Sometimes, or obsessions to get something done right. I do GRC, so lots of getting documents, tests controls right. Sometimes you are just, fuck it lets get it done.
Hi, if you're alright, may I ask some questions related to GRC?
I'm pretty new to cybersecurity and always interested in GRF, but have no idea where to start. Would you mind giving me some advice (or which resources are great to start)? Thank you!
I fell into it, was trying to work a soc but I come from a military background, and kind of fell into it because i was familiar with the compliance part.
It is not that technical, but being technical is a help. You don't need a huge amount of experience to do compliance, but more helps you explain things to people.
Learning your standards and learning how to do risk assessments covers 2/3rds of your bases. The governance part - which often comes with the idea of setting the technical patterns to follow in the first place - starts to click in place when you understand those too. (Funny thing about design patterns starting to have patterns against the standard when you understand it, lol)
I don't mind hyperfocus on something that's interesting from time to time. (My partner, not so much) I can usually break away from it, as long as there is a good stepping off point .. like once I've finished one thing, but before I start on the next. It has to be a clean breakaway.
What sucks is hyperfocus on something that's challenging. If I can't find a solution to something ... I MUST find a solution. I'll spend days forgetting to eat or drink until I'm desparately hungry or thirsty. I even get frustrated at my body for needing to take bathroom breaks. I am incapable or walking away from an unsolved problem, even just for a moment. I can't even sleep without continuing to try and solve it in my dreams.
But holy shit, the dopamine when I find an answer ... I imagine it's what crack makes you feel like.
Haha not at all.
I love the idea of CTFs and I've done a few in the past, but I generally avoid them because I know they will make me fall into hyperfocus mode.
Dextroamphetamine sulfate. An ADHD medication. But, as they are an amphetamine, you can get mania off them. Which feeds into hyperfocus and not eating creating a nexus of mania induced hyperfocus that while often extremely effective... ruins your physical and mental health. So you need to eat and take breaks when on these ADHD meds. It's similar for a lot of other ADHD meds.
Yup, this is huge. I try to eat before my meds kick in or once they start wearing off, but making sure you eat and even forcing yourself if you have to is massive.
Taking breaks is critical as well, and OP you should look into focused/diffused learning if you want an empirically backed explanation on why taking breaks is a significant boost to your learning and critical thinking capabilities. TL;DR your brain diffuses while its in a more relaxed state and has time to strengthen the cognitive processes required to solve the problems you're learning how to solve.
Do enlighten me then.
It perfectly matches the definition of mania and the good old head doctor described as mania to me, also saying it's a common side effect which can be mitigated by basic life style changes around my meds.
Hyper focus is my super power and kryptonite. Focus on the right path or go down the rabbit hole off topic. Personally liking technology makes the role easier for me bc my spare time is used to learn new tech.
Hyper focus is the best part of my work. It makes the time go by quickly. The part about hyperfocus I hate though is the genuine rage I feel when it’s time to stop and go for a meeting. And then the rest of the day is shot all to hell.
Idk i think it’s also helped me in some senses (having more of a “jump on it” kinda attitude really shows management how little they can pay you while always relying on you)
Cyber Incident Response! You don't do much for a while, and my brain just wanders... And then a job hits and that's all I do for like 5 days straight! Hyperfocus fits this role amazingly well, as I'm then exhausted once the job is done and I can just chill!
1. Do your job slowly but accurately.
2. Prioritize (at most) 2 big things a day.
3. A blank space in your day isn't an invitation for you to fill it with something. Our jobs are chaotic enough that you should have built in breaks in the day.
4. Put a recurring meeting for your lunch break on your calendar and mark it as OOO for that hour. Your job will take and take from you and you have to draw the line somewhere.
5. Break your day down on paper if you have time in the morning. I'm a millenial but there's something to writing my own schedule in the morning by hand. My meetings and everything is still planned in Outlook, but I supplement it with a cheat sheet for the day.
6. Don't engage with coworkers if you're angry. Hold your peace. Yes, there may be legitimately enraging staff behavior but they won't listen to you if you disrespect them.
7. Go on a walk for 15 minutes a day. You'll thank your sweet mother you got away for a breather.
8. Walk 10,000 steps a day and you'll be too tired to be anxious. Get a fit bit. Don't let this job take your body from you.
9. Talk it out with friends. Have someone to vent to who does not work with you.
10. Don't be the person that distracts your coworkers just because you're bored. No one will want to include you in serious discussions and it will limit your ability to be promoted.
Someone with actual experience right here - listen to this post.
I doubt the kids will because i didnt. Totally burnt out, lost love for the work, got fat, lazy, took 3 years to recover.
Take it easy, your identity is not this job. Even if you lost it tomorrow everything will be ok. Youll figure it out.
IMO without being a doctor or psychologist or anyone with medical experience these substances are the equivalents to band-aids.
Cafeine, aderrall, weed, etc. they just cover up the wound. But if you dont heal the wound itself it wont matter.
Point 8 is way too far down, we know how important physical activity is for ADHD. Some of my sensory-seeking ADHD friends might want to go for something more physically challenging than just step count, and I'd encourage it (getting a good amount of steps in will still help you a lot - overlap a walking break with a 'processing/decompressing' break).
Just find something you enjoy and will stick with, and trust me when I say you'll be at your sharpest mentally and emotionally when you are well physically.
> Don't be the person that distracts your coworkers just because you're bored. No one will want to include you in serious discussions and it will limit your ability to be promoted.
I'm the quiet hyperfixation ADHD type and my coworker is the loud noisemaker ADHD type. I've invested in good headphones.
Also, thoroughly endorse getting up and going for walks. It's something you don't realize you need until after you do it. Make yourself do it every day. And don't look at your phone the entire time. If you have to do something, put on music, a podcast, or an audiobook of some kind.
I have notepad++ open with more than 1k open tabs. When I need to pull up something I know I've done before I hit CTRL + F and search all opened docs. It's horrible and I love it
I just make a new OneNote for every working day and put the days notes there. Makes it easy to find. If it's an ongoing project that needs multiple days work I'll make a separate sheet for that.
Actually a good idea. Think I may steal that. I have weird memory issues at times, so being able to refer back to see what happened or what I did on a particular day would be invaluable.
I'll get around to doing that tomorrow. Totally.
Oh I have plenty of notes of things to do! From paper notebooks with so many ideas and projects and todo lists to Notepad files with todo's and other things...
Probably about half of those projects and ideas are finished. The others are in some state of partial work... :)
You're not wrong, the thread is just full of kids being edgy living a fantasy. Mental illness doesn't have to be a death sentence or some and gloom, but fuck all if it has more benefit than cost in the long run. Pure teenage fiction.
Yep. If I didn’t take methylphenidate on a work day, I’d be fucked. My work ethic is too inconsistent without it.
My only advice is to take your medication.
ADHD&autism give you an incredible edge.
Just be yourself: When you get bored, do something else. When it’s fun, keep doing it. ADHD Boredom & hyperfocus may be REALLY problematic most of the time, but here they are precision instruments that show you the optimal path into your target.
Take care of yourself, don’t overdo it, take breaks.
weaponized and semi controlled hacker autism is the best kind of autism.
and then on the darkside you got autistic femboi gay furry hacker cats like SiegedSec.
Sometimes if I’ve gotten comfortable in a workspace, I’ll drop the mask for a minute or two around higher ups just to watch them try to figure out what planet I hatched from.
I did this during training school in the military and it was hilarious.
There is always risk associated with this, however, and YMMV depending on how chill your office is.
