A need to challenge existing paradigms as ADHD
Each of us is unique, but most of the solutions we use arenât. We are taught standardized ways to study, organize our time, and get things done. These solutions work for many people because they address the commonalities among us. But what happens when you are the exception?
For years, as an individual with ADHD traits, I struggled to meet expectations because the conventional solutions simply did not work for me. Eventually, I stopped trying to adapt myself to the system and started adapting the system to myself.
Today, I want to share the situation that led me to recognize this issue, the experiences that helped me identify its core problems, and how I solved them.
For a long time, my only real responsibility was studying. Because I was academically capable, I could handle coursework almost effortlessly, feeling little need to consciously manage my time.
That completely changed when I entered university. Suddenly, I had a web of new responsibilities: part-time jobs, projects, exercise, and networking, all leading to countless appointments and deadlines.
I tried using the scheduling and reminder tools recommended by my friends, but they failed to address my underlying struggles:
- Switching my attention between disparate tasks
- Keeping accurate track of my availability
- Dealing with an overwhelming flood of notifications
Eventually, the struggle became so painful that I started to resent myself. I grew afraid of being exposed as disorganized and even stopped attending classesâwhich feels absurd in hindsight as a university student.
During this low point, I shut myself in and spent much of my time playing an online game and solving countless puzzles.
Unexpectedly, working through those puzzles helped me develop an intuition for a complex mathematical field called category theory. These abstract ideas gave me an entirely new perspective on the relationship between myself and the tasks I had failed to accomplish. Equipped with this mental framework, I became competent enough to identify the real causality behind my failures.
I began analyzing traditional productivity tools through a rigorous mathematical lens, evaluating factors such as:
- Time complexity in the core user experience
- Monotonicity in task lifetimes
- Resource allocation
With this objectively grounded confidence, I designed a brand-new reminder paradigm and built its minimum viable product (MVP) myself.
Today, my workflow looks completely different. My task pool is automatically filtered and sorted, and each duty is presented as a manageable subproblem guaranteed to contribute toward its ultimate objective.
Crucially, this design allowed me to identify missed deadlines as failures of the system or circumstances, rather than immediately blaming my own competence. This shift dramatically reduced my sense of guilt.
By rethinking the paradigm, I made a major comeback to a thriving university student life:
- Achieved a 4.0 GPA
- Landed a top internship
- Reached the top 2% in competitive programming
- Maintained my other priorities without burning out
When your capabilities feel limited, it is easy to restrict yourself by assuming the environment around you is already optimized for you.
In reality, the world is still very much under development, and the problems you face may simply not have been properly addressed yetâeven if they are common. You donât have to accept a broken system just because it works for everyone else. Sometimes, you have to build the solution yourself.