The following is a text conversation I had today.

it’s hard to switch contexts. it’s hard to stop what i’m doing and do something else.

Yeah?

and errands, driving around the city, are boring. too many turns, too much chaos, too much forcing myself to pay attention. unless i can get into hyperfocus mode on driving, in which case i want to be completely involved, driving fast on the highway for longer lol. after 5 min and i’m at the store…. i have to change focus again and go shopping. which is visually overwhelming. i check my list 10+ times, constantly forgetting what i’m trying to get and getting distracted on the way to the aisle, and then going down the aisle….. and thinking "why the hell do we need 10 types of toothpaste?"

analysis paralysis

and then i have to drive 5 min home, another context switch, then put the groceries away, yet another, and then collapse on the couch

if something is not interesting, it’s pulling teeth to start doing it

if something IS "interesting" (which is subjective and fickle), it’s pulling teeth to STOP

that said….. sometimes i DO love wandering the grocery store aisles, freed from the tyranny of the list, seeing each item brings up thoughts of whether i have it or am out or am interested….

I see! All the different contexts can be overwhelming

but that’s a different headspace and i typically end up hyperfocused on THAT and come home with a month’s supply of shit

they are

it’s much less expensive to switch subcontexts within, say, a computer

Right, schedules can be confining?

i even have a hard time detaching from my computer to go to the bathroom, get a snack from the kitchen, make a phone call, etc

since i am time-blind, schedules are slippery and impossible to hold on to except through great mental effort

Lol

so sometimes on weekends, i just let adhd drive and do whatever it wants in the moment. i may get lots of stuff done, but none of it will be what i aimed at, which can be just fine

i hate schedules on vacations, the reason i go on vacation is to escape the schedule

i dream of taking a week off of work and staying at home, ordering in, and focusing 100% on whatever i want to, like my personal programming projects

That would be awesome!

or going on a cruise by myself and just staying in the room the whole time, workin on my stuff or being in my head with no distractions

either being super productive and focused and working 12 h a day on some passion project, or just being completely relaxed

and playing video games or something fun and not productive

not everyone understands that difficulty of context switching

i feel like i can structure my life somehow such that i don’t have to nap almost daily, but i haven’t gotten there yet

I don’t think I realized how difficult it was for you to switch contexts. That’s good to know

Also, nothing wrong with naps. There’s something wrong with our society that it won’t let us take naps!

omfg i hate it

all programmers struggle with this one to various degrees – if we’re deep in the code and we answer a phone call it takes like 15 min to get back to being productive

because we have to come up for air, and all the working memory goes away, and when we go back to it we have to pick up all the complex pieces again and figure out where we were

We should convince some tech bro company to start a nap trend. Maybe it’ll spread 😆

Right

maybe!

the siesta

texting, tho, generally requires less context switching. not having to use my speech center.

anything that can stay in the computer is less jarring than leaving the computer

Oh, that makes sense

Are you texting from your computer then? No wonder you can type faster than me 😆

i am texting from my computer currently 🙂