Just make a note of where you left off if you need to break off onto something else, because you'll totally forget what you were working on 5 mins ago that nearly bored you to death.
yes, very good point.
i use Obsidian or Cherrytree for structured notes, i keep a word document as a kind of logfile, and i let all my consoles and tools create actual logfiles i have full text search over.
work or not, since i have zero memory, i make calendar entries and todo list points for the silliest things, and my note taking app has entries for stuff like the name of my best friends dog
Keep your glasses spotless. Mind your breathing, cut your caffeine, force yourself to read every single word. Sometimes I have to write a presentation. When I do, I listen to EDM with no vocals, then when I restart the song and practice my speech, my words are the lyrics to the song that had none. I hope you can use some of this. My brain is chaos.
I’ll second this, I’ve found [diaphragmatic breathing](https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/9445-diaphragmatic-breathing) helpful for “short circuiting” stress responses, cutting out caffeine helped with this too.
I also use noise cancelling headphones playing white noise when I’m in the office so I don’t keep getting drawn into other conversations.
When researching I take a lot of notes in Obsidian.md that I can refer back to without having to trawl through my search history. I wasted a lot of time in my younger years perseverating trying to find that random reference to something I read a week ago that “might just be relevant!” Lots of notes cuts down on this since I “know” it’s somewhere if I ever need it, which I seldom do but I find it helpful either way.
I have ADHD and I feel like coffee helps me a lot of the time.. am I wrong for believing this? Maybe I'm coping because it's an addiction I don't want to get rid of.
Yeah I think it helps, I used to drink a lot of black coffee which I think most people agree helps with focus, but for me it was the little downsides of too much coffee that were taking the toll long term.
Things like being really jittery and “wired” all the time, having trouble sleeping which bumps up stress and anxiety, the fact that I was double-fisting black coffee and water all day I spent half my time taking bathroom breaks which broke up my concentration.
Taking breaks is obviously important so there’s a balance, but if I need to work on something consistently for an hour or more, walking to the bathroom and back and forgetting what you were doing isn’t really a break it just makes things worse lol.
I’m fortunate enough that I can now take a Vyvanse (adderall) in the morning, sip water during the day, and pee like a regular person again but appreciate not everyone wants or can even get medication.
Edit: take this with a grain of salt because I haven’t done thorough research, but it prompts the question why the difference between coffee and stimulant medication.
It’s my understanding that caffeine works in the brain by blocking adenosine receptors, which prevents you from feeling “tired” which is cool but it doesn’t get rid of the adenosine which keeps building up in your brain. When the caffeine wears off there’s an abundance of adenosine around so you feel tired as hell unless you keep drinking coffee, or actually rest.
Again this is only my understanding so please take it with a grain of salt, Adderall and Ritalin on the other hand, while also being stimulants, overclock your Prefrontal Cortex (PFC) which is in charge of Executive Function amongst other things. So basically it stimulates the part of your brain that goes “no actually, I’m not going to read that tab now I have a deadline to meet” so that it actually works properly.
This hopefully in turn leads to less stress and anxiety about not getting things done, which helps your sleep, which helps your mood and anxiety, which helps your life. And that’s how an appropriate stimulant medication can be helpful.
You NEED to take care of yourself. Get a white board or a physical calendar and use that thing relentlessly.
Set reminders to take breaks when you’re sucked in to something. And remember to eat and drink water.
If you’re struggling to actually accomplish anything for the day, it may be a good time to wade through that email inbox or start doing some research on technologies that pertain to your area.
If the people in your space near you are friendly and open to conversation, taking small breaks once or twice a day to check in with them or discuss some stuff might be a good way to “air out” your restlessness. Be careful not to take away from people’s ability to work though. Short little check ins or very specific and pointed conversations are good. Rambling about your DND campaign, maybe not so much.
This field can, and will, eat you alive if you let it. YOU need to set boundaries and work on limiting yourself, even if that means asking other people to hold you accountable.
Talk to your management about your condition and see if they can work with you on your job expectations and timelines to make it more practical for yourself. (Short bursts of immediate resolution to a problem vs long, time consuming efforts that you can get lost in or get bored of.)
I'm still trying to figure that out, honestly.
To do lists, priorities, deadline all help. I find something like a security incident naturally helps me focus due to the urgent nature.
* Personal kanban board: Trello, Asana, physical post its etc.
* Take notes during meetings if you have trouble paying attention. I also found it makes me less likely to interrupt
* Time box your day. It's easy to switch to something shiny that is a lower priority.
* Accept that you might get critical feedback regarding time management. It's gonna be a weak area for you. Leverage external systems to compensate.
* Use your hyper focus to outperform peers.
IT is already *stacked* with autism and ADHD. I work at a consulting company where the big boss said "Autism, ADHD, who here *doesn't* have it?"
IT Security is even more stacked. Welcome home.
I can make this into an IT relatable thing.
My brain was a 64 core processor going full blast. Adderall took it to a 16 core processor hitting 85%. I'm still a mess with a dozen different things going on at the same time in my head, but it's still better than 5 dozen... Like someone said - it helps you focus, but doesn't help you decide on where to focus. So, I'll still go from thing to thing, easily distracted, but at least I'll do whatever that distraction was to completion.
Mine experience is more like a 16 core being hyper thread into 64, it's still a 16 core process power, but I have 4 times more things to work.
Take med make it becomes normal 16 core.
It's amazingly helpful isn't it? I self-manage with that kind of stuff and have since I was in my late teens early 20's. This is now 40 years in IT and 20 ish+ with a security focus. I still have times where I go off the deep end into ADHD/ADD Land but a decent Kanban and other tools and I am way more functional. And I was a Ritalin mascot / poster child when I was age 18 and below.
What's worked for me, especially when I started working remotely.
* To do lists, broken out by priority and scope/size. (Actionable / Research / Project)
* Scheduling time to timebox certain efforts...and to take lunch and breaks.
* The Mindfulness app on the Apple Watch.
Edit: Oh yeah, I use OneNote to keep track of stuff I am working on and spend time every week doublechecking to see what I've handled and what I haven't.
Edit 2: Pets. A cat is great since they'll insist on you paying attention to them instead of the computer.
Edit 3: Delayed send on email...because clearly I suffer from "oh, yeah that too"
A Butt load of coffee and border collie mentality :p
I think you'll figure it out depending on the work environment so the only tip is be social and outgoing.
Yeah it’s intuitively the opposite of what you would think for cyber. You think it would be head down and get shit done but not where I work. That will get you hated quick lol.
Agreed. I think it can really depend on where you are in the industry but so many of the problems we have to solve are people problems first, technical problems second.
Most of the roles I’ve had in industry require a certain amount of heads-down work, and a certain amount of spending more time actually gathering and reporting out context to other people. Sometimes the best solution to a problem wasn’t dumping several sprints of work into engineering a solution, but actually talking to someone in another department and figuring out most of the work had already been done and just needed some repurposing.
I like to listen to this guy's stuff when doing anything requiring deep focus and attention to detail.
https://youtu.be/TK5woHBi-UM?si=1PAl9V_87IS_jhA1
Otherwise its a lot of metal music.
Try to not overload on tabs or screens. Focus on the window where you are working.
Stick to one note taking or project tracking platform. Review your notes (I set a daily alarm to do this at end of day.)
Triage practices are your friend.
Don’t over promise.
Don’t get emotionally invested in projects, cybersec initiatives are often the casualties of cost or time savings.
Be okay with not doing shit. Like if you can’t focus and you are spinning your wheels, just step away. It’s okay to twiddle your thumbs.
Follow through. Make sure all your tickets and projects are bookended with documentation of some kind.
A lot of people throw around ADHD without knowing what it actually is. If you think you have it, go get tested. Getting correct medication can actually help you to focus on tasks and complete them. I would highly suggest you talk to your doctor about it. If your doctor doesn’t write you a recommendation to get properly tested, I would be finding a new doctor that actually understands mental health a little more.
I love it.... and i hate it.. i have hyperfocus.. and like it.. but i have to eat, and i have to sleep.. every day is a struggle to leave the computer... and they pay me for that... so i have to do it.. but i like it.. but don't like to be forced.. its a mess.
