If you ever wanna go wireless, I find my WF-1000XM4s to be slightly more effective, and it's easier to turn off the isolation.

Have you tried the ER4s? I own both and find the ER4s much more isolating (and for me, as a mainly classical listener, a bunch cleaner sound).

Yes, I did, I used to own ER4s. To be fair, I'm not using the integrated tips and instead use Comply tips.

It may have been that my ears just seal better using foam than with the three flange oddity Etymotic puts on these?

I do agree the Etymotics sound better out of the box, but after using AutoEQ they sound pretty similar.

Oh yah, the silicone tips aren't that isolating. The foam ones, however, are magic.

I'm now very sad about Etymotics not sealing in my ear canals properly lol Currently on the lookout for other IEMs with decent sound, I heard good things about Crinacle's 7Hz Dioko that have a flat-ish signature similar to Etymotics.

i have a 7hz dioko and i absolutely love it. i would give it a try, since it's not that expensive.

There are 3 different triflange tip sizes, and foamies. Getting the seal right for me is about being willing to put them in deep enough. It certainly takes a bit of adjustment to how deep you have to insert them. There are plenty of non-deep insertion IEMs, but they are "only" usually around -20DB.

I've used the 7HZ Timeless, and it is an excellent IEM... But it doesn't match the ER4, for my use-case.

I know that Etymotics must violate the ear canal to work, but for me the right monitor (and only the right monitor) gets some sort of incorrect seal that muffles the driver after some seconds regardless of the tips used and after cleaning the ears thoroughly, that disappears if I press lightly on the outside, so I suspect a problem with the ear canal shape. I tried swapping the monitors as the cables are detachable, and tried different output devices, didn't work either, so it's not an electronic problem. It's just weird and frustrating. I'm thinking of simply buying a pair of reasonably priced over-ear muffs, maybe with active noise cancelling, and wearing IEMs under them. It would look strange, but comfort is more important.

Tools are useful even with medication. It's a myth that ADHD meds just fix you, they simply make things easier. And when that motivation is easier to overcome is when you use that to consciously make changes to your behaviour.

And in that case, the organisational tools are still helpful

Can you really work while listening to music? Having ADHD also, I can only perfectly focus if there is silence. Luckily I have over ear headphones that do noise cancellation when nothing is playing.

Everyone is different. What works for one person, doesn't work for another.

Even for "normies" this is true. We all forget this. Medicine is often an art as much as a science.

As far as my ability to work to music... It beats office noise, and I have always had tinnitus, so... total silence is actually bad for me. Background noise saves me.

With myself it depends on the task and genre of music. I often turn to music without lyrics if I really need to focus as it drowns out distractions and doesn’t create one itself.

The style of music matters. For example lyrics kill my ability to think.

For a long time I thought I couldn't. Then I found lots of playlists of pretty good music. Try https://www.programmersmusic.com/ and see if any of those styles work for you.

Note, I now find that music helps me focus, but lessens my creativity. So I only sometimes use music.