ADHD

I schedule “Focus Time” sessions in outlook tied to specific things I need to get done. This sets Teams to DND and I get the meeting reminder pop up that guilts me into either continually delaying the reminder or just doing the work. I set each period to a task/topic that needs worked on.

I also leave emails unread until I’ve dealt with them, my anxiety over having unread emails then forces me to do something with them.

It helps that we block pretty much everything in our work laptops and force use of a different browser that’s pretty slow and shitty for all sites that aren’t strictly work related. Combined with having a phone from work for work things means I can just put my personal phone away and not get tempted by it.

WFH and the biggest simple hack. Drink water... If properly hydrated you release fluid approx once an hour. Enough to get up and should allow for reset.

No data on this approach other personal experience

My husband deals with that, and one thing that has helped him quite a bit is setting alarms. If he knows he is taking on an extended task, he will set an alarm on his phone for every hour or so. When it goes off, it distracts him from whatever he was doing and interrupts anything he is watching, so he is reminded to get back on task.

Another tool is accountability to another person. If he is having a bad focus day, he will sometimes ask me to bug him if I notice he is distracted for too long. Use this sparingly. I have been this person for a few people with ADHD, and using this too often has resulted in me being responded to like a parent asking their kid to stop playing games and eat their dinner. You don't want to end up viewing your friends and partners as though they are an authority figure.

Some great advice here, probably repeating others a bit but stuff that works for me:

• to do lists for each day / physically writing stuff down
• Generally work in 4 blocks (~60 - 90 mins each), 2 in the morning with a break in between then the same in the afternoon after a decent lunch break. (Afternoons are always less productive mind)
• Seperate work/home laptops. Only work stuff happens on work laptop.
• if I find I'm not being productive I just leave my desk for 5 mins then come back and try again.
• lots of walks

For YouTube stuff I'd recommend an alternative front end like freetube. Much less in your face with throwing vids at you, plus no ads!

I work from home, and I have to use lots of methods. Then it works.

Just two examples:

• I always have to work strictly with todo-lists. When it's not on a list, it's not getting done. On the other hand, putting it on the list, rather than doing it, feels like 55 % of the mental effort.

• Implementation intention: My brain takes offence to "must do now" orders. Instead, when I catch myself on a youtube/scrolling binge, I set a trigger (e. g. time, end of video) at which I do one item from the list. If there is no list, I write the list. That way, I get to continue enjoying for a bit longer, but now guilt-free (!), and can continue guilt-free after doing that one thing.

Have you tried the pomodoro method to try to help force yourself to take breaks?

The worst part is that I’m hyperly aware that I’m doing it the whole time and I really want to stop but I just want shake myself off of it.

I'd probably seek profession help on that one. That sounds like a legitimate addition.

Discuss with your doctor that’s prescribing your ADHD meds. It’s quite possible another medication or a different dose will work better.

I can only say that I had a very similar issue with concentration at work while WFH and getting on medication resolved it.

Beats the hell out of me. I've got no clue how I manage to get anything done at all, my focus just slides right off work.

My personal accidental variation on pomodoro - all those meetings I have to attend generate work, and interfere with my schedule. I always schedule time in my calendar for dealing with stuff from meetings.

So if I have a 1 hr meeting at 10a, I'll add 30 minutes to it in my calendar (generally I only need 10 or 15 min). I'll also schedule time in my calendar for work that needs doing, mostly to block time so meetings won't eat up my day.

Sometimes those blocks are for specific tasks (e.g. Something that came out of a meeting) or just a general block so I can do some work between meetings.

No one needs to know why a specific time isn't available in my calendar (no one has ever asked, and if they did, I'd say "I don't know, I'd have to look" or tell the truth that it's to work on something specific). Who could argue with that?

Smoking weed and playing video games most of the day hasnt worked so far but im no quitter

Unfortunately I've got nothing to add, just wanted to let you know I'm in the same boat. The feeling of guilt and the inability to structure my day are making me depressed. The company I'm working for doing an absurd amount of "status meetings" is the icing on the cake.