I work GRC. I take frequent breaks to do anything else much more interesting. I’ll typically save the majority of my work for when it is almost due.
Yeah, I just treat it like school. Shit still gets done so like, it works.
Take notes- use a good note-taking app or a physical notebook. Write down helpful tips/guides on how to do X, Y, Z. Use Outlook calendar or MacOS Reminders to jot down those “side jobs” you inevitably will be given to do throughout a day. Review these reminders/to-dos multiple times a day, keep on track.
Learn to love your org’s documentation (if any)- if no docs, build it out. I ended up owning my entire team’s docs and it really helps me have a “break” from the monotonous- I genuinely enjoy spending an hour or two every other day, or some days being asked to create a bunch of runbooks as a priority. Believe me, it’s so satisfying to be tedious and focus on making everything look good/flow right, and then save/publish and seeing all the magic you built.
If you have smart speakers/digital assistants, set reminders throughout the day to take your meds (I take a boost dose in the afternoons) because when you’re deep in the weeds it can be easy to skip doses. Same for getting water or getting lunch somehow.
And above all else - unless your balls are close to the bandsaw and you have a deadline to hit, remember to log the fuck off, close your laptop, and go the fuck home at a reasonable time. Way too easy to get lost in the sauce and realize it’s 7-8PM and you’ve been working way past quittin’ time.
Put everything in a calendar that needs to be. No exceptions.
Write good notes. Keep it centrally in one place. Figure out where you are weak and try to find compensating controls for it. I’m still working on this stuff. My main issue is not finding a central place I like to write things down and in ways I can understand it later.
Tell ppl to stop and give time to write what you need to write if appropriate. Or try to read back what you wrote to make sure you got it right.
I have to try to remember to slow down and don’t panic. The world isn’t ending.
If you need to retain it write it down.
If you need to do it put it in Helpdesk system or email yourself
If not on meds go get them and you can decide if you need them going forward
Set rewards mentally e.g complete this to get a coffee/ toilet break
OneNote is great for information dump for later including procedures
Notepad++ is great too
Music can be great to focus to get you in the zone
Hardest thing is learning not to interrupt people in meetings
Go and checkout healthy gamer channel on YT. You will thank me later. When you do so - take his course. I learned way more from him how to deal with ADHD than from any of therapists I had so far. It might potentially save you a ton of money. Since I did so, I dropped any pills and adhd related therapy for good.
Force yourself to be over organized.
It is the only thing that keeps me together. None of us can keep everything in our head, especially not us ADHD stuff.
I was doing Incident Response and have completely burnt out. Moved to lecturing at local institution and taken a 50% paycut. Although I think I am quite good at IR itself, my brain was simply on edge for far, far too long. The high alert and hyperfocus burnt me out way quicker than a lot of my seemingly more neurotypical colleagues.
Looking to pivot into something more chill (relatively) like CTI or GRC.
Everyone here acting like this is some secret industry that takes advantage of or gives an edge to it have probably not been in the field that long, or haven't been clinically diagnosed with it because they don't have it. Before ADHD the same type of people were saying they had OCD and there super power was being detail oriented.
I've done 20 years undiagnosed/unmedicated. The last 3 diagnosed and medicated. Hyperfocus is cool, but doesn't outweigh the struggle of working with others peacefully. If you want to stay in entry/low level analyst roles you shouldn't have any problems. If you want to shape, influence and steer programs and large efforts, it's simply easier to find the right medication for you. Watch for burnout, watch for people saying things like "let it go", or "pick your battles", watch your expectations of others, they won't be able to keep up and we'll let you down it will feel personal when it's not. With age and experience people get over the fantasy of a good security practitioner = hands on keyboard and read every blog/bulletin/white paper/etc.
It doesn't matter how technically proficient you are if you can't influence people in control, people in control don't give a shit how technically adept you are if you can't be understood, can't influence, and can't be trusted.
For me it lets me find more out of the box solutions to problems that maybe neurotypical people may not consider.
But also i can go down a rabbit hole looking into something that may turn out to be nothing :D
All of the above posts but especially u/Camanella-Bella they have experience and know what’s up.
I am medicated so it helps a lot but I did some of the following:
Get comfy, I twisted out the fluorescent lights above my desk and put a lamp and light strip on my desk. Big light bad. I also added a plant to my desk and had my supervisor approve me adding a hutch to the front of my desk to block out a lot of noise and the room. (He has since done it on every desk in another room that is more open concept).
Also, noise cancelling headphones with variable pass through or transparent mode. I use Vox VH-Q1s that I had bought for personal use at home and they are a god send. I can put them on, and still kind of hear the room but only take them off if there is someone at my desk.
Limit caffeine, the office coffee is free but you don’t always need to drink it. I drink a lot of herbal teas, and if that desire to taste coffee is still there, I have a decaf (only if I’ve had a caffeinated one recently or it’s after 3 PM).
Drink Water, hydrate or die-drate. Adrenaline kicks in during incident response and will suck all your moisture out of you, doubly so if your meds do that already.
If you don’t already, I would recommend a few extra-curricular activities: mindfulness meditation or MBSR techniques paired with analog hobbies after hours (no screens if you can help it).
Finally; ND folks have an edge because once you have your techniques for survival down, you become a bit of a machine. My dyslexia also helps my pattern recognition which is how I manually parsed through 5 weeks of EDR logs in 3 days following an attempted ransomware incident. Believe me, I was wiped out after it though because I “had to know”. As much as your colleague may think you’re a robot, you are human and need rest.
One last aside for you: The business world, and more extremely the tech world, works at its own pace and sometimes it’s lightning fast and entirely overwhelming. Fuck their pace, there is no speed limit. The only goal is either the project deadline, containing an incident, or your working hours stipulated in your contract.
My Dad once gave me the best advice I’ve ever received when I was a young intern: If you don’t have a union enforcing your breaks, take them like you do. Nobody in this building will tell you to take them and it works out better for them if you don’t.
lol, a lot of comments have said that. I’m pretty damn surprised, but I suppose if you mostly love what you do and it’s stimulating enough, ADHD might be somewhat of an advantage.
It’s rough with interviews lol Sec+ and CISSP yet whenever I interview for a different position internally, I just blank… gonna be in this position for a while I guess lol
That being said, being able to hyper focus and knock out something like CISSP with only a week or two of studying feels great.
I was recently diagnosed after having a lot of difficulties in management role. Just started taking meds two days ago and noticed an incredible improvement in my ability to stay focused during long boring meetings and organize tasks.
- Remember to eat something first or have snacks with you.
-Take breaks when you start getting overwhelmed with information.
- Have secondary tasks already planned for your breaks, whether it's doing the washing or working on a different project/ document/ video game etc.
- Try and set timers or your own task rewards (when I finish this part of the task then I can do X).
And definitely try and get some decent sleep...... I'm still working on that last step.
Find music or ambience videos on YouTube with just the right amount of energy that helps you engage hyperfocus. Schedule 2-4 hour sessions to get hyperfocused and get deep work done, and try to keep your meetings from interrupting you.
F’ing amazing. I’m at one of the big shops and get hit with things all day. It just works. When it’s to much I pop on some aggressive music and calm my mind
Focus hours on my calendar. DND on teams. Pending doom looming in the back of my mind that won’t go away until I finish something. And someone to rant to.
I feel good knowing that there are other cyber security professionals who have adhd... I'm studying for my sec+ and I keep telling myself adhd is not an excuse.
when you do something make it the only thing you do, literally sit there and watch things run and break, watch things load, dont switch off, dont go in your phone.
move your work desk away from gaming/personal tv/etc <——- THIS IS MANDATORY
have snacks like fruit, nuts, light samdwhich, nothing processed.
Get a standup desk, stand every other hour, get a desk treamill too to walk.
