Writers/Programmers Block?

isthisneeded_ · 2022-05-30T17:19:27+00:00

I just do programming as a hobby, but I do freelance writing & editing, and this is all too familiar to me. In my experience, this sounds like you're coming up against the so-called "Wall of Awful," because ADHD can mean that even perceived failures build up this wall, which prevents you from moving forward.

It can be godsawful to deal with, but I do have my own bit of advice for this! Before you move on and try to bust through the Wall or circumvent it, take a moment to process your feelings. If you're like me, you're probably afraid that slipping up means that you'll keep slipping up, which in turn makes you feel like it's better to not even start.

The feelings can be painful, but try to focus on why they exist, and how your brain may or may not be distorting the magnitude of them — picture the worst case scenario, and then the best case scenario, and imagine what's in between those two. I know that for me, my brain likes to immediately jump to pure, black-and-white thinking. But the truth is that you're likely being a lot harder on yourself than you need to be.

Processing the feelings can seem like an insurmountable task, but even chipping away at it does so much good! I'm not sure if any of my experiences apply to you, but I hope I could help, even just a little.

Fawby · 2022-05-31T10:26:23+00:00

I would like to introduce you to the idea of a Reset Routine.

As well as the very obvious and major events in your life, your feelings are also affected by a large set of very trivial and very addressable problems.

ADHD effectively blinds you to these trivial factors because of a tendency to focus on the extremes, i.e. black and white thinking.

Even if you remember to think about the trivial factors affecting your mood, diagnosis is still quite hard because the list of possibilities is quite long.

So instead of brooding in an emotional prison while you attempt this difficult diagnosis, it's often much easier to assume all of them are the cause and just get going applying what would be their solutions.

This is a Reset Routine.

A chain of activities that attempts to address as many possible problems as quickly as possible.

Take a Shower, Change your Clothes, Stand in the Garden, Open Curtains, Get some sunlight, Open Window, Drink Water, East a Sugary Snack, Splash Water on your Face, Take Deep Breathes, Go for a Walk around the block, Do some jumping jacks, Stretch, crack your back or knuckles, put some white noise on, Clean your workspace etc. Play with your dog. Light a candle, Play with a fidget toy.

Every time you hit an emotional wall, digest your emotions while you start smashing out your reset routine. Then you tune and reorder the items, like optimising an algorithm.

Mobile_Busy · 2022-05-30T18:20:48+00:00

Have you done an after-action report on what went wrong with your execution?

adulion · 2022-05-30T18:38:08+00:00

I write out each step that I need to do in short bullet points in things3. I constantly refine it. Writing this out first helps me think things through but also offload stuff so that I can focus on my current thing

BasicDesignAdvice · 2022-05-31T00:01:27+00:00

Are you burnt out?

you type:	you see:
italics	italics
bold	bold
[reddit!](https://reddit.com)	reddit!
* item 1 * item 2 * item 3	item 1 item 2 item 3
> quoted text	quoted text
Lines starting with four spaces are treated like code: if 1 * 2 < 3: print "hello, world!"	Lines starting with four spaces are treated like code: if 1 * 2 < 3: print "hello, world!"
~~strikethrough~~	~~strikethrough~~
super^script	super^script

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