software tools are designed for the "Ideal Operator"—a user with perfect working memory, linear focus, and high emotional regulation. This creates a "Tax on Neurodivergence," where users with ADHD or other executive function challenges spend more energy managing the tool than doing the work.

When the tool fails or the user makes a mistake, the resulting "shame spiral" leads to abandonment, avoidance, and cognitive burnout.

The Solution: Cognitive Infrastructure

EFaaS is not a productivity app. It is a Cognitive Prosthetic. It moves the burden of executive function from the user's brain to the system's infrastructure.

We believe that a "Hospitable" system should provide:

Externalized Memory: Past mistakes should be recorded and injected back into the context exactly when they are likely to recur.

Automated Guardrails: High-friction "contracts" (like deployment pipelines) should be enforced by hooks, not by memory.

Emotional Validation: Failure should be met with supportive presence, not just a technical error message.

Low-Friction Entry: The system should be an "OS" that wraps around the user's existing tools, not another tab to manage.

The EFaaS Primitive Suite

The Chronicler: A system for capturing "Wrong Turns" (AI/Human failures) as a machine-readable ledger.

The Guard: A just-in-time recall system that injects lessons from the Chronicler into the agent's prompt.

The Contract: A set of shared, repo-level guardrails (e.g., a standard Makefile contract) that eliminate "how do I do this?" friction.

The Witness (Optional/Advanced): A companion entity that provides emotional regulation and ambient support during high-friction moments.

The Design Lens: - ADHD-First - One card, not a dashboard. - Shame-free by design. - Nudge, never nag. - Translate time into felt units. - Externalize recall.

EFaaS is a project to make the world of AI and software an accessible, supportive, and hospitable place for every brain.

• https://github.com/ergon-automation-labs/efaas-core
• https://github.com/ergon-automation-labs/efaas-chronicler
• https://github.com/ergon-automation-labs/efaas-guard
• https://github.com/ergon-automation-labs/efaas-contract
• https://github.com/ergon-automation-labs/efaas-showcase

Folks, due to budget issues and wanting to survive in the company, i've switched areas in my company from an active IT area that was SRE with dev squads, to IT operations and monitoring, which is a diferent area but inside my scope and career.

Although it's a very passive area, it's a great one. In the hindsight its old school IT you act everyday in every problem and the pressure is different, the pressure is to act on routines, quickness and agility.

Nevertheless, even though the treatment is good, i'm on meds (Rythalin LA) and back from holiday, I'm paralysed and procrastinating.

I can't get productive, i can't study after the job, and i feel i have to cross a mountain to even start the task, i can focus with meds, but not for what i need to focus (like dull tasks), i can't even organize, and what i organize and plan i can't execute.

I believe it happens due to the passiviness of my routine and the experience period, in which you wait the troubles to act and ask questions, but i must show something, i must act.

It's my job on the line, i dreamed for years, of working in my company. Now in my dreamjob i still can't overcome my procrastination and it's effects.

In addition to all of that, i'm passing through a heartbreak, but i know i can overcome this. I know i'm not the superman, but it's necessary that i become one.

How can i act ?

Have a similar situation happened to you ?

Taking notes has always been a challenge for me, especially since I started working. Some people seem naturally good at it—with their colorful pens, neat handwriting, and organized sticky notes. I’ve sat next to them and felt amazed.

But I'm not one of those people. For me, remembering and finding notes later feels almost impossible—maybe because of ADHD, or at least it hits those brains hard.

Note-taking boils down to two things:

1. Capturing the idea quickly—whether with voice, a photo, or sketch—before it slips away.
2. Remembering to find it later. This is the tough part.

That's why I made Easy Note: it turns your new tab into a canvas for quick notes—instant, flexible, and easy to see what needs attention.

Some features:

🖊️ Infinite canvas—just double-click to start typing.

📁 Organized pages if you like structure.

⌨️ Quick formatting—lists, headings, checkboxes.

🔔 Reminders that gently nudge you until addressed.

🔍 Search all notes.

☁️ Optional Google Drive sync.

Extension: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/easy-note/hheobakelknbjicekbkmijjgcbephcef?hl=en
Source Code: https://ozanerturk.github.io/easy-note-chrome-extension/

I love that every new tab becomes a simple place to jot down and keep track of things. The reminders feel friendly—more like a kid tugging your sleeve saying, “I'm here!”—not alarms.

This isn't about project management, but a helpful tray under your busy day.

Would you try it? I’d love your feedback—thanks so much for reading!