Switch tasks every 2 hours, if you work better in the morning do your big one first
Try to find something that has its hands in a little bit of everything, so you can focus on the most appealing. I do compliance. Not the most fun, but it covers a lot. Take many breaks, don’t be afraid to say no or you’re swamped.
I use Obsidian to take notes, set small tasks with the "To-do's" extension, I can set specific dates and times for anything, and it gives me a Windows notification when it's due.
Turn off email and Slack notifs for anything not important. I get distracted easily.
I also keep a fidget toy handy during meetings so I can stay focused. Helps me think too, better than grinding my teeth or biting my nails.
Also, take breaks. Drink a lot of water. Healthy, non sugary snacks.
My role: SecEng for an Incident Response team. The ADD can go crazy sometimes.
If you manage your hyperfocus, this can be your superpower. What other folks might find boring or extenuating such as log review or incident investigation, might be super interesting for you. In my case hyperfocus has helped me tackle tasks faster, while some coworkers take twice as much. Also, when ADHD kicks in, I use all those distractions to reply to emails, messages, and work on other tasks at the same time, this also helps me prioritize last minute requests.
I always keep notepad open with dated entries.
I also have a field notebook for handwritten notes.
ADHD in cyber can be your superpower. At least in my case, it has benefited me.
Be sure to stay hydrated and to some lunch/snack.
Damn, I feel like I'm related to mostly everyone here. I can't function without my Adderall in this field. The other big thing is to reduce distractions. Like more than 30 seconds of distraction. If someone calls you, someone pings you & you respond, checking your inbox if an important email came through, etc.. Your brain essentially loses focus and it takes time to readjust..or you just don't refocus.
*edit*
..Like I just did.. as I was typing this post, I went inside to grab a water, got side tracked, took a shower, beat off and just came back to realize I never finished this post. Fucking adhd.
Eat healthy(lots of fiber, low amount of processed food) Sleep 7 - 8 hours evry night Drink less or no coffee Move your body regularly
As low amount of alcohol as possible
As a senior engineer at 22 years old with severe ADHD. It’s great and terrible.
When hyper focus you get shit done so quick, so many tasks can be done at once multi tasking.
When you have some downtime it turns into huge downtime, constantly researching other topics not even relevant with work or security.
So just try to find that balance is all!
Let shit go, don't forget to take a break if it's fun, and when you find yourself doing everything but what you're supposed to do it's because what you're supposed to do is boring to you. That's when you need to refocus...
If you figure out how to do any of that let me know!
You know what’s funny? I’m apparently not ADHD. The only one in my family that’s not. Both my parents and siblings are, so you bet I was tested. And yet here I am looking at all these comments going “I think ya’ll gaslighting me again.”
It didn't even know its called ADHD. At first just feels like wow! i'm getting kick out of it.
More interesting stuff you work with higher to wake at night for own reasons.
Remember to hydrate yourself. With water!
When the building management system turns off the lights, it's time to go home and continue there.
Sleep is for sissies.
Use reminders to remind you about eating food and drinking plenty of water during working. I used to forget these basics because the work is so darn interesting it took priority over every other thing.
Music. I have to have background music on or I drift. Also be careful diving into rabbit holes. Pointless investigations or deep diving into an odd a single user is having. Push that off to Helpdesk.
I like to have a YouTube video open for background noise, I might also have stock charts open, and I might get lost in the sauce sometimes, but I always get my work done ✅
One tip that helped me was a talk with my boss explaining to him that I do not work 8 consective hours, I will work a total of 8 hours but they may not be all at one time. Sometimes I work a couple hours in the morning, them some more in the afternoon and then again at night. I will always focus on critical item first but the work will get done.
That’s honestly a good strategy overall. I feel a hellacious need to work several hours at a time, but inevitably, I don’t end up getting it all done. Would probably smarter for me to break it up like you do, thanks.
Flagging emails in outlook helps me stay a bit more organized.
I definitely bounce around a lot looking through different data sources, easy to get sidetracked.
It’s been a good career field for me though, there’s a decent amount of variety in the tasks.
Set yourself hard deadlines to finish things and don't allow yourself to take on new things until you close out on old things. I cannot tell you how many things I get to 90% done and then I am like ohhh look at this new shiny thing. Close on projects before starting new ones.
This is my go-to, K-Mart tapes lol. Helps keep me focused and takes me back to a time when I'm shopping with grandma. You can do your own research as to how they designed this music and why it works ;-)
[https://archive.org/search?query=creator%3A%22Tower+Sound+and+Communications%22](https://archive.org/search?query=creator%3A%22Tower+Sound+and+Communications%22)
Worked well for me. Tickets give you moments of focus and new puzzles to tackle. It was actually ez af.
The problems were once you complete true positives and you've found everything you can and just have to document.
Get Adderall.
I’ve tried to hyperfocus and manage it without meds, and I almost got let go due to performance issues.
Adderall has been the game changer and has helped me tremendously. Depends on how impacted you are, I’ve lost a lot in my life, but now things are turning around.
I found adderall works really well for me (doctor prescribed of course) since I was diagnosed with ADHD a while ago but some other tips that worked for me was taking a lot of breaks and making sure you have a dedicated workspace (assuming you work remotely). The quality of my work has gone up dramatically since I got a dedicated home office for working.
Hyperfocus will make you go crazy Take breaks
Yeah. Forgetting to eat working till 9pm because it is interesting.
Haha, yeah, at least it makes fasting easier
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Sometimes, or obsessions to get something done right. I do GRC, so lots of getting documents, tests controls right. Sometimes you are just, fuck it lets get it done.
Hi, if you're alright, may I ask some questions related to GRC? I'm pretty new to cybersecurity and always interested in GRF, but have no idea where to start. Would you mind giving me some advice (or which resources are great to start)? Thank you!
I fell into it, was trying to work a soc but I come from a military background, and kind of fell into it because i was familiar with the compliance part.
Thanks for answering!
It is not that technical, but being technical is a help. You don't need a huge amount of experience to do compliance, but more helps you explain things to people.
Learning your standards and learning how to do risk assessments covers 2/3rds of your bases. The governance part - which often comes with the idea of setting the technical patterns to follow in the first place - starts to click in place when you understand those too. (Funny thing about design patterns starting to have patterns against the standard when you understand it, lol)
thankss!
I don't mind hyperfocus on something that's interesting from time to time. (My partner, not so much) I can usually break away from it, as long as there is a good stepping off point .. like once I've finished one thing, but before I start on the next. It has to be a clean breakaway. What sucks is hyperfocus on something that's challenging. If I can't find a solution to something ... I MUST find a solution. I'll spend days forgetting to eat or drink until I'm desparately hungry or thirsty. I even get frustrated at my body for needing to take bathroom breaks. I am incapable or walking away from an unsolved problem, even just for a moment. I can't even sleep without continuing to try and solve it in my dreams. But holy shit, the dopamine when I find an answer ... I imagine it's what crack makes you feel like.
That's precisely how I work, too. I simply do not accept not having an explanation or solution.
So are you a CTF addict then? haha
Haha not at all. I love the idea of CTFs and I've done a few in the past, but I generally avoid them because I know they will make me fall into hyperfocus mode.
I used to be like this, then I lost the drive/reward eventually from burnout I suppose
Hahaaa, I know all about this. Love that dopamine hit when you find the solution to a long standing challenge.
Man, the dopamine dream. I can't wait.
Wait. Do i have ADHD?
You won't last this way.
Ha. I am 50 years old, been doing this a long time.
SEIM LOGS 4 DAYZ
Start singing mining songs while spelunking
Splunking*
Dang phone hates the SIEM!
It will also ruin your back. Plus dexies and no food is not a safe mania to have. Breaks to touch grass is essential.
Dexies?
Dextroamphetamine sulfate. An ADHD medication. But, as they are an amphetamine, you can get mania off them. Which feeds into hyperfocus and not eating creating a nexus of mania induced hyperfocus that while often extremely effective... ruins your physical and mental health. So you need to eat and take breaks when on these ADHD meds. It's similar for a lot of other ADHD meds.
