[HN Gopher] Ask HN: I have diagnosed ADHD and cannot work with S... ___________________________________________________________________ Ask HN: I have diagnosed ADHD and cannot work with Slack anymore - advice? 10 months ago, I started to work at a company that uses Slack heavily. They have 1000+ channels and my team is tagged in a lot of stuff so I get a lot of notifications. I can't concentrate at all. It's not like it's annoying, I simply cannot work. I have been spending 10x more energy since I started to just keep above the water but now, after 10 months, I'm simply drowning and my tickets are all piling up. I don't want to be that person that's not reachable but more and more, I'm thinking about closing Slack and opening it 2-3x a day. Any advice? Author : throwaway91021 Score : 65 points Date : 2022-12-16 12:04 UTC (10 hours ago) | nicolaslem wrote: | > I don't want to be that person that's not reachable but more | and more, I'm thinking about closing Slack and opening it 2-3x a | day. | | Looks like you already know the way forward, tell your team that | you will be checking slack regularly but on your own schedule. If | they protest, tell them to grab a copy of Deep Work by Cal | Newport. | jimmywetnips wrote: | Can you get used to just not checking things? disable the counter | and notification icon on slack? I would have 20k unread emails | just because the vast majority are not important at all. People | lost their minds when they saw that and I reealized that it | wasn't normal. I just did good work so I got away with a lot and | my manager definitely gave me cover and reminded me of very | important things. ofc that depends on having a solid manager | | Same with slack messages. If it's not super important I learned | to just not pay attention to it or get to it when I have nothing | going on. | | I know you already did this but I aggressively leave slack | channels, especially the "fun" ones. I can see plenty of cats and | boomer memes on the open internet, and showing up in the office | once in a while pays way more social interaction dividends than | the cheap virtual interactions on fun slack channels. | Nihilartikel wrote: | I'm not diagnosed with ADHD, but Slack's notification noises | trigger a visceral fight-or-flight response in me. Not PTSD | surely, but in that spectrum. | | This was from an early stage startup experience with 10 hour | timezone deltas, and never-not being on call for some crucial | infrastructure. | | The sounds still evoke the dread,annoyance, and simmering | resentment that accompanied a 4AM slack ping with the CTO just | saying "Hey" | TurkishPoptart wrote: | >The sounds still evoke the dread,annoyance, and simmering | resentment that accompanied a 4AM slack ping with the CTO just | saying "Hey" | | You're such a good writer! Goddamn, you gave me the chills just | with this line. | trynewideas wrote: | At a previous company I had a very similar problem, and | eventually converted an old SIM-less phone into my Slack device | and mounted it in a stand on my desk. (Slack was not deemed a | sensitive company app that had to run on company devices, which | considering the access to customer channels and prod-affecting | chatops features seemed stupid, but I'm not IT.) | | I could physically turn Slack off by turning the phone off, and | the only other way to get through to me was async, via email or | in tickets. | | A coworker I trusted had my personal cell number and texted me | when something was actually urgent, which happened twice in 6 | months. | trynewideas wrote: | Also I'd really strongly suggest that you push your company | away from a team @ alias and toward a team channel. The only | groups that should have an @ alias that punches through | notification settings are on-call, and if your role IS on-call | then no amount of Slack changes will reduce interrupts. | throwaway91021 wrote: | People create one @ alias per team and also many others for | subteams or temporary project teams, etc. There is one for | oncall too. Every time one of those aliases gets tagged, I | get a notification, an orange counter or sometimes messages | from Slackbot asks me to join the channels. | | *> punches through notification settings | | I'd like to specify which aliases should not be ignored but I | can't in Slack, unless I'm missing something. | | Also, disabling the oragen counter is not possible (even for | muted channels). | capableweb wrote: | It's a common problem, probably most common name for it is | "information overload". There is a new skill needed today where | you need to find ways of dealing with the "signal vs noise" | problem. There is just so much information that if you try to | take in everything, you'll be overloaded. Instead, you need to | figure out some way of filtering incoming information so more | "signal" than "noise" gets through to you. I'm sure having ADHD | makes this a lot harder too. | | Rather than giving you some specific advice, best advice I have | for you is to lookup existing resources that deal with | "information overload", try searching for that on your favorite | search engine. | | In the past, there been a lot