I use plain old mindmaps for many things. When they are related to tasks and todos, I use a tool where it has little checkmarks, possibly completion progress bars, failed-icons, blocker-icons etc.

For understanding a topic, e. g. from a textbook or a job problem, hand-drawn works better with the additional freedoms it provides, such as this one: https://www.uni-frankfurt.de/53571999/Mindmapping

It fits in nicely with how I work through a text:

• Think about what I want to get out of this
• Flip through & glance over everything. Whatever draws my personal attention, be it drawings, graphs, tables, the headers - different for everybody. Might occasionally look at one of those things for a bit longer.
• Read the TOC
• Do the actual reading start to end and draw a mindmap
• Possible do-over the mindmap once I understand where I did it “wrong” due to my previous assumption of how things categorise and relate

Is that also related to ADHD? Mind blown, because that is one of my defining weaknesses, and always has been!

tl;dr: software developer

Software developer. Unable to thrive at school or university, I had phases ever since I had a PC where I self-improved with more or less intensity. A few years where I had neither energy nor motivation, but discipline to do a little bit most days. Just a solid hobby-level.

Then out of nowhere It became an obsession for 5 years, like it usually does for a substance or gaming addiction. Just wake up, immediately study, trying to get everything perfect, to understand all the competing approaches and their reasons to every problem, only sleep when I can’t keep my eyes open.

Finding mentors online, big names in their niche. Most people think that these people are annoyed from hundreds of “fans” who want to learn, but actually, that rarely happens, and when they see how much effort you put in, they are happy to help. One day, the phase ended as quickly as it had started. But I still had the knowledge.

That was 20 years ago. Much of the stuff from back then is still relevant, but there are the massive changes to web clients, and there are “clouds”. In relation to relevant frameworks and standards, I’m far less skilled now, but I have two decades of reference projects which make me LOOK better.

A problem is that working away from home really doesn’t work for me, thus having to refuse > 95 % of offers (they just come, I don’t apply). But since 2020, that is no longer an issue.

If I ever go back to studying, it definitely has to be from home. Might even have worked out the first time then. Over 50 % of my energy went into the logistics of being at a specific location at a specific time with coursework done, and picking up the course certificates. Yes, I did all the courses for an intermediate diploma and more (back before BSc and MSc was a thing), but failed in picking up 20 % of them before they were destroyed.

Exactly, just that one single “sprint” is a good day for me already

Yes, apparently they can do a lot with that information. I’m not sure what to say though. Coffee can make me really tired, or extremely stimulated like a cartoon squirrel.

I can nap on Modafinil, which is a narcoleptic drug used only off-label for ADHD. It’s basically like coffee on coffee.

Good job achieving all that on hard mode!

Not the worst that can happen. Job lost, dishes done.

I even encourage myself to do this, so at least SOMETHING gets done.

Worst thing that ever happened regarding key displacement: Had a complicated day planned with my GF, both basically rushing off in opposite directions and doing our things. She forgot something though and rushed back in. When trying to leave again just about 10 seconds later, she couldn’t find the key she just used!

We were both searching, no success. Had to make the day work with just one key for both of us. The key was found weeks later in the middle under the bed, covered by other things and dust.

Best theory: They fell on the tip of her shoe while she was walking and got catapulted, kept sliding under things that were already there. But we’ll never know.

Absolutely, but even worse is a slightly changed UI in an application or website. Or THE HORROR: Supermarket changed shelf of something.

I managed to solve that problem with a key chain that is tightly attached to my pants and so hard to remove that I think twice before washing my pants. Almost ran out with the wrong pair of pants a few times, but hey, that’s it. Only 1 lockout in 20 years.

But everything else should have a locate feature like your phone. Around the mid 80s, there was a short lived trend: A keychain that answers when you whistle a specific sequence to it. What happened with that?

I do order a lot online, but I feel like it’s actually well thought through and needed.

E. g. A teapod when the old one breaks, heads for my somewhat uncommon electric toothbrush, an electrically heated vest for grandma when she visits … makes perfect sense, right?

My biggest problem though is that I need everything basically NOW, and I’m not in a big same-day city. Got to wait 1 - 2 days for most stuff 😢

Not to 1-up everybody, but I strongly suspected & brought the suspicion to a psychiatrist at age 43. He felt unable to to confirm, deny or somehow check.

At 46, finally a referral to a clinic by my GP, who believed it. No appointments available though, not even in the distant future.

1.5 years later, I’m in the process of getting checked, and it looks like I’ll get a “yes” or “no” (very probably “yes”) within a few months.

Obviously a dropout, too, but I managed to get a fraction of my potential due to an unexplained (to this day), 5 year lasting obsession with IT in my 20s, which caused me to study frantically day & night. Came and went, but a lot of it is still relevant.

In the past 20 years, I managed to land fat jobs over and over again, but like relationships and everything else, the fuss around the work itself gets “too much” and I quit after 6 - 18 months.

That weird 5 year study-frenzy was a blessing overall, but it also got me to think I was just an assclown before and after, rather than having a medical condition.