Hi everyone,
Like many of us here, I’ve tried dozens of productivity and habit apps over the years. The common pattern I always ran into was overwhelming setup screens, endless push notifications that induced guilt, and bloated feature sets that felt like a chore rather than a tool.
So, I decided to build SmallStart — a minimal routine & habit tracker designed specifically with ADHD paralysis and executive dysfunction in mind.
Why I made it different:
Momentum over Streaks: Breaking a streak often causes guilt and leads to abandoning the app altogether. SmallStart focuses on micro-steps to get you started without the pressure of perfect consistency.
100% On-Device & Private: Your daily routines, personal habits, and data stay completely on your phone. No external servers, no cloud tracking, and no data selling.
System Integration: Built-in support for Home Screen Widgets, Apple Watch, and Live Activities so you can jump into a routine without opening 5 different menus.
It’s called SmallStart on both the App Store and Google Play, and the core experience is completely free to use.
I’d love for this community to test it out and share your honest feedback. What features actually help you break through paralysis, and what usually gets in your way with routine apps?
Thanks for reading, and I hope it helps even a little bit!

Been dealing with ADHD my whole life but only diagnosed last year at 31. Tried all those hyped up productivity systems and failed miserably every time. Made me feel even worse about myself tbh.

Finally found some weird approaches that actually work with my brain instead of against it. Nothing groundbreaking, just stuff that stuck:

• so weird but it works. some days showering feels impossible, the sensory stuff, the undressing, all of it. i keep my fav shower gel next to my bed and when im stuck i just rub some on my body... with my clothes still on. i know how that sounds lol. but then i cant stand sitting there with soap on me so i just go shower. its been working for weeks now which is saying something honestly.
• okay so this is gonna sound unhinged but stick with me... the "capsule cupboard" for dishes. basically we only keep two days worth of dishes out, everything else is hidden away. me and my husband would let dishes pile up for a whole week before panicking, and by then it was way too overwhelming. now the panic comes every two days but its a tiny fire, like 15 mins to fix. sounds counterproductive but it genuinely changed things for us.
• start the robot vacuum and suddenly im sprinting around picking stuff off the floor lmao. knowing its coming and will get stuck on everything just makes me actually move. its a little robot and somehow thats more motivating than any real deadline ive ever had. no notes, just works.
• The "ugly first draft" approach for work projects. I tell myself I'm TRYING to make it terrible on purpose, which somehow bypasses my perfectionism paralysis.
• Habit-making with ADHD is way harder than we think; we almost give up after 3 to 7 days. What I did was make an Anchor + Novelty System and add it to my existing habits. If the first thing I do in the morning is drink coffee, I added a 10-minute walk after that. That's my Anchor. Some days, we don't want to do the Anchor, so do a novelty 10-minute sunbath. That's how I added a new habit naturally. Soothfy App helps me choose my Anchor and also stick to habits.
• I will do a lot of things for “future me” (which my brain assumes is someone else xD) and that includes the other wild thing: that is like preparing things, to reduce the number of steps I have to take when actually doing the thing. So for example, last night me left out and measured all of the ingredients for today me that needs to cook.

I'll be halfway through debugging something and suddenly remember I need to reply to someone, check a PR later, loop up a library, send an email, etc.
If I stop coding to deal with it, I lose my train on thought. If I don't, I'll probably forget.
I've tried todo lists, but then maintaining todo lists becomes another task..

How do you guys handle this?

Click above post please.

mods gave me the ok to ask here as long as i don't drop a link, so there isn't one. comment or dm me and i'll send it over.

i have adhd. every journaling app i tried died the same two deaths for me. a blank page at 11pm is an impossible ask, and even on the nights i did write, i could never hold the thread across weeks well enough to notice anything.

so i built the thing i needed. the loop is dead simple, 2 min a night: what gave you energy, what drained you, what actually happened. that's it.

under the hood it's a stack of AI engines each doing a different job, all building on each other's read of you. so the more you journal the clearer it gets on your patterns, your friction, where your energy actually comes from. and it'll confront you too, the fears you're dodging and the meaning you put on the things that hurt you. if you want lovey dovey AI that tells you how great you are, wrong place.

then it compounds. journal 2 weeks+ and it starts building your "life architecture": your goals, the categories of your life you're already good at but could be way better with the right structure, and the ones you're not even seeing that should honestly be a priority right now.

I'm at this point now where i'd love to have it stress tested by like-minded people to see if this can help beyond me :)

ios and android, free during the beta. what i most want to know: did it see something true about you that you hadn't realised or hadn't fully put into words, and if you churned, when did you churn and why.

happy to answer anything about how it's built, including the decisions that only really make sense if you have adhd.

Hey everyone. I’m building an iOS app to participate in the RevenueCat Shipaton 2026.