of threads on HN as well with good | advice that you can browse through, probably you'll find at least | one idea that can help you a bit. Here is an example search for | "Ask HN information overload" sorted by score: | https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... | [deleted] | danwee wrote: | > I don't want to be that person that's not reachable but more | and more, I'm thinking about closing Slack and opening it 2-3x a | day. | | What's wrong with that? That's how many people work with Slack | (myself included). I don't answer whenever someone asks me | something; I answer in a specific allocated timeslot during the | day (2 to be precise: the very first thing in the morning, and 2h | before finishing my day) | gRoberts84 wrote: | I set my notifications to "Direct messages, mentioned & | keywords". | | This way, you can keep it open and dip into whatever you need to | but you'll not be swamped with millions of notifications. | | I'd also go through all channels etc and mute or leave channels | you're not actually required in any more. | throwaway91021 wrote: | I have it set to "Nothing" but whenever I have the window open, | I can see the orange notification conter popping up on several | channels (even if I mute them). | | I tried leaving channels but I get invited back whenever people | tag my team, so I gave up and muted all of them (but still get | the notification counter, which makes muting useless for me). | | EDIT: Whenever someone tags my team, the little Slack icon on | the tray bar goes red... and I don't know if that's a direct | message (usually important) or someone tagging my team just | "fyi". I have to check it always. | mxvanzant wrote: | I think your idea of limiting Slack is great. You can provide an | alternative to be reachable for emergencies if needed. | | In addition in my reading, I've come across some helpful | nutritional approaches and these were news to me: | | http://doctoryourself.com/hoffer_ABC.html | http://doctoryourself.com/adhd.html | | (These articles are geared towards parents with ADHD kids, but | applies to adults also.) | hacknewslogin wrote: | I'm getting a lot of red flags from this website. It reads like | a marketing campaign to sell the writers books and vitamins. | All of the "evidence" is anecdotal. As someone who struggled | with ADHD their whole life, it's demeaning to read. "Your kid | has ADHD? Oh he just needs some niacin." | canadianfella wrote: | > I'm thinking about closing Slack and opening it 2-3x a day. | | Do that. | heavyset_go wrote: | Consider medication if you haven't already. You don't have to | take amphetamines, there are drugs like guanfacine that isn't a | stimulant at all, and bupropion that is a weak stimulant used for | depression that also works for ADD/ADHD. Bupropion helped me a | lot with concentration. | dahdum wrote: | I started using 4 virtual desktops to manage distractions many | years ago and it's worked wonderfully for me. | | Desktop 1 is for chat, email, Spotify, and general web browsing. | | Desktop 2 is for software development only, nowadays VSCode. A | separate browser profile is used here and only for development | related browsing (docs, stack overflow, live testing). | | Desktop 3 is data and system administration. Remote terminals, | Excel, database clients, and similar go here. | | Desktop 4 is a catch-all. I use it for infrequent activity, like | the occasional Photoshop, Word or vendor tooling. | | I've used this same setup on Windows, OSX, and Linux for 15+ | years. I always setup Alt-1,2,3,4 to switch and tweak the OS to | remove all animations so it switches instantly. | | I've found it much easier to stay in the zone this way. | jbverschoor wrote: | Similar here. I've blocked all distractions in ublock on my dev | and general browsers. | | Stage manager actually helps a lot | NotPractical wrote: | How do you remove the desktop-switching animation on macOS? I'd | like to use the virtual desktops feature but the animation is | unbearably slow, and I was unable to find a way to disable it | online even after extensive searching. | hartator wrote: | > I don't want to be that person that's not reachable but more | and more, I'm thinking about closing Slack and opening it 2-3x a | day. | | This is fine. | | Quality answers every couple of hours are better appreciated then | nonsense rapid spam. | figeroll wrote: | That sounds like an absolute nightmare. | | Is your management chain aware that you are diagnosed with ADHD? | Staying off Slack should be considered a very reasonable | accommodation for your condition. Perhaps go ahead and do it, but | also tell them why, and how it will improve your productivity. | | Alternatively maybe it's time to look for a different job with a | more appropriate working environment, one that doesn't lead to | such stress. How have you found previous jobs, in terms of being | able to focus? | throwaway91021 wrote: | _> Is your management chain aware that you are diagnosed with | ADHD_ | | No, and I don't think it will help, to be honest. They will | just start paying even more attention to my work and decide | it's not worth it. | toomuchtodo