Learn More
Resend Email
7
MrHallows
4y

Are there any tools, points of reference, barebones templates, bits of advice, etc. that anyone can share or direct me to that could potentially a programmer with ADD stay organised and keep projects/code structured?

Just a bit of background:

I am 29 years old and have battled with severe Attention Deficit Disorder since early childhood. No hyperactivity, just a mind that is constantly running at light speed. I have a tendency to lose focus on the main goal in my projects and I fall victim to feature creep more than I'd like to admit—to the extent that on countless occasions, I've ended up just starting projects over from scratch because they became too convoluted and hectic.

I've spent the past 2~3 months working on a sort of companion app for players of the game Warframe using Dart/Flutter. The main purpose of the app is to provide players with an accessible and customisable agenda to help with keeping in-game goals organised (oh, the irony). I have made a decent amount of progress, but I consistently find myself working on various bits and pieces of code (usually) without finishing each of them before moving on to something else. What I end up with is a tangled yarn ball of code and I get lost and overwhelmed in the chaos.

Any feedback or advice is much appreciated.

question

app development

organisation

code structure

flutter

feature creep
Favorite
Ranter
Comments
  • 1
    4y
    hello @MrHallows recently I asked here on devRant for tips on how to learn more and I think some of the answers might help you a bit, I usually have dealt with issues like yours in the past I've been trying recently the Bullet Journal Approach and so far I've been getting pretty good results overall, you might want to give it a try!
  • 1
    4y
    Caffeine and chocolate always helped me.

    Also writing down a list of things I need to do, step by step. Each one looks easy, so it motivates me to tackle them next.

    Another thing that I’ve found helps is to have some terrible show on Netflix. Whenever I get bored or few the need for a distraction, it’s there. But it’s terrible so I don’t care enough to watch it or even know what’s going on. I’ve found NCIS is perfect for this: long running, predictable as hell, decent enough that I don’t want to turn it off, and still boring enough that work is always more interesting.
  • 2
    4y
    Wow, are you me? I am also 29, also have ADD, also frequently start projects over because of feature creep, and even our profile pics are similar. Weird.

    Anyway, I've found that music usually helps me focus. Especially upbeat/energetic music like trance or classic rock. I can completely lose track of time while coding if some good music is on.

    As for the feature creep problem, I still struggle with that too. Sometimes I'm able to keep it in check by having a document for all of my "wouldn't it be great if...?" ideas. Instead of immediately switching gears and implementing a new idea, I write it down somewhere with the intent of going back later. Sometimes that helps me keep a project from growing exponentially.
  • 0
    4y
    @duckycode Awesome, I'll check it out. Thank you!
  • 1
    4y
    @Root Well, personally the Netflix/background noise thing actually makes focusing much harder for me (dialogue, various sound effects, etc.), but I think that writing a list of tasks would certainly help keep me on track a lot more. Thank you!
  • 1
    4y
    @EmberQuill Damn, that is super weird.. @_@ Pretty interesting, though, to say the least. Haha.

    Yeah, I have definitely found music to be very helpful, as well. I have a playlist titled "In the Zone" that I usually play while coding and it does help to keep my mind focused and active. For me, I've found instrumental music to give me the sharpest focus because lyrics tend to draw my attention.

    And I actually have been using an app called GitJournal for jotting down ideas as much as possible, but I'll try having a document open on my desktop for that while I'm coding. Thanks for your feedback!
  • 0
    4y
    @MrHallows For variety, try music in different languages. It doesn’t draw your focus as much if you can’t understand it, at least that’s how it works for me. Often, the lyrics just become part of the song.
  • 0
    4y
    @Root For me, personally, it actually has the opposite effect. My subconscious mind will be trying its best to decode what is being said while my conscious mind will become focused on trying to ignore the distraction—I'm a bit of a nutcase. 😅
  • 0
    4y
    @Root Albeit, I do appreciate the uniqueness of your suggestion. :) Just like the Netflix scenario, anything verbal (with very few exceptions) has a knack for throwing me out of the "tunnel vision" level of focus that I operate best in, if that makes sense.
Related Rants
devRant © 2021 Hexical Labs LLC
Privacy Policy  |  Terms of Service
Add Comment