Ask HN: ADHD – How do you manage the constant stream of thoughts and ideas?

Two schools of thinking I flip flop between to rationalize however I'm currently behaving:

a.) Ideas not meaningfully capitalized on are no more useful than delusions. Force yourself to focus with tools.

b.) Don't worry about it; you should be able to think and imagine freely in and about the environment the world has presented you with. When you have The One Right Idea™, you'll know, and it'll be like it's putting itself together in front of you. Allow yourself kindness, understanding, and leniency; only then will your output be pure. Or something.

Maybe it's good to have some of both of these. Maybe I should plan for them in advance.

You’re not alone a lot of founders and builders experience this ADHD-like pattern: intense curiosity, deep focus, then idea overload. Your brain is optimized for exploration, not maintenance, which is why vision comes easy and follow-through feels hard. What helps is having one place to dump ideas, time-boxing deep work, offloading admin, and keeping tools minimal. Switching off is still tough, but physical activity, hard stop routines, and accepting rest as part of productivity make a real difference.

Most responses here are about systems and tools — which help, but they're compensations working around the issue rather than at it.

The underlying problem is network regulation in the brain. Your Default Mode Network (the self-referential mind-wandering system) is supposed to quiet down when you engage in tasks. In ADHD, that toggle is unreliable — the DMN keeps intruding, which is why you get that "barrage of micro ideas" breaking through during focus.

A few things that work at the root:

Meditation — not as a relaxation tool, but as direct neuroplasticity training. Focused attention practice (noticing when your mind wandered, returning to object) is literally thousands of reps training that DMN/task-positive toggle. Long-term meditators show measurably better DMN suppression during tasks.

Sleep — DMN regulation degrades hard with poor sleep. Non-negotiable foundation.

The deeper move is changing your relationship to the thoughts themselves. The DMN will always generate ideas. The shift is recognizing them as arisings rather than commands. They still come — they just lose their grip.

I'm also curious what others' takes are too. Lately I have found myself completely unable to remember things without writing them down or completely losing focus on a task and instead going off on "side quests." A close friend familiar with ADHD hinted that I probably have "late developing ADHD" and advised that I get evaluated/diagnosed.

The thought of that kind of scares me---I'm in my late 20s and tend to think I have functioned my whole life without needing any kind of coping strategy or technique to keep myself on top of my work, but now I am facing the possibility that I might just have to start doing things differently, and I'm not sure where to start.

Aside from actually getting diagnosed, are there any strategies I ought to try to help focus on work without getting sidetracked? And ways to help remember things?

What's worked for me:

1) Good, regular sleep. ADHD symptoms are way more controllable when I'm well rested.

2) Stimulants: caffeine and Vyvanse. I also had a prescription for Adderall, but it has some nasty side effects for me so I rarely take it.

3) Accept that it's hard to focus on stuff that doesn't interest me, and plan accordingly. (Including career choices.)

4) Work in person, rather than remotely. I'm too tempted to screw around when I'm not around coworkers.

> I have ADHD. I think.

then think about talking to a medical professional, and a therapist, and coming up with your own coping strategies.

> How do you manage the constant stream of thoughts and ideas?

take notes of ideas and come back to them later when you have time.

Sleep. Coffee. Focus music. Non-stimulant medication.

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(I am not a doctor.)

> I have ADHD. I think. Pretty sure.

I take your hedging to mean you are probably self diagnosing. It's worth talking to a doctor and getting the ball rolling on a formal diagnosis. ADHD is not the only diagnosis with those symptoms. For instance bipolar and autism spectrum disorder. Again, not a doctor, take that with a grain of salt.

There are probably new tactics you can adopt in this thread, and they may help and are worth trying. Advice which is actionable today is valuable. But if this is severe enough to disrupt your life, the best strategy is a combination of therapy, medication, and lifestyle changes (eg exercise).

Easier said than done, I know. I have my own issues I'm struggling with and I get it. I'm in the midst of trying that same three pronged approach.

Please also understand that these diagnosis do not all have the same consequences for not treating them. If you don't want to pursue formal diagnosis and treatment, that is your right, but I would urge you to investigate whether or not you are bipolar in any case. If you have your first manic episode, and you don't understand that is what is happening, it could be dangerous. What you're describing sounds more like ADHD to me personally but is not inconsistent with hypomania either. Again, not a doctor, grain of salt.

Plans, goals, routine, separation of concerns.

Instead of having a million different tabs open, use a tab session manager, save the stuff you want to read later, and keep open only stuff pertinent to things you are working on.

Prioritize your projects to have actionable goals.

When you procrastinate, try to do so by being productive on smaller projects.

Be aware of your own nature, and try to exert control over it. Recognize that not every idea or desire is useful, and learn to discard the ones that are not and investigate or give more attention to the ones that are.

Organization, take notes and organize them. I often have a scratchpad textfile open, that I then organize into sections (e.g. app ideas, ideas for specific code projects, movie ideas, whatever), break these up further into project or topic files. The ones that grow and get fleshed out are the ones worth pursuing.

Have a healthy sleep and recreation routine to not get burned out.