wrote: | If you're in the US, I would request a formal reasonable | accommodation from HR with your medical evidence. This | establishes a paper trail in the event they attempt to | terminate you due to your medical condition. My | recommendation would be to codify the expectations around | response time and Slack interactions in writing as the | accommodation. | | https://www.dol.gov/agencies/odep/program- | areas/employers/ac... | | https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/guidance/fact-sheet-disability- | dis... | nashashmi wrote: | I would never do that. You get marked as someone who | requires special accommodation. Adhd is one of those things | that only come up every now and then. | fragmede wrote: | Yes, but then _you get special accommodation_. | Accommodations that, y 'know, help you manage and deal | with getting your work done. | krageon wrote: | Once you need to start worrying about paper trails, your | life within the corporation will have become an utter | nightmare. Sharing medical information with your employer | should be an absolute last resort, which isn't where OP | appears to find themselves (given that muting notifications | and checking it every once in a while is on the table). | toomuchtodo wrote: | It sounds like OPs life is already an utter nightmare | there. Can only go up after getting some relief. | | > I can't concentrate at all. It's not like it's | annoying, I simply cannot work. I have been spending 10x | more energy since I started to just keep above the water | but now, after 10 months, I'm simply drowning and my | tickets are all piling up. | | How depressing to think one shouldn't ask their employer | for an accommodation for a legitimate medical condition | after almost a year of suffering 8+ hours a day. More | empathy please. | fsociety wrote: | Honest question, does this actually help? I avoid | disclosing my ADHD now because others at work have either | started to treat me like a drug addict, tried to help but | have a ton of misconceptions about ADHD, or started to | treat me like a child. | | The only positive responses have been from people who have | it. But it doesn't help for workplace accommodations. | brailsafe wrote: | Yes, do exactly what you think you need to do. I've been staving | off this from happening by making it very clear to my boss why my | tickets are piling up, and why expecting me to check in on | multiple threads for the possibility of me being needed on them | is an incorrect expectation. I make it as clear as I can to | people, that if they need my attention on something, tag me in a | Jira comment or DM me. Communication is a part of my duties, but | it should never require all of my energy. | | Now, of course, since my manager has shifted from being an | engineer to climbing a management ladder, my needs make zero | sense to him, and he thinks that since he can monitor 100s of | channels concurrently and attend meetings literally all day every | day, surely I should be able to do whatever his pet issue is that | day. He also feels like checking in on the status of a ticket | every fucking day is going to help me do it faster, but it's the | way it is, the systems companies thoughtlessly adopt push us out. | Ultimately, this is going to push and pull until I'll probably be | underwater too long and either get fired or quit. So my advice is | to figure out if you have any possibility of staying, and do what | you feel you need to in protecting your sanity, until you leave. | | Do not try and fulfill this expectation. It's dumb and you're the | wrong person for it. If it gets to a certain point, make it clear | that they should hire someone else who's specifically good at | that, if that's what they define the job to be. | janosdebugs wrote: | I work with a person who has ADHD and is also a fantastic | colleague. After we first met the team structure changed in such | a way that they were less confronted with most everybody in the | department and more working in a more isolated environment. This | person has flourished since, possibly as a result of this change. | | I don't know what size company you work in, but based on the | super scientific sample size of 1, asking for a transfer to a | more isolated team may help. | dghlsakjg wrote: | Slack has some pretty fine grained notification controls. You can | set it up so only certain channels notify, or so that only direct | mentions notify, or so that only dms notify. | | You can also just turn off notifications altogether. Explain to | your colleagues that slack is keeping you from getting work done | so you are going to turn off notifications. If you feel guilty | give them a way to contact you if they truly need you | immediately. | Areading314 wrote: | Pause notifications for 30 while you do pomodoros. Works well for | me | amelius wrote: | I have the opposite problem. I concentrate so much that I forget | to read my e-mails and other notifications, and people get angry | with me. | black_13 wrote: | lynchdt wrote: | I work mostly with Engineering teams, and consider slack inbound | a pathology. Slack is great for collab in places, but it's not a | strong way to manage inbound, IMO. | | The teams I'm responsible for make it easy for their stakeholder | to raise issues, asks in a more deliberate, calmer way e.g. via | GitHub issues or manager email. In exchange, we commit to | mutually agreed response times on certain categories of business | critical issues. | | Generally, I don't think it takes an ADHD diagnosis for slack | inbound to completely kill your productivity, it's a general | problem. I don't have ADHD but have strong empathy for how this | must be a complete nightmare for you. | | Perhaps have a manager put some structure on your inbound on your | behalf? | Tagbert wrote: | I'm curious about what you mean by "inbound". It sounds like | messages from someone "outside" but not sure if that is | probably a limited definition. | devonbleak wrote: | Inbound = something that requires a response/action. Could be | an automated alert that creates a ticket, could be a slack | message from someone asking for something. | | If you're not great with it every message can feel like an | inbound and you're compelled to go cycle through all the | channels and read everything whether it's immediately | relevant or not. | davzie wrote: | I think the meaning of inbound here refers to work that is | defined or asked of you or a team via Slack instead of via | more thought-out and defined work. | qup wrote: | Check it a couple times per day. | | Don't check it in the morning. First check after lunch. | biggedyb wrote: | tl:dr; turn off the notifications and proritise your workload so | you know that the stuff you are clearing is the important stuff | first, tell the company you are doing this to focus on your | backlog. | | This is going to come across as arrogant, and in a way it is, but | in a healthy way. | | If your tickets are piling up then you /need/ to ignore | distractions. Someone then tries to track you down so you lead | with 'is it on fire?' and when it is, ok that does rank highly, | but when it's not 'sorry, I've got so much backlog I need to | focus on right now, email me and I'll look at it as soon as I | can, but fair warning, it might take a while' is not only ok, | it's absolutely critical. In a very strange turn of events you'll | likely see that somehow these critical problems are being solved | at the source.... ;) | | This also means that the workload you have and therefore the time | you allocate to spending doing it has to be priority driven. | Start with the flames and work back to the embers. | | Finally, just to reinforce the main point here, if the tooling | you've been provided with isn't enabling you to do your job well, | then find how it will and tell the company what you plan to do to | ensure productivity. | | :) remember, they hired you to make them money, if you find a | better way of making money faster and for longer only an idiot | will find fault with that. This is how good ways of working | evolve in environments. | rqmedes wrote: | Not related to slack, but managing your ADHD symptoms. | | Look into a low oxalate diet, it really helped me and my | children. | | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21911305/ | | https://www.greatplainslaboratory.com/articles-1/2015/11/13/... | | https://korunutrition.com/autism-low-oxalate-diet/ | | https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/vegetarianism-and... | badrabbit wrote: | Damn it, they have tea on that list of oxalates. Adderal to the | rescue! | tdeck wrote: | All of these links are about autism, not ADHD. Am I missing | something? | dchristian wrote: | Autism is a wide spectrum. Some would consider ADHD part if | it. If nothing else, there is lots of overlap. | loxias wrote: | Interesting links, thanks! | | (in case it helps anyone else...) About half a year ago I | discovered that a brutally low carb diet -- leading to being in | ketosis -- drastically helped my ADHD as well as other mental | health things I've struggled with for my entire life. I wish I | knew earlier! | dchristian wrote: | Two things that might also work, but be easier. | | Supplement MCT oil. This turns into keytones in the body. See | The Complete Book of Ketones by Mary Newport for all the | science. She's got into it for Alzheimers, but the | applicability is wider than that. | | Go gluten-free and casein-free. That's eliminating wheat and | dairy in your diet. Both of these turn into a form of | morphine in the body. Look up glutomorphine and casomorphine. | A slightly easier diet to stick to than keto. This cured my | aspergers. | loxias wrote: | Cool. Thanks! | | Already using MCT oil in lots of cooking :) Had no idea | about dairy... interesting, I eat a lot of high fat cheese. | | Thanks for the references, I'll certainly read more. | jonasdegendt wrote: | Make checking your messages part of your routine, as opposed to | an interruption of said routine. More concretely, set certain | time windows of your day, be it hourly or every 4 hours, where | you check Slack and reply to relevant messages, after which you | drop it again until the next window. | | Turn off all Slack notifications (or close out of it all | together) and set daily and repeating