I never go on YouTube or social sites on my work laptop. I either convince myself my work can see that shit or it's probably actually true. So if I want to use those sites my option is my phone or my own laptop. The solution is simple then. Just lock them up or put them elsewhere. There is nothing on YouTube or social media you need for work that you can't find on a regular text based webpage.

The pomodoro method works well too. You only have to focus for 25 minute blocks, then you have some 5 minute breaks in between.

Strict separation of work and personal devices, plus focus mode on my private phone for the work hours.

I often end up hyper focusing on the wrong work tasks, but at least they're work related.

I have separate logins on my machine for work vs home.

I also have my obsidian task manager synced on both machines so when non work stuff pops into my head, I add it to my list to work on after work in my personal task manager and get back to work.

I have a sacred 30mins at the start of the day to drink a coffee, and review my work task list, and plan what I will do today. From there, I ONLY work on what's on the list, unless my boss rings me and changes the priority (or equivalent person etc).

As for not getting sucked into these things at all: I just avoid anything non work related while working, until I've achieved my list of work deliverables for the day, and finish work...

That works for me, until I have some work related YouTube video or equiv.. I had a 4hr YT Shorts spiral the other day, was just lucky it started at 430pm!

I've since found that the DuckDuckGo browser let's me watch YT videos without going to YT, so I don't get the autoplay trap sprung one when the work related video is finished, which has helped a lot.

Training probably? It's a shitty answer but it's something that I've only gotten good at with time.

I try to keep distracting devices away during work hours and I'm not too hard on myself if I get briefly diverted - I'll let myself indulge for about fifteen minutes before I try and clamp down and refocus. I do think there's a danger in trying to be too strict with yourself because your brain will be shit if you try to maintain continuous focus but you also can't continuously indulge wander brain (at least - not unless you're rich).

Also corporations steal our livelihood and don't give a shit about you, so don't feel that guilty about wasting some of their time. I get it, I get the same way but I have to remind myself of this fact.

What has worked (a little bit) for me...

Make notes and reminders everywhere. Everywhere. I have time blocked off on my work calendar, do this specific task at this time, do this specific task at this time, 15 minutes of fucking around time in between. I will literally make a calendar appointment for taking breaks from work. I have a Kanban board of personal tasks to work on. I have alarms on my phone and watch reminding me to take a break for lunch or when to clean the litter boxes, etc.

One benefit of having reminders everywhere is that even when I'm consciously avoiding "The Thing I am Supposed to be Doing," there's a higher probability that I will land on something else productive to do instead of zoning completely out. I know I need to write this report by the end of the day, but I just saw a reminder that I need to reschedule my dental appt. Great, I still did something productive. Now I'm one step closer to actually writing that report.

It's also important to give yourself grace and acknowledge that you'll never be perfectly productive. Sometimes my 15 minute fuck-around break last 30 minutes. That's OK. Breathe and get through it. Find the next post-it note or block of time on the calendar that tells me what I should be doing and make an honest attempt to do that. It's not 100% effective, but it does help set the guardrails so I don't get too far off track.

I personally prefer the pomodoro technique. The good thing about it, is that it requires a task list to work properly. I start every day by writing down what I need to do today, then use the timer to focus on one task at a time.

I just avoid working from home.

Turn off all notifications on the phone. This is the easiest and most effective way to stay away from it.

Tell yourself you'll try to work for like 5-10 minutes or on the shortest, easiest task you have, and that if you aren't focusing on it, you'll take another break after 10. It's easier to sit down to 10 minutes of work without being committed to a ton after, and it can get you to focus and actually work for an hour plus sometimes.

When medicated I feel like it's easier to stick to a task, but it doesn't help me with picking the right task so I think I understand some of what you feel. The Time Timer has helped me sometimes when I just need the extra bit of external help. The act of picking it up and deciding to use it helps reaffirm my intention of working on a thing, and then the visual indicator of time passing helps my really really bad time sense to be moored to reality a bit better. The mental UHG of beginning the work task seems to melt away pretty quick after that initial step. Then the medication helps to let me proceed without my mind wandering. Other stuff is a necessity like physical activity and enough sleep. Getting out of a misdirected focus is tough, so I feel for ya.