I have adhd, I write them down. Some of them are great ideas, some are shit.

I got diagnosed at 29. Up until then I was very entrepreneurial and ambitious, constantly working on business ideas. Hell I taught myself software engineering because I had a single idea I hyper focused on lol.

The way I see it, lean into it. ADHD is a double edged sword - you get intrusive thoughts, some of them are bad, but some of them are ideas.

You can’t really change your brain, you can take medication and it might help you focus a bit more.

But I say lean into it. I’ve had several successful ventures from pure ADHD fuelled idea binges.

I don’t really switch off, but I make sure I work in the office every day because being around people helps.

But when I’m alone it’s a barrage of thoughts, some days more intense than others.

There are alot of ADHD founders and programmers

I have lived my entire life with ADHD: Forget about getting "everything" done, instead periodically reprioritize and keep putting your focus onto these priorities, everything that is actually important enough to get done will and everything else can be done by someone else -- just sit tight. This works for software especially so, just sit and wait for someone more fool hardy with more to lose to do the truly annoying things and then adopt their work if it helps your priorities.

Whether a personal attribute is a strength or a weakness seems to depend heavily on context.

The key for any us may be to just find people we can work with who have different attributes, resulting in balanced partnership.

I have at least some anecdotal evidence to support pairings of compatible and complementary ADHD and HFAS minds.

Character is probably the most important single element, however.

1/ Chose a career as a Data Scientist, which benefits from intense focus. 2/ All the thoughts and tasks that i get in my head, if tasks are small, i try to do some of them immediately. Otherwise, i write it down, and keep a sticky which i close at the end of the day. 3/ Am 40, I have a partner, who has slowly realized that i am different, and since the past few years she coaches me to do tasks i dont like (submit expense reports). I happily give her pocket shopping money in exchange. 4/ I take notes at every meeting, Notion is my tool. 5/ Switching off, what's that? I realize my teams think that i am a maniac, and my wife thinks am too obsessed. I help my team do things, and tell them i can come across as too hot, and they need to let me to know to backoff. I like to watch movies, and do take a break from time to time.

First of all if you have the money get an official diagnosis. While self diagnosis is often right, ADHD symptoms can have overlap with many other things so it is better to be sure.

Now want a quick fix? If you can, get medication. It doesn't work for all people with ADHD but for those that it does it will give you the most bang for the buck.

Now there is coping strategies. Therapists can help a lot. There is also people offering ADHD coaching. This is great because the coaches tend to have ADHD themselves and understand you. It helped me personally a lot but be warned that everyone can offer coaching so quality may wary.

Last part is lifestyle. Sport. It is not optional. Running is amazing and will help you a lot but if you are not fit enough yet, walk. Walk every day for at least 30min. You need to. Also personally for me reading a physical book for at least 30min a day makes a huge, huge difference. Diet is important but what works varies from ADHD person to person. For me cutting out processed sugar was a good step.

Also no caffeine. This may also vary but completely cutting it helped me personally a lot. Yes, it helps somewhat with executive function but only in the short term and does more harm than good in the long term. Generally any form form of self medication be it alcohol, weed and so on, cut it out. Again get proper medication if you can.

Honestly accepting that you have ADHD or well at least some form of neurodivergency is already the biggest step. It gets so much easier once you learn how to properly manage it.

I’m not diagnosed but have a high correlation condition (APD) which explains my inattentive ADHD ways that only my closest people basically knew were there the whole time.

After reading a book about APD, I felt like I was reading reports written about my life. I told my late wife’s best friend and she was like “she knew the whole time, you drove her crazy sometimes”. I was blissfully ignorant.

I drink a lot of coffee as a baseline and have since high school. I’m afraid of stimulant drugs and won’t pursue them.

The one thing that I love that truly changed my life for the better is running. I started at 45 after a series of really awful events. I’ve never felt such a clarity of mind and feeling.

I wish I had known about it in my teens. I went through alot of shitty times without understanding why. Life moved on, but I wasted alot of opportunity and missed some things that I regret a bit.

Run (or bike or whatever gets you) and get to know yourself. Know what you want, and when you embark on a side quest, stop and see if you are going where you want to be.

It's hard. I take concerta and have been laid off or fired more times than most people I know in long-term employment have had jobs. I take Concerta and drink Coffee, but I mostly just enjoy the coffee. It's really hard to stay on track sometimes, it's really hard to go too long without working on something inherently interesting to me. I'm constantly late and prefer late nights, I tend to always have a bad sleep cycle.

Really basic things that other people seem good at, I struggle. Taxes, finances, anything that requires ambient awareness of systems that have no clear feedback loops. Sometimes penalties for trivial things accumulate and it costs a lot of money. Goals, unless they're something like literally climbing a mountain, don't really motivate me. I don't have any financial or life goals at all, they seem artificial and silly.

Without stimulants, and a thankfully somewhat lenient company/client atm, I'd be screwed.

The positive is that I seem to be much better at making friends than most other people I know, and enjoy a variety of interesting hobbies. I'm also not that fearful or anxious about trying new things.