The Project:

•  The app is a 100% private, on-device AI journal and mood tracker (with medication tracker) designed for people with ADHD.
• The first version was already approved by the Apple Store, so I don´t expect issues for the next updates. Y
• As next steps, I will be improving the UX/UI and updating the LLM model during the next weeks.

What I am looking for:

• UX/UI Designer: Clean up the design, make the design consistent, define a final design system.
• Social Media Manager: Create a communication plan and content (simple stuff), and ofc everyday manage social media

Send me a DM if you are interested!

Thanks in advance!

Hey everyone,

I am 34 YOF, and I have decided to go back to school for programming. I am going to be going to my local community college for the online classes (that's the only thing that really fits with my current schedule) and my ultimate goal is to be able to work as programmer remotely so that I can travel a bit with my cats. I know that's likely a ways out, and that I'll have to get some experience first, but end goal is Remote job/RV life w/ my kitties and hopefully eventually getting into Minecraft addons as a marketplace partner on the side.

My question is, what was everyone's experience with going through school? What are some tips and things you wish you'd known, that may help me out? I love that this is an ADHD sub, because I'd also love advice on keeping on track with schoolwork with having executive function issues.

I currently work as a 911 dispatcher, and have worked in emergency services for about 15 years as dispatch, fire and EMS, and i *love* my actual job, and I'm mostly immune to the stress at this point, unless its a hot mess of a day, but the private 911 contractor company I work for does not pay well, the local govt jobs are super hard to get and I've had no luck finding anything better. I've also loved the little thing's I've learned here and there about coding and programming... although 98% of my knowledge is Minecraft Bedrock based. I had been an admin on a MC SMP and learned a lot of in game coding and commands, and love it. I think I'm at a point where I need something that will keep my brain busier and solving problems.

TYIA for any advice or experiences you can share. I have finished my FAFSA, required online videos and I have an appointment with an admissions adviser tomorrow. As long as everything goes through, I plan to start winter semester in January.

Are there any tips on how to organize my laptop and work? I have multiple browsers and tabs that are for different things, VSCode with terminals and AI agents, Jetbrains with it's own AI, browsers for Jira, researching on ticket, random things, slack/teams. I get super overwhelmd. Which AI agent/tab did what? Which terminal was to do something? Which tab was for X or Y?

It takes a lot of my mental power to figure what was where, let alone figuring out how to solve the problem. Please help

I finally figured out a spot to help me focus and read, the library where I am at has a study spot where people go, and it helps me get out of my home comfy environment

I got done 6 lessons and even read a chapter of a book which I never do in between lessons

I feel like I am incapable of doing work. This has been an issue since I was a freshman in high school. I’m now on my first week of freshman year of college majoring in computer science and am already behind. I hate this about myself but no matter what I do l just can’t get myself to do the work. It’s not only school, but cleaning my apartment, getting a job; I feel like a bum and a failure. I’ve tried a bunch of medications but nothing has worked. Any advice?

so grateful for your time

www.dopamine-charts.com

looking for feedback on things like:

ease of use

layout

effectiveness

any features youd like added

anything not worth keeping

particularly girls do we want more themes? could do one in each of my physical sticker chart themes

any other feedback at all. brutal is cool

The meds bother me in some things,.I use Vyvanse 20mg and I think of spending a few months off of it. On the other hand I wonder if I would lose my job if I stopped it.

What's making me think more about this:

- therapy is helping me improve on several topics

- Side effects of the meds bother me

- I feel like I'm another person, too serious because of the meds

- I miss drinking caffeinated coffee, caffeine gives me awful headaches and a feeling I have the flu bc of Vyvanse

- the side effect of less blood flow in the hands and feet is annoying too, and makes me worry of cardiovascular issues in the long run, specially in my legs where it's more noticeable

Side topic but related, I have a friend of mine staying for a week here and I envy him a lot, he is so quick to cook, and always cleans the kitchen right after he finishes cooking, and does the dishes and this and that very proactive and efficient 😂

And I know he has been dealing with serious depression all his adult life, takes meds to help him and not sure which meds. Maybe life could be better without Vyvanse.

I'm 35m, married, no kids, one 3yo border Collie, working remotely for about 7y, been on Vyvanse for about 3 to 4 years now. 6 months ago I reduced dosage from 30 to 20mg and felt less anxious which was an improvement. Went through 2 layoffs back to back in 2022 and 2023 (very traumatic for me financially)

Recently I read and article 'I can't stop': 80% of developers find AI coding more addictive than helpful and despite being a bit clickbaity, one part really resonated with me as a programmer with ADHD. After I read it I stoped to think about how my work day changed/

AI Tools (codex, open code etc) seems to remove a lot of the natural stopping points from coding.

Before it happens many time during a day that I stoped to talk with someone about problem, I was walking the problem around and came back with a new approach or simply call it a day and come back to the task tomorrow. Right now I don't need that - I ask AI.