calendar events that say | "check Slack" to pop up instead. That's how I've setup all kinds | of reoccurring but otherwise distracting tasks and it works | great. | lordkrandel wrote: | It's good! 2 times is good, 4 times is max. One as you arrive | (put yourself as busy), one mid morning, one after lunch, one in | the afternoon. A two to four hours delay is completely | acceptable. | sf4lifer wrote: | I ran into this issue at a large corp. I was a subject matter | expert on how a certain product worked so literally would get | 500+ notifications daily from (mostly sales) people asking the | same questions. I set an auto-reply to anyone that mentioned me | that included a link to FAQ and directed them to SEs or CS folks | who were responsible for answering these sort of questions. I | also linked a recording to the last webinar where I went over | what's new and answered questions and a link to the next upcoming | one. In the auto-response I set the expectation that a response | from could take up to 5 days. This more or less solved that | issue. | | As for my own channel surfing to avoid working. That's a WIP. | Best advice I can give is to maintain a task list. When you catch | yourself surfing, go to the task list and see if there is | something you can knock off. | jimmywetnips wrote: | That's an excellent solution. I think part of it is also being | comfortable and firm and not teaching others that "Hey he's the | go to guy and he answers questions immediately and is super | helpful". Eventually the problem sorts itself out. And even if | it doesn't, so what, you're one person. There are limits and | real costs to being a human operating switchboard. | j4nek wrote: | having the same problem, also Slack/Teams UI is (visually) way | too bloated. Using something cleaner like iMessage and IRC is | helping me a lot, but this is unfortunately not possible all the | time so i open up Teams only twice a day and pepole should call | me if there is a urgent case. | numpad0 wrote: | Slack sometimes feels like a party app than internal messaging | tbh. Always feels in a community and in the moment, than picking | up tasks and handling it. Maybe that's what productivity means | but just sometimes feels wrong. | Ilasky wrote: | Founder with ADHD here! I ran into this issue a bunch at my | previous job as well. The notifications were always going off and | detracting me from doing the actual work. There were two things I | did, and do now, that have worked for me: | | 1. Similar to you, I muted my notifications and opened slack a | few times a day. | | 2. I paired up with someone else to focus on the task at hand | (like with Double[0]). I was able to ignore the pings, if they | came through, because I felt more accountable to the person I was | on the line with than the pings. | | Your mileage may vary on these, so I would definitely encourage a | bit of experimentation! | | [0] https://doubleapp.xyz | nashashmi wrote: | Lol. Self plug without the disclaimer. Shame. | fragmede wrote: | Setup focus time "meetings" on your calendar where you schedule | time to be off slack - people can call you during them if they | have to - and close out slack entirely when you're in those | blocks. | orzig wrote: | I don't know if it's enough, but the first thing I do when | joining a new organization is aggressively cut down on | notifications, both using the N app, preferences, and the | operating system preferences. The next thing I do is set | expectations with coworkers, the same tool can be used very | differently across different organizations. | raxxorraxor wrote: | I don't have ADHD and I hate this too. I vastly prefer mail, not | only because people put more effort in formulating their | questions, but also because asynchronous communication is more | accepted here. | | Such tools can be quite a lot of distraction... I often ignore | queries I think have lesser importance. If it really was | important, they will probably contact me again. | | I have given up on my ambitions to have a "clean desk"... | smileybarry wrote: | I tweak my Slack pretty heavily to suit my ADHD but 90% of it is: | _turn off (desktop) notifications entirely._ Not "sometimes", | _all of it._ (I just set Windows to DND so I still get Slack 's | red dot) I notice the red dot as soon as it appears anyway, but | the lack of bigger visuals & audio means if I'm _actually_ | focused (and don 't notice the red dot) I don't get yanked out of | it. | | The other 10% is: | | * Mute unnecessary channels | | * Turn off mentions entirely for channels where they don't mean | much other than "@XYZ is looking at it" | | * Set mobile notifications to "only if away" (+ a work hours | schedule; if it's important they can click the "notify anyway" | link) | | * If you're on Android: change the notification sound to | something custom that's a lot more "calm" and quieter, because | you notice it anyway and it won't give off the "important! DM! | check now!" feeling that all of Slack's do. (I miss this on iOS) | | * On really bad days (focus-wise): don't be afraid to hide or | close Slack entirely to _just focus._ I usually just put it away | in Windows ' extended notification tray, so I can occasionally | check it without relaunching (or appearing offline/away). | Kuinox wrote: | How do you manage to not click on the slack icon despite having | seen the red dot ? When I see the notification icon, I won't be | able to focus on something else until I cleared the | notification. | KerrAvon wrote: | Turn off icon badging as well. No notifications really means | _no_ notifications. This is the way. | MarcelOlsz wrote: | But then there's the anxiety of waiting like 4 hours, | opening it, and seeing a bunch of critical messages you | weren't around for. I need either a robot that will gently | tap me on the shoulder and quietly tell me to check my | notifications, or somehow relay the badge to a collar on my | dog so he can bark at me. The badge is the worst. The | sounds are the worst. At this point I rather just have a | landline people can call me on with a voice machine. | smileybarry wrote: | I still click it, but I disabled mentions on some more public | channels so it doesn't happen as often. If it appears a lot | and I need to get stuff done, I just drag Slack into the | expanded tray so I don't even see the dot. (the numberless | dot, not the [1] badge) | wobbly_bush wrote: | I don't have ADHD and yet I still do all of this. Removing all | notification dots/numbers, no previews, muting channels, | suppressing mentions in some channels, separating channels into | "infrequent"/"team"/"org" sections and keeping some collapsed | (looking at them once a day). On mobile removing notification | sound, preview and also removing notification from lock screen | (only allowing in notification center). | | You can also set your status to permanent "responses will be | delayed". No one has the right to my attention within a few | seconds (except when oncall). I use slack the way it makes me | productive. | P_I_Staker wrote: | I'm really sorry. As someone else diagnosed with ADHD it's been | very hard for me to be positive about anything. Hang in there, I | guess... life just seems impossible. | josephd79 wrote: | Same diagnosis and exp here. Welcome to notification hell. | Problem is all of these bs communication apps are treated as | synchronous instead of asynchronous and managers think it helps | when in reality it causes distractions, extra stress and loss of | productivity. | | 1000 slack channels. Lol wtf. | | Here's what i do and it's helped. I turned them ALL off. Banners, | badges, bells. All of it. I check on my terms. | yuppie_scum wrote: | Mute the notifications. Or even just close slack. Break projects | into tasks. Finish one task at a time, then check slack/email. | taseedc wrote: | tomxor wrote: | Have you considered that you might just have a Slack problem? | honestly. | | Labels can be dangerous and polarising - individual psychology | and behaviour fall on a nuanced multidimensional spectrum, and I | think these labels target such a large range and severity of | behaviour that they have a high risk of conflating symptoms with | completely different causes. Combined with misaligned intensives | to sell drugs, I'm highly sceptical of the majority of diagnoses. | | I was diagnosed with dyslexia at a young age, but it turns out I | was just a stubborn child who disliked accepting the seeming | illogic of the written English language where other kids are | usually less questioning and do what they are told, compared to | truly? or "more" dyslexic people who genuinely struggle with | placing letters in the correct order rather than merely bothering | to remember them. | | It's completely possible to exhibit "ADHD" symptoms from an | unhealthy work life... WFH and covid has caused instant messaging | like Slack to take centre stage in all communication, and that | has definitely messed with a lot of people's ability to focus on | their work, myself included. I've had to take some quite extreme | measures, making sure it's completely closed between certain | times (not in away mode, but actually not loaded, unreachable). | If there is an emergency, people have your phone number, | sometimes you need time to yourself and that's when people can | wait, unless it's an emergency. | thatfrenchguy wrote: | > Combined with misaligned intensives to sell drugs, I'm highly | sceptical of the majority of diagnoses. | | ADHD and executive disfunction are under-diagnosed rather than | over-diagnosed (I have so many friends who have obvious | undiagnosed adhd), mostly because of parents who think like | you, or the classic "it does not exist, you're just a slacker, | pharma is just trying to sell you some drugs". Most physicians | who diagnose you don't make any significant additional money | from selling you drugs. | | > It's completely possible to exhibit "ADHD" symptoms from an | unhealthy work life | | Or maybe OP really has severe ADHD? | tomxor wrote: | > or the classic "it does not exist, you're just a slacker, | pharma is just trying to sell you some drugs" | | I don't think it doesn't exist, I think it's not a useful | label due to the way it's treated as a long term issue that | can only be addressed with drug use. | jasonhansel wrote: | OP's post strongly implies that they were diagnosed with ADHD | long before the issues with Slack. | pacifika wrote: | Set your slack notifications to email then you have async control | to follow up in between work. | josephd79 wrote: | Just gotta make sure that email notification is turned off or | you're gonna be back in notification hell. | paulcole wrote: | Are you located in the United States? If so, consider requesting | an accommodation under the ADA. | thenerdhead wrote: | You should be that person who is not reachable. You need to set | boundaries. Otherwise you are going to fall in the classic | catch-22 of talking about the work and getting none of that work | done. That's fine if you see your job as a paycheck. It's not so | fine if you actually find meaning in your work and want to make | forward progress. | brundolf wrote: | I often close Slack when I need to focus on something. And I'll | spend hours of the day with my phone on do-not-disturb | | If you're needing to be urgently-reached multiple times a day, | there's something seriously wrong at your company. Almost any | message should be able to wait a few hours | | You mention "tickets piling up", which sounds like it goes beyond | Slack. If these are actual tasks piling up faster than you can | complete them, that's a whole separate problem with the company | and has nothing to do with you or your adhd | | If the company does have systemic issues that are making it hard | to function on the job, I'd suggest looking elsewhere. Or at | least talking about it with your manager | paxys wrote: | People here will share all sorts of productivity hacks, but your | workplace is legally required to make reasonable concessions to | accommodate disabilities. Talk to your manager and/or HR and | figure something out. | nashashmi wrote: | I have had adhd and autism. Thought it was a birth trait. But | adulthood happened and i had been getting away more and more from | those symptoms. | | Now it's coming back. And I realized it has a lot to do with | parenting incorrectly. | | Let's just say looking back, there is nothing you can do to | adjust to a moving train with adhd. So start reducing your role. | Shrink a bit. Be less manager. and be more managed if that helps. | And start communicating loudly about what makes slack difficult. | Very loudly. People will realize who you are without realizing | you have adhd. And will adjust to how you work. | | So figure out how many things you can track at any one time. My | max is five. So reduce your inputs to just those items. And | designate one of them for colleagues. | viburnum wrote: | Parenting? | s1k3 wrote: | Step 1 - turn off all notifications, noise and badges. This will | allow you to not be disturbed by interruptions. | | Step 2 - if step 1 doesn't work then shut slack down while | working. Being reachable 100% of the time is insane. And the | barrier for bugging is super low with Slack. | | Step 3 - if 2,3 don't work then use something like dispatch.do to | prioritize all the junk and filter out all the noise. | | Step 4 - it's a you problem. Find a new job or seek professional | help. | callmeal wrote: | I would add: delete the slack app, and use it from a browser. | Then you'll only get notifications when the browser is in the | foreground. (Of course assuming you've disabled browser | notifications). | | This way you can leave slack running, you will show up as | available, but will not be disturbed unless the slack tab is in | the foreground. (Or someone makes a call). | baal80spam wrote: | Another big advantage of using Slack in a browser is being | able to customize everything using addons like Stylus (I | customize colours and fonts). | jimmywetnips wrote: | oh good point. someone should write an extension that only | pings you based on critical rules, like if someone writes | "bump", or "hey were you able to check on that?" or if 5 DMs | have piled up, then it releases the notification. Honestly | slack should do this themselves | comprev wrote: | That's a great tip for reducing notifications further. Alert | fatigue is a bigger problem than organisations often realise. | doodruggs wrote: | chx wrote: | I got diagnosed a year ago. | | Best resources I've found: https://adhdjesse.com/newsletter (this | taught me about rejection sensitive dysphoria, _ouch_ ) and | https://www.adhddd.com/anti-planner/ | throwaway24124 wrote: | Try looking for fully remote asynchronous companies. Comes with a | different set of challenges for someone with ADHD, but companies | with a culture that is more focused on asynchronous communication | tend to work better with the high/low levels of focus that come | with ADHD. I think if you're regularly getting pinged by people | beyond your direct team, it's a sign of mismanaged culture. | userbinator wrote: | Ask your company to consider using Microsoft Teams instead. It's | so repulsive that you and everyone else will probably be far less | willing to communicate at all. | | Only half-joking. | ideamotor wrote: | Haha brilliant | brailsafe wrote: | This is so true though. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2022-12-16 23:00 UTC)