In terms of who I listen to about the topic, it's certainly not any entrepreneur types, it's mostly friends. Though Trevor Noah has a great podcast on the topic last April

https://pca.st/episode/19d903d2-bb2b-4213-837e-89a1af706ea0

Additionally, I cope by exclusion. I don't obligate myself to many things or events, and refuse to participate in group chats. I keep almost no notifications on, and people know that if they need my attention, they can just call me, otherwise I won't respond until I get around to it. I only buy gifts when I find inspiration to, and try not to spread myself too thin.

I also try to avoid easy things as much as possible. I failed at easy assignments, easy exams in school, why bother going through the rote motions for no other purpose than to be measured on my performance in doing them?

Music is big for me - there are some good lists on YouTube.

Taking a few steps forward on something help me get over the initial paralysis. Get people to help you need priorities. I constantly check in with bosses to ensure I’m doing the most important thing.

Interesting about sleep, I definitely feel most productive in the morning after a solid night of sleep.

It has its downsides but a constant comment/compliment I get from friends how much I get done with my limited time. I have to always be doing something that consumes my attention or I’ll go nuts. I can’t watch sports for example because all the constant stops and starts make me lose my attention and go somewhere else.

> I have ADHD. I think. Pretty sure.

You might be right, but until you get a professional diagnosis you can't really be sure. Hacker-news will disagree but it is impossible to be objective about your own mental health. The good news is that if you do have adult ADHD, it is treatable (much more so than other conditions like depression).

Some people might try to spin it as something cool, but that last "d" stands for disorder. It's a disorder and NOT a "founder thing", regardless of what Paul Graham thinks. ADHD can do enormous damage to your life, relationships, and professional development.

What quietened the “thousands of competing thoughts” that used to go through my brain constantly was an ADHD diagnosis and then medication (methylphenidate / Concerta XL in my case, I tried lisdexamfetamine / Elvanse first but it did nothing for my ADHD symptoms. Everyone responds differently to the various medications, you may have to try several until you find one that works for you).

The diagnosis/medication route isn’t for everyone but, in my case, it is a thousand times better than trying any systems/strategies unmedicated.

Medication alone isn’t a magical cure but it gets me to the point where various systems/strategies do start to work.

Also whilst medicated I don’t get as distracted anywhere near as easily. If I do think of something else I can write it down and go back to what I was working on.

Whilst medicated I don’t try and keep track of 4 different conversations going on around me whilst not giving enough attention to the actual person I’m supposed to be listening to and talking to.

Whilst medicated I don’t just endlessly write, rewrite or reorder TODO lists, I can actually start (and finish!) items on that list. This means I’m not just motivated by stress/deadlines, I can get things done way ahead of the last minute.

An ADHD diagnosis and medication has been utterly transformational in my life.

I tried a whole host of stuff in the years before I finally went for an official diagnosis. In hindsight I wish I’d spoken to my doctor years earlier but, guess what, people with ADHD procrastinate.

Lastly, I now no longer have to expend huge amounts of energy masking my ADHD symptoms. Prior to diagnosis I didn’t realise just how much of a toll this was taking on me and I just attributed it to 25 years of working in the IT industry and possible burnout.

Well you don't manage them. If you really find something interesting, you often start writing it down in some work already...for example `cargo new` and then add a bunch of packages, start getting it working on...

That's exactly what I've been having for the last 20 years. If something motivates you, you do it non-stop, until you are bored, switch to the next thing...it happens around 2 to 3 days during the "hype" period, then you suddenly got off to new things.

That's why I have hundreds of POCs and toy projects at hand, but only a few of them materialized.

I found several Dr. Ned Hallowell's books helpful, see https://drhallowell.com/read/books-by-ned/ in particular "Delivered from Distraction" and "Answers to Distraction."

The Amen Clinics use PET scans of the brain to differentiate between seven types of ADD: https://www.amenclinics.com/conditions/adhd-add/ You may find these write-ups helpful in refining your understanding. Dr. Amen has a book that I found helpful https://www.amazon.com/Healing-ADD-Revised-Breakthrough-Prog...

I don't take stimulants beyond caffeine, I meditate most days at least once a day, which I find helpful, as well as not stay up too late. I keep a pad of paper by my bed to capture ideas. Working to music seems to help.

If you get a lot of ideas, you should reconcile yourself to only acting on a small fraction of them and worry less about all of the possibilities.

I try to take care to keep the commitments that I make, writing them down and tracking them. And here it is important to keep a close track.

I may be less impaired than you are, although many people have noticed I seem to get a lot of ideas. I collaborated with a partner on a book once, and at one point, about halfway through, he was frustrated with me and said, "You are a geyser of ideas. We don't need more ideas, we need to complete what we set out to do."

I’m diagnosed adhd. If you’re like me, you cannot switch it off. Medication helps a lot with the negative effects, but the stream of ideas is never turned off, it’s just way more manageable, and you feel more in control. That has been a huge improvement to my mental health.

Weed does help sometimes, though I would not say the stream is turned off, but a lot of things go in the background, if that makes sense.

It’s cliche but I would recommend to see a psychiatrist for diagnosis and a therapist