slisla

Try this book: One Small Step Can Change Your Life; basically the author is a cognitive psychologist who studied various business processes and came to the conclusion that the ones that were most effective were not necessarily the best, they just worked because they were put into actual practice ... because they were non-threatening. His research then led him to the following insight: big planning is perceived as a threat by the brain because in the past it meant 1 of 2 things: (1) no more food, gather the group and get ready to move or (2) some other group doesn't like us, there is going to be some armed conflict, gather the group and ... Basically "big picture planning" while necessary if engaged too long activates the "fight or flight" response and you get all agitated and can't concentrate and wind up doing nothing all day. In other words, it's not that you "have trouble breaking things into pieces" it's because you don't break things into pieces that you activate parts of your brain and nervous system that make it impossible for you to calmly focus on the only reality you control - little pieces. So he suggest getting going by sidestepping/bypassing the activation of your "big changes are coming along with danger" systems by sneaking by them with the teeny, tiniest thing you can imagine doing successfully. Don't make it a goal to finish this part of your project or code for 4 hours or whatever. Make it a goal to sit at the computer for five minutes, open up your environment and not waste time with facebook/hacker news/email for 5 minutes. That's it - don't code, don't plan, just open up environment and then walk away after five minutes and get a small treat - a glass of water or something. Then instead of being overwhelmed your brain will be stimulated but not "activated" ... kind of like in the middle of the bell curve - not too aroused ... and you'll think, "Well, that wasn't too bad, I guess I could actually do a little bit more." Come back and just say, "If I could work on a teeny tiny problem, not a whole lot, but something that's been keeping me back and if I finished it and it became a building block I never had to rebuild and could move forward to, what would that thing be - and work on only that for the day. Don't look at other stuff until that's over. If it gets too frustrating, walk away and then ask yourself, can you go at it again for 15 minutes without distractions? Work up to a pomodoro (30 minutes of work of which 5 are a break). In other words, you have to trick your brain and keep it "asleep" so as to not hyper-arouse it too quick. Teeny tiny problems. So small they're laughable. Almost an funny not to get them done. So doable it's almost beneath you. But string together a couple of thousand of those over a few months and you'll be very productive. But don't plan them. Find one, do it, see where that leads you, take the next step, focus only on that until you did it. Make it so small it's not possible to get distracted. So small it's not possible to get overwhelmed. Make your problem being underwhelmed, so underwhelmed you quiet your hyperactive mind down enough to let you actually get work done. There are no complex anythings. Just strings of simples, some strings longer than others, some strings connect to more strings, but everything is an individual bead and you can handle each and every bead. Can you make a cup of tea? Sure! Can you do it while contemplating your place in the universe, and the meaning of life? No, because you're using part of your brain that needs to shut down the tea making part. Just focus on putting water in the pot and lighting the flame. You can do it. Really there is no secret other than this. You may forget to do it, but deep down you know this to be reality. You even say it ("I can't seem to internalize this and repeat it.") You don't have to internalize it. Here's another trick: everybody falls of their paths all the time, then they have to "remember" what works and just repeat it. It's so simple it's boring and that's why we forget - because we get bored and want to forget it's that simple. But you seem to know this. Just be okay with falling off, get back and apply it again. Until you forget again. Then you'll remember you forgot and keep repeating this. You got this. That's for the by yourself thing. As for pairs or groups - stop fighting it and just pair up with someone with similar goals and workstyles.

Yes, second what the other poster said - don't take it personally. You went out on a limb and shared some personal experiences; though it may seem anecdotal, a bit of research backs up a lot of what you said even though it may not work the same for all people with all ADD types; I for one was surprised at the resulting calm I felt when I just drank basically water with about a tablespoon of pink salt mixed in; then I suddenly realized about every psychiatric drug on the market has "sodium" as part of its makeup and am starting to wonder if the drug companies are not just selling people high-priced salt with some narcotics mixed in for the price justification. But in conclusion, this is a forum on the net, don't try to understand let alone predict people's reactions - you should focus only on what you can control, which is planting the seeds.

Try nootropics, a good choline source (alpha-gpc), piracetam and aniracetam. Rather than make your condition a problem they'll help you "go with it" and leverage it. Also although I'm not sure of the exact mechanisms of action, whatever it is that gets "drained" in context switching they seem to supply in abundance and you'll be able to context switch all day long without resulting fatigue. They are not stimulants, so don't expect a coffee "rush" ... the effects are evident with mental work done at the end of the day. Another thing that may help you: get into tDCS and use the "positive" side on the left side of your brain with the negative on the right when you need to "focus sequentially" ... but just make sure to balance that out with the reverse say, on the weekends so as to not overly direct your brain in one direction at the expense of balance. Holosync has worked for me as well although I'm not sure of the reasons why, although there is much technical info that comes with the free e-book from the website. It's a bit expensive, but I believe there is a "trial" version on that site by those guys in IKEA land that have funny replies to law firms threatening legal action for copyright infringement. Also I highly recommend a workflowy subscription as a sort of "brian cache" of your random trains of thought; you will need this especially if you try the nootropic route because you will be able to work for many hours at will pausing only for sleep. Also I would recommend you sample "focus@will" they have an experimental ADD channel (maybe part of the free trial?) and there are actually settings based on type (mostly sounds like Skrillex type music?). Various binaural stuff you can find on YouTube for free and high quality goes a long way. The point is any one of these is good, together they are greater than the sum of the parts and your thing can not only be "managed" but actually developed and directed to your advantage. Learn to use your super power. Also I would highly recommend you meditate on the logic of what used to be a nice niche game for the Mac a decade ago: Serenity. Basically it was a 3D polynomial rendering game where you had to "float" but the more direct and oriented the mouse movement, the worse the controls got. You had to "slow down" your brain and move sloooowly, gradually, with much subtlety to gain success. Then you got calm and sleep and could go to bed. Contrast that with the fast, twitchy nature of modern ... everything - cartoons, video games, movies, commercials, music ... and ask yourself if it contributes to your situation if perhaps your brain is a bit more sensitive to such stimulation. Learn when it's useful and when you need to isolate yourself from such inputs so that they don't "tip you over." Good luck.