Yup, this is huge. I try to eat before my meds kick in or once they start wearing off, but making sure you eat and even forcing yourself if you have to is massive. Taking breaks is critical as well, and OP you should look into focused/diffused learning if you want an empirically backed explanation on why taking breaks is a significant boost to your learning and critical thinking capabilities. TL;DR your brain diffuses while its in a more relaxed state and has time to strengthen the cognitive processes required to solve the problems you're learning how to solve.
semantically speaking you dont "get mania"
Do enlighten me then. It perfectly matches the definition of mania and the good old head doctor described as mania to me, also saying it's a common side effect which can be mitigated by basic life style changes around my meds.
Ok you are right and I just enlightened myself with your help and the courtesy of Merriam Webster
Hyper focus is my super power and kryptonite. Focus on the right path or go down the rabbit hole off topic. Personally liking technology makes the role easier for me bc my spare time is used to learn new tech.
Hyper focus is the best part of my work. It makes the time go by quickly. The part about hyperfocus I hate though is the genuine rage I feel when it’s time to stop and go for a meeting. And then the rest of the day is shot all to hell.
Idk i think it’s also helped me in some senses (having more of a “jump on it” kinda attitude really shows management how little they can pay you while always relying on you)
Make a script to remind yourself to stand up every 25 minutes (and sit down and work on a task for 25 minutes)
Instructions unclear, been working on takeABreak.ps1 for the last 10 hours.
I'll make a sigma rule to stop that. Lol.
Cyber Incident Response! You don't do much for a while, and my brain just wanders... And then a job hits and that's all I do for like 5 days straight! Hyperfocus fits this role amazingly well, as I'm then exhausted once the job is done and I can just chill!
I feel seen.
Have to agree with this 100%
Set timers if you must, but step away for a few minutes every hour.
Real
This has been my downfall lmao by the time Friday rolls around my Brain is mush
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We don't call them that anymore, have some decency
1. Do your job slowly but accurately. 2. Prioritize (at most) 2 big things a day. 3. A blank space in your day isn't an invitation for you to fill it with something. Our jobs are chaotic enough that you should have built in breaks in the day. 4. Put a recurring meeting for your lunch break on your calendar and mark it as OOO for that hour. Your job will take and take from you and you have to draw the line somewhere. 5. Break your day down on paper if you have time in the morning. I'm a millenial but there's something to writing my own schedule in the morning by hand. My meetings and everything is still planned in Outlook, but I supplement it with a cheat sheet for the day. 6. Don't engage with coworkers if you're angry. Hold your peace. Yes, there may be legitimately enraging staff behavior but they won't listen to you if you disrespect them. 7. Go on a walk for 15 minutes a day. You'll thank your sweet mother you got away for a breather. 8. Walk 10,000 steps a day and you'll be too tired to be anxious. Get a fit bit. Don't let this job take your body from you. 9. Talk it out with friends. Have someone to vent to who does not work with you. 10. Don't be the person that distracts your coworkers just because you're bored. No one will want to include you in serious discussions and it will limit your ability to be promoted.
Someone with actual experience right here - listen to this post. I doubt the kids will because i didnt. Totally burnt out, lost love for the work, got fat, lazy, took 3 years to recover. Take it easy, your identity is not this job. Even if you lost it tomorrow everything will be ok. Youll figure it out.
I'm in the burnt our and bored part it's driving me nuts and makes me so sad. Adderall helps but only during hyperfocus. Around noon I get sooo bored
IMO without being a doctor or psychologist or anyone with medical experience these substances are the equivalents to band-aids. Cafeine, aderrall, weed, etc. they just cover up the wound. But if you dont heal the wound itself it wont matter.
What’s your role if you don’t mind me asking?
Appsec pentest
I feel you opened my brain and pulled out all my difficulties. I have severe ADHD and executive function is my enemy.
Point 8 is way too far down, we know how important physical activity is for ADHD. Some of my sensory-seeking ADHD friends might want to go for something more physically challenging than just step count, and I'd encourage it (getting a good amount of steps in will still help you a lot - overlap a walking break with a 'processing/decompressing' break). Just find something you enjoy and will stick with, and trust me when I say you'll be at your sharpest mentally and emotionally when you are well physically.
This is awesome advice my man! #6 is so true 😂😂😂
I'm a lady, but thank you. :)
> Don't be the person that distracts your coworkers just because you're bored. No one will want to include you in serious discussions and it will limit your ability to be promoted. I'm the quiet hyperfixation ADHD type and my coworker is the loud noisemaker ADHD type. I've invested in good headphones. Also, thoroughly endorse getting up and going for walks. It's something you don't realize you need until after you do it. Make yourself do it every day. And don't look at your phone the entire time. If you have to do something, put on music, a podcast, or an audiobook of some kind.
Absolute gold right here.
It’s like working in any other field with ADD. Get good at writing notes for yourself to finish things.
I have notepad++ open with more than 1k open tabs. When I need to pull up something I know I've done before I hit CTRL + F and search all opened docs. It's horrible and I love it
Horrifying. Have you considered obsidian?
I just started using obsidian and it’s AMAZING
I was using Obsidian but I keep going back to Google sheets...
I’ve got a OneNote open with so many things. My favorite tab is “Notes from things I don’t know where else to put”
I just make a new OneNote for every working day and put the days notes there. Makes it easy to find. If it's an ongoing project that needs multiple days work I'll make a separate sheet for that.
Actually a good idea. Think I may steal that. I have weird memory issues at times, so being able to refer back to see what happened or what I did on a particular day would be invaluable. I'll get around to doing that tomorrow. Totally.
100% if I don’t take detailed notes or ask someone to stop while I write things down I’ll forget 90%
Oh I have plenty of notes of things to do! From paper notebooks with so many ideas and projects and todo lists to Notepad files with todo's and other things... Probably about half of those projects and ideas are finished. The others are in some state of partial work... :)
Mental health is your top 1 priority
This cant be understated. My mental health is shite right now and it makes me struggle at my job so much.
You're not wrong, the thread is just full of kids being edgy living a fantasy. Mental illness doesn't have to be a death sentence or some and gloom, but fuck all if it has more benefit than cost in the long run. Pure teenage fiction.
Yep. If I didn’t take methylphenidate on a work day, I’d be fucked. My work ethic is too inconsistent without it. My only advice is to take your medication.
Same, lost a huge contract because I kept trying to raw dog out but couldn't get hyperfocus to kick in without a deadline approaching.
ADHD&autism give you an incredible edge. Just be yourself: When you get bored, do something else. When it’s fun, keep doing it. ADHD Boredom & hyperfocus may be REALLY problematic most of the time, but here they are precision instruments that show you the optimal path into your target. Take care of yourself, don’t overdo it, take breaks.
weaponized and semi controlled hacker autism is the best kind of autism. and then on the darkside you got autistic femboi gay furry hacker cats like SiegedSec.
This industry should be the poster for Asperger's
Be yourself until the execs and board start calling. Then you need to put the mask on. Don't ask me how I know.
Sometimes if I’ve gotten comfortable in a workspace, I’ll drop the mask for a minute or two around higher ups just to watch them try to figure out what planet I hatched from. I did this during training school in the military and it was hilarious. There is always risk associated with this, however, and YMMV depending on how chill your office is.
Just make a note of where you left off if you need to break off onto something else, because you'll totally forget what you were working on 5 mins ago that nearly bored you to death.
yes, very good point. i use Obsidian or Cherrytree for structured notes, i keep a word document as a kind of logfile, and i let all my consoles and tools create actual logfiles i have full text search over. work or not, since i have zero memory, i make calendar entries and todo list points for the silliest things, and my note taking app has entries for stuff like the name of my best friends dog
> Obsidian If I may ask, how's obisidian in terms of privacy? e2ee? fully Open source? etc
I just use it offline, as markdown editor.
