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Ask HN: ADHD and Slack

1 points by managingahhs ↗ HN
I've been diagnosed with severe ADHD by two psychiatrists and I'm struggling with messaging at work.

I work remotely and we use Slack.

I'll often be distracted by notifications but I'm starting to manage that better by muting and closing Slack sometimes.

But I still have these long threads where I'm talking honestly without thinking took much. I'm very polite and I'm trying to help but I notice I put a burden on my team.

Just last week I told myself I'd refrain from asking difficult questions and today I had a 1 hour thread about a difficult topic. I think it distracted people, especially when they don't seem to care and think everything is fine or can't be improved.

Is there a Slack app or some other method to ask me to think twice before engaging in conversation on Slack?

5 comments

[ 4.7 ms ] story [ 26.1 ms ] thread
keikobadthebad
Try email... you and the recipient have longer to think about what to say. IM interrupts people and demands immediate attention, like a phone call; that gets old pretty quickly. Email waits until the recipient has time to look at it and they can reply if they feel like it.

Or try talking over a short, intense video chat for a single topic.

managingahhs
I'll have to go the video route in this case, since nobody uses email internally anymore. Thanks for the advice.
dusted
I see IM as a slighly less formal email, I check it when I check it. Teams is what we use, I run that in a virtual machine which shows the lockscreen for most of the day.. I'll check email and IM four or five times a day, when I find it convenient. If it's actually important, people can call (has not happened yet)
managingahhs
FOMO hits hard but I'll try to close it. If it's important enough, they will find me. Thanks.
mrboogles
I built a Slack app for exactly this use-case: https://regardingapp.com. It's still in Beta right now so if you want to take it for a spin, I'd love your feedback. corey@regardingapp.com