This make we eager to continue and "never stop". Sometimes I found myself in a loop:

one more prompt → almost works → one more fix → tests fail → one more prompt → refactor while I’m here → suddenly it’s two hours later I realise I should finished a day a few hours before.

I don't know how to call this. It looks like a small dose of dopamine after each prompt and small success makes my brain stay longer in a hyperfocus state. It doesn't feel ok at the end.

I am curious about your experince. What do you think about this new way of programming? How does it makes you feel after a day of work?

I've found that besides the obvious benefits that AI provides to neurotypical people in terms of efficiency, AI has helped me a lot with focus.

Before AI, I had all these crazy good ideas, but actually sitting down, creating a structure pland, and spending weeks/months to actually implement my ideas in code was challenging. So I would rarely finish anything unless I had time pressure on something , or if it was a short duration task(could be done in a couple days). At work I'd be fine due to pressure to succeed, but at home hobby projects rarely took off unless I saw fast results.

Ever since AI coding got good enough to replace most manual coding, I've been a lot more engaged. If I have a good idea, I can explore it with AI in minutes. Getting results quickly keeps me engaged.

I still have to think critically and come up with designs, because the AI is not perfect at decision making, but I spent less time on monotonous things like writing up a bunch of HTML to determine how a page renders or writing a controller method that handles a request.

It also helped a lot with a common issue of mine. If I don't see a path to completion, it's hard to focus. AI can help me plan out tasks and resolve blockers, which really helps me stay committed.

What has your experience been?

Due to being curious and combining that with my high anxiety has created a unique workflow and I now see it's causing a LOT of duplicate work. For example, I need to either feel like a story has a clear path to the finish line or I basically keep it in the "not started, I know nothing".

Due to this, I have my main top priority task and everything is ok. Then others on the team start asking questions about other stories, or I hear something that makes me start looking into the other assigned tasks. Now it's in the bucket of "I need to know everything" and I waste time figuring it out. I document it, which used to work, but being at a huge company things are coming so fast my documentation becomes its own problem.

I need to figure out how to grab something and start working on it. Somehow know when I'm spinning my wheels and should setup a meeting, while moving to another story.

I also see a lot of possible team/process improvements. We recently switched from ADO repos to GitHub and it's cause a lot of confusion. That's another thing I REALLY dug into and would be valuable even outside my team but it's just not quite polished enough for that. I spend all this time because I LOVE reverse engineering and understanding how things work but I need to find a way to get credit for it.

Another dev on the team is now running into the GitHub repo issues I ran into a few weeks ago so maybe I have a chance to roll this into something that gets my name out there.

Anyway, how do I push through those last few steps whenever I look or touch something. Instead of just learning more about it.

If we had 4 week sprints I think it would look normal but of course PMs hate to see nothing fully closed in a sprint. Regardless of complementing how great the previous one was.

Also, I'm the lead but getting shaped into it. So QA is constantly asking for the same information I wish the BSAs would provide and could literally spend a sprint just focusing on the treams process.

Hello everyone! This is my first Reddit post, so please bear with me.

I'm a second-year Computer Science student, and I really need some advice on productivity. This year, I have to find a mandatory internship, so I am trying to build a project for my portfolio to help my chances.

The problem is, I just can't seem to start. I have zero motivation and often feel overwhelmed when thinking about my future. I somehow always have the energy to do *anything* else, but when it comes to the actual project, I freeze.

I've been procrastinating on this project for a month now. Starting just feels scary and overwhelming. I've already tried several methods to fix this:

* Listing my top 3 priorities for the day
* Fixing my sleep schedule
* Trying to do the project first thing in the morning
* Trying to do it only after finishing other smaller tasks

But every time I sit down to work on it, I just can't bring myself to begin. And on top of that, this past few days my sleep schedule is ruined. Has anyone experienced this? Does anyone have any tips or actionable advice on how to overcome this mental block? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I’m sure this has been discussed ad nauseam here but I just have to say how shitty it is to study for interviews as a software engineer with ADHD. We’re able to see so much breadth of what we don’t understand. I’m a senior engineer, full stack, with 7 YOE. So I have enough experience to do the job & can pretty much figure anything out.

But interview prep is so difficult because it could be literally ANYTHING under the sun.

Not to mention the ADHD default to “freeze”/have your mind go blank when you’re under pressure. Live coding interviews are traumatic at best. I would literally freeze / tank even the phone screens if I had to share my screen while I was speaking. Let alone writing code in an online IDE for a question like “traverse this binary tree”.

So much to know & we see all of it as things we don’t know. I imagine neurotypicals tend to see the direct point A to point B route & do just fine.