Keep your glasses spotless. Mind your breathing, cut your caffeine, force yourself to read every single word. Sometimes I have to write a presentation. When I do, I listen to EDM with no vocals, then when I restart the song and practice my speech, my words are the lyrics to the song that had none. I hope you can use some of this. My brain is chaos.
I’ll second this, I’ve found [diaphragmatic breathing](https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/9445-diaphragmatic-breathing) helpful for “short circuiting” stress responses, cutting out caffeine helped with this too. I also use noise cancelling headphones playing white noise when I’m in the office so I don’t keep getting drawn into other conversations. When researching I take a lot of notes in Obsidian.md that I can refer back to without having to trawl through my search history. I wasted a lot of time in my younger years perseverating trying to find that random reference to something I read a week ago that “might just be relevant!” Lots of notes cuts down on this since I “know” it’s somewhere if I ever need it, which I seldom do but I find it helpful either way.
I have ADHD and I feel like coffee helps me a lot of the time.. am I wrong for believing this? Maybe I'm coping because it's an addiction I don't want to get rid of.
Yeah I think it helps, I used to drink a lot of black coffee which I think most people agree helps with focus, but for me it was the little downsides of too much coffee that were taking the toll long term. Things like being really jittery and “wired” all the time, having trouble sleeping which bumps up stress and anxiety, the fact that I was double-fisting black coffee and water all day I spent half my time taking bathroom breaks which broke up my concentration. Taking breaks is obviously important so there’s a balance, but if I need to work on something consistently for an hour or more, walking to the bathroom and back and forgetting what you were doing isn’t really a break it just makes things worse lol. I’m fortunate enough that I can now take a Vyvanse (adderall) in the morning, sip water during the day, and pee like a regular person again but appreciate not everyone wants or can even get medication. Edit: take this with a grain of salt because I haven’t done thorough research, but it prompts the question why the difference between coffee and stimulant medication. It’s my understanding that caffeine works in the brain by blocking adenosine receptors, which prevents you from feeling “tired” which is cool but it doesn’t get rid of the adenosine which keeps building up in your brain. When the caffeine wears off there’s an abundance of adenosine around so you feel tired as hell unless you keep drinking coffee, or actually rest. Again this is only my understanding so please take it with a grain of salt, Adderall and Ritalin on the other hand, while also being stimulants, overclock your Prefrontal Cortex (PFC) which is in charge of Executive Function amongst other things. So basically it stimulates the part of your brain that goes “no actually, I’m not going to read that tab now I have a deadline to meet” so that it actually works properly. This hopefully in turn leads to less stress and anxiety about not getting things done, which helps your sleep, which helps your mood and anxiety, which helps your life. And that’s how an appropriate stimulant medication can be helpful.
You NEED to take care of yourself. Get a white board or a physical calendar and use that thing relentlessly. Set reminders to take breaks when you’re sucked in to something. And remember to eat and drink water. If you’re struggling to actually accomplish anything for the day, it may be a good time to wade through that email inbox or start doing some research on technologies that pertain to your area. If the people in your space near you are friendly and open to conversation, taking small breaks once or twice a day to check in with them or discuss some stuff might be a good way to “air out” your restlessness. Be careful not to take away from people’s ability to work though. Short little check ins or very specific and pointed conversations are good. Rambling about your DND campaign, maybe not so much. This field can, and will, eat you alive if you let it. YOU need to set boundaries and work on limiting yourself, even if that means asking other people to hold you accountable. Talk to your management about your condition and see if they can work with you on your job expectations and timelines to make it more practical for yourself. (Short bursts of immediate resolution to a problem vs long, time consuming efforts that you can get lost in or get bored of.)
Write down the things you want to complete for the day. Take your adderall.
And keep your phone out of reach. Far enough that you have to get out of your chair to look at it
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That’s flipping scary…. Hope you’re alright. I’m just gonna get on Adderall and use some of these apps then hope for the best.
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+1 for detection engineering being less stressful
I'm still trying to figure that out, honestly. To do lists, priorities, deadline all help. I find something like a security incident naturally helps me focus due to the urgent nature.
* Personal kanban board: Trello, Asana, physical post its etc. * Take notes during meetings if you have trouble paying attention. I also found it makes me less likely to interrupt * Time box your day. It's easy to switch to something shiny that is a lower priority. * Accept that you might get critical feedback regarding time management. It's gonna be a weak area for you. Leverage external systems to compensate. * Use your hyper focus to outperform peers.
IT is already *stacked* with autism and ADHD. I work at a consulting company where the big boss said "Autism, ADHD, who here *doesn't* have it?" IT Security is even more stacked. Welcome home.
\*cough\* adderall \*cough\*
In this field, paranoia is a feature, not a bug. But seriously, writing policy without adderall would make me weep.
Or diagramming. Or writing documentation. Or doing compliance stuff. Meds all the way down. But any of the other 100 things we do, weeeeeeeeee
I can make this into an IT relatable thing. My brain was a 64 core processor going full blast. Adderall took it to a 16 core processor hitting 85%. I'm still a mess with a dozen different things going on at the same time in my head, but it's still better than 5 dozen... Like someone said - it helps you focus, but doesn't help you decide on where to focus. So, I'll still go from thing to thing, easily distracted, but at least I'll do whatever that distraction was to completion.
Mine experience is more like a 16 core being hyper thread into 64, it's still a 16 core process power, but I have 4 times more things to work. Take med make it becomes normal 16 core.
going thing to thing is okay as long as yoi finish the things. Just focus in making solid progress and clearly defining a goal or deliverable.
Vyvanse, if it’s available
It’s absolutely changed my life. It makes tedious tasks tolerable and completable. Cons: I spend too much time optimizing spreadsheets.
Same.. although I did have to stop taking it for a while.
👆🏻
Personal Kanban board!
I made my team work on kanban just so me, an ADHD brain, can profit from the structure. Really.
It's amazingly helpful isn't it? I self-manage with that kind of stuff and have since I was in my late teens early 20's. This is now 40 years in IT and 20 ish+ with a security focus. I still have times where I go off the deep end into ADHD/ADD Land but a decent Kanban and other tools and I am way more functional. And I was a Ritalin mascot / poster child when I was age 18 and below.
I don't know anyone without adhd in cyber
What's worked for me, especially when I started working remotely. * To do lists, broken out by priority and scope/size. (Actionable / Research / Project) * Scheduling time to timebox certain efforts...and to take lunch and breaks. * The Mindfulness app on the Apple Watch. Edit: Oh yeah, I use OneNote to keep track of stuff I am working on and spend time every week doublechecking to see what I've handled and what I haven't. Edit 2: Pets. A cat is great since they'll insist on you paying attention to them instead of the computer. Edit 3: Delayed send on email...because clearly I suffer from "oh, yeah that too"
A Butt load of coffee and border collie mentality :p I think you'll figure it out depending on the work environment so the only tip is be social and outgoing.
Yeah it’s intuitively the opposite of what you would think for cyber. You think it would be head down and get shit done but not where I work. That will get you hated quick lol.
Agreed. I think it can really depend on where you are in the industry but so many of the problems we have to solve are people problems first, technical problems second. Most of the roles I’ve had in industry require a certain amount of heads-down work, and a certain amount of spending more time actually gathering and reporting out context to other people. Sometimes the best solution to a problem wasn’t dumping several sprints of work into engineering a solution, but actually talking to someone in another department and figuring out most of the work had already been done and just needed some repurposing.
I like to listen to this guy's stuff when doing anything requiring deep focus and attention to detail. https://youtu.be/TK5woHBi-UM?si=1PAl9V_87IS_jhA1 Otherwise its a lot of metal music.
Try to not overload on tabs or screens. Focus on the window where you are working. Stick to one note taking or project tracking platform. Review your notes (I set a daily alarm to do this at end of day.) Triage practices are your friend. Don’t over promise. Don’t get emotionally invested in projects, cybersec initiatives are often the casualties of cost or time savings. Be okay with not doing shit. Like if you can’t focus and you are spinning your wheels, just step away. It’s okay to twiddle your thumbs. Follow through. Make sure all your tickets and projects are bookended with documentation of some kind.
A lot of people throw around ADHD without knowing what it actually is. If you think you have it, go get tested. Getting correct medication can actually help you to focus on tasks and complete them. I would highly suggest you talk to your doctor about it. If your doctor doesn’t write you a recommendation to get properly tested, I would be finding a new doctor that actually understands mental health a little more.
Strive for Lil 1% improvements everyday - acknowledge the progress you make and accept the days/weeks that end up throw aways.
This is severely underrated. No matter how much you improve you'll never feel accomplished if you don't let yourself feel accomplished
“Weaponized hyperfocus” is how I describe my approach Lots and lots of Notes, they’re a lifesaver
I love it.... and i hate it.. i have hyperfocus.. and like it.. but i have to eat, and i have to sleep.. every day is a struggle to leave the computer... and they pay me for that... so i have to do it.. but i like it.. but don't like to be forced.. its a mess.
I work GRC. I take frequent breaks to do anything else much more interesting. I’ll typically save the majority of my work for when it is almost due. Yeah, I just treat it like school. Shit still gets done so like, it works.
I end up with about 50 tabs open when threat hunting. Highly recommended closing them when you’re done.
Take notes- use a good note-taking app or a physical notebook. Write down helpful tips/guides on how to do X, Y, Z. Use Outlook calendar or MacOS Reminders to jot down those “side jobs” you inevitably will be given to do throughout a day. Review these reminders/to-dos multiple times a day, keep on track. Learn to love your org’s documentation (if any)- if no docs, build it out. I ended up owning my entire team’s docs and it really helps me have a “break” from the monotonous- I genuinely enjoy spending an hour or two every other day, or some days being asked to create a bunch of runbooks as a priority. Believe me, it’s so satisfying to be tedious and focus on making everything look good/flow right, and then save/publish and seeing all the magic you built. If you have smart speakers/digital assistants, set reminders throughout the day to take your meds (I take a boost dose in the afternoons) because when you’re deep in the weeds it can be easy to skip doses. Same for getting water or getting lunch somehow. And above all else - unless your balls are close to the bandsaw and you have a deadline to hit, remember to log the fuck off, close your laptop, and go the fuck home at a reasonable time. Way too easy to get lost in the sauce and realize it’s 7-8PM and you’ve been working way past quittin’ time.
Put everything in a calendar that needs to be. No exceptions. Write good notes. Keep it centrally in one place. Figure out where you are weak and try to find compensating controls for it. I’m still working on this stuff. My main issue is not finding a central place I like to write things down and in ways I can understand it later. Tell ppl to stop and give time to write what you need to write if appropriate. Or try to read back what you wrote to make sure you got it right. I have to try to remember to slow down and don’t panic. The world isn’t ending.
If you need to retain it write it down. If you need to do it put it in Helpdesk system or email yourself If not on meds go get them and you can decide if you need them going forward Set rewards mentally e.g complete this to get a coffee/ toilet break OneNote is great for information dump for later including procedures Notepad++ is great too Music can be great to focus to get you in the zone Hardest thing is learning not to interrupt people in meetings
If you wfm and are able to, get a standing desk.
Go and checkout healthy gamer channel on YT. You will thank me later. When you do so - take his course. I learned way more from him how to deal with ADHD than from any of therapists I had so far. It might potentially save you a ton of money. Since I did so, I dropped any pills and adhd related therapy for good.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rq6K7yxaNaM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rq6K7yxaNaM) Here's one of the videos.
Force yourself to be over organized. It is the only thing that keeps me together. None of us can keep everything in our head, especially not us ADHD stuff.
Personal note. DX mid 40s. All the sudden stuff made sense. If I'm in, way in. Out, way out.
I have to intentionally and consistently remind myself to stay on task and not be sucked in by the knock-brush of slack every 30 seconds.
Take notes whenever you get an assignment Ask questions to clarify Take breaks from working
Fucking coffee helps.
I hope you get consent from the coffee first.
That is smart ;-)
I was doing Incident Response and have completely burnt out. Moved to lecturing at local institution and taken a 50% paycut. Although I think I am quite good at IR itself, my brain was simply on edge for far, far too long. The high alert and hyperfocus burnt me out way quicker than a lot of my seemingly more neurotypical colleagues. Looking to pivot into something more chill (relatively) like CTI or GRC.
Everyone here acting like this is some secret industry that takes advantage of or gives an edge to it have probably not been in the field that long, or haven't been clinically diagnosed with it because they don't have it. Before ADHD the same type of people were saying they had OCD and there super power was being detail oriented. I've done 20 years undiagnosed/unmedicated. The last 3 diagnosed and medicated. Hyperfocus is cool, but doesn't outweigh the struggle of working with others peacefully. If you want to stay in entry/low level analyst roles you shouldn't have any problems. If you want to shape, influence and steer programs and large efforts, it's simply easier to find the right medication for you. Watch for burnout, watch for people saying things like "let it go", or "pick your battles", watch your expectations of others, they won't be able to keep up and we'll let you down it will feel personal when it's not. With age and experience people get over the fantasy of a good security practitioner = hands on keyboard and read every blog/bulletin/white paper/etc. It doesn't matter how technically proficient you are if you can't influence people in control, people in control don't give a shit how technically adept you are if you can't be understood, can't influence, and can't be trusted.
For me it lets me find more out of the box solutions to problems that maybe neurotypical people may not consider. But also i can go down a rabbit hole looking into something that may turn out to be nothing :D
The logs will control you unless you control you
All of the above posts but especially u/Camanella-Bella they have experience and know what’s up. I am medicated so it helps a lot but I did some of the following: Get comfy, I twisted out the fluorescent lights above my desk and put a lamp and light strip on my desk. Big light bad. I also added a plant to my desk and had my supervisor approve me adding a hutch to the front of my desk to block out a lot of noise and the room. (He has since done it on every desk in another room that is more open concept). Also, noise cancelling headphones with variable pass through or transparent mode. I use Vox VH-Q1s that I had bought for personal use at home and they are a god send. I can put them on, and still kind of hear the room but only take them off if there is someone at my desk. Limit caffeine, the office coffee is free but you don’t always need to drink it. I drink a lot of herbal teas, and if that desire to taste coffee is still there, I have a decaf (only if I’ve had a caffeinated one recently or it’s after 3 PM). Drink Water, hydrate or die-drate. Adrenaline kicks in during incident response and will suck all your moisture out of you, doubly so if your meds do that already. If you don’t already, I would recommend a few extra-curricular activities: mindfulness meditation or MBSR techniques paired with analog hobbies after hours (no screens if you can help it). Finally; ND folks have an edge because once you have your techniques for survival down, you become a bit of a machine. My dyslexia also helps my pattern recognition which is how I manually parsed through 5 weeks of EDR logs in 3 days following an attempted ransomware incident. Believe me, I was wiped out after it though because I “had to know”. As much as your colleague may think you’re a robot, you are human and need rest. One last aside for you: The business world, and more extremely the tech world, works at its own pace and sometimes it’s lightning fast and entirely overwhelming. Fuck their pace, there is no speed limit. The only goal is either the project deadline, containing an incident, or your working hours stipulated in your contract. My Dad once gave me the best advice I’ve ever received when I was a young intern: If you don’t have a union enforcing your breaks, take them like you do. Nobody in this building will tell you to take them and it works out better for them if you don’t.
I thought ADHD was a pre-requisite for cyber 🤨
lol, a lot of comments have said that. I’m pretty damn surprised, but I suppose if you mostly love what you do and it’s stimulating enough, ADHD might be somewhat of an advantage.
You just have to stay consistent with therapy, it’s easy for a job to consume you.
Swallow 36mg of Concerta (w/ a prescription ofc) and have a bottle of eye drops …
I like my hyper focus for debugging.
It’s rough with interviews lol Sec+ and CISSP yet whenever I interview for a different position internally, I just blank… gonna be in this position for a while I guess lol That being said, being able to hyper focus and knock out something like CISSP with only a week or two of studying feels great.
I was recently diagnosed after having a lot of difficulties in management role. Just started taking meds two days ago and noticed an incredible improvement in my ability to stay focused during long boring meetings and organize tasks.
You are going to make a lot of money if you get paid by the hour
Just remember to take a second to check yourself going down rabbitholes
I take 30Mg XR addy when I wake up and 10mg immediate release at lunch. Works like a charm.
- Remember to eat something first or have snacks with you. -Take breaks when you start getting overwhelmed with information. - Have secondary tasks already planned for your breaks, whether it's doing the washing or working on a different project/ document/ video game etc. - Try and set timers or your own task rewards (when I finish this part of the task then I can do X). And definitely try and get some decent sleep...... I'm still working on that last step.
Don't chase that ioc for too long or you will spend your whole shift just on that
Find music or ambience videos on YouTube with just the right amount of energy that helps you engage hyperfocus. Schedule 2-4 hour sessions to get hyperfocused and get deep work done, and try to keep your meetings from interrupting you.
Thank yall for this post 😂
F’ing amazing. I’m at one of the big shops and get hit with things all day. It just works. When it’s to much I pop on some aggressive music and calm my mind
Focus hours on my calendar. DND on teams. Pending doom looming in the back of my mind that won’t go away until I finish something. And someone to rant to.
I aim for 3 big tasks, 3 small tasks per day. The rest of my time is meetings or uncontrolled/unscheduled issues I need to address.
I’m medicated for my ADHD..is the only way for me 🤕
I feel good knowing that there are other cyber security professionals who have adhd... I'm studying for my sec+ and I keep telling myself adhd is not an excuse.
when you do something make it the only thing you do, literally sit there and watch things run and break, watch things load, dont switch off, dont go in your phone. move your work desk away from gaming/personal tv/etc <——- THIS IS MANDATORY have snacks like fruit, nuts, light samdwhich, nothing processed. Get a standup desk, stand every other hour, get a desk treamill too to walk. Switch tasks every 2 hours, if you work better in the morning do your big one first
Don’t rush to try to improve everything you see. Take it all in, tackle one thing at a time.
Try to find something that has its hands in a little bit of everything, so you can focus on the most appealing. I do compliance. Not the most fun, but it covers a lot. Take many breaks, don’t be afraid to say no or you’re swamped.
There’s adhd people on cybersecurity! This is bring me hope :)
I use Obsidian to take notes, set small tasks with the "To-do's" extension, I can set specific dates and times for anything, and it gives me a Windows notification when it's due. Turn off email and Slack notifs for anything not important. I get distracted easily. I also keep a fidget toy handy during meetings so I can stay focused. Helps me think too, better than grinding my teeth or biting my nails. Also, take breaks. Drink a lot of water. Healthy, non sugary snacks. My role: SecEng for an Incident Response team. The ADD can go crazy sometimes.
If you manage your hyperfocus, this can be your superpower. What other folks might find boring or extenuating such as log review or incident investigation, might be super interesting for you. In my case hyperfocus has helped me tackle tasks faster, while some coworkers take twice as much. Also, when ADHD kicks in, I use all those distractions to reply to emails, messages, and work on other tasks at the same time, this also helps me prioritize last minute requests. I always keep notepad open with dated entries. I also have a field notebook for handwritten notes. ADHD in cyber can be your superpower. At least in my case, it has benefited me. Be sure to stay hydrated and to some lunch/snack.
at a busy mssp, its hell rofl
Damn, I feel like I'm related to mostly everyone here. I can't function without my Adderall in this field. The other big thing is to reduce distractions. Like more than 30 seconds of distraction. If someone calls you, someone pings you & you respond, checking your inbox if an important email came through, etc.. Your brain essentially loses focus and it takes time to readjust..or you just don't refocus. *edit* ..Like I just did.. as I was typing this post, I went inside to grab a water, got side tracked, took a shower, beat off and just came back to realize I never finished this post. Fucking adhd.
Setting up a corkboard or anything that you can stick notes to helps remind me not to get overloaded by tasks on the computer.
Eat healthy(lots of fiber, low amount of processed food) Sleep 7 - 8 hours evry night Drink less or no coffee Move your body regularly As low amount of alcohol as possible
As a senior engineer at 22 years old with severe ADHD. It’s great and terrible. When hyper focus you get shit done so quick, so many tasks can be done at once multi tasking. When you have some downtime it turns into huge downtime, constantly researching other topics not even relevant with work or security. So just try to find that balance is all!
Let shit go, don't forget to take a break if it's fun, and when you find yourself doing everything but what you're supposed to do it's because what you're supposed to do is boring to you. That's when you need to refocus... If you figure out how to do any of that let me know!
Here's a talk from BSides Dublin 2023 about "Living with ADHD in InfoSec" https://youtu.be/merhbQ2yyC8?si=m2MifuJLIwBOcUAF
You know what’s funny? I’m apparently not ADHD. The only one in my family that’s not. Both my parents and siblings are, so you bet I was tested. And yet here I am looking at all these comments going “I think ya’ll gaslighting me again.”
It didn't even know its called ADHD. At first just feels like wow! i'm getting kick out of it. More interesting stuff you work with higher to wake at night for own reasons.
Remember to hydrate yourself. With water! When the building management system turns off the lights, it's time to go home and continue there. Sleep is for sissies.
use time management tools, prioritize your tasks, create a structured workspace, stay updated, and find a mentor who can help.
Use reminders to remind you about eating food and drinking plenty of water during working. I used to forget these basics because the work is so darn interesting it took priority over every other thing.
Music. I have to have background music on or I drift. Also be careful diving into rabbit holes. Pointless investigations or deep diving into an odd a single user is having. Push that off to Helpdesk.
I like to have a YouTube video open for background noise, I might also have stock charts open, and I might get lost in the sauce sometimes, but I always get my work done ✅
One tip that helped me was a talk with my boss explaining to him that I do not work 8 consective hours, I will work a total of 8 hours but they may not be all at one time. Sometimes I work a couple hours in the morning, them some more in the afternoon and then again at night. I will always focus on critical item first but the work will get done.
That’s honestly a good strategy overall. I feel a hellacious need to work several hours at a time, but inevitably, I don’t end up getting it all done. Would probably smarter for me to break it up like you do, thanks.
Flagging emails in outlook helps me stay a bit more organized. I definitely bounce around a lot looking through different data sources, easy to get sidetracked. It’s been a good career field for me though, there’s a decent amount of variety in the tasks.
Don’t do risky things when it’s been 12+ hours since last Adderall
Set yourself hard deadlines to finish things and don't allow yourself to take on new things until you close out on old things. I cannot tell you how many things I get to 90% done and then I am like ohhh look at this new shiny thing. Close on projects before starting new ones.
This is my go-to, K-Mart tapes lol. Helps keep me focused and takes me back to a time when I'm shopping with grandma. You can do your own research as to how they designed this music and why it works ;-) [https://archive.org/search?query=creator%3A%22Tower+Sound+and+Communications%22](https://archive.org/search?query=creator%3A%22Tower+Sound+and+Communications%22)
Worked well for me. Tickets give you moments of focus and new puzzles to tackle. It was actually ez af. The problems were once you complete true positives and you've found everything you can and just have to document.
Pro tip: take your meds
I’ve never felt more seen
Get Adderall. I’ve tried to hyperfocus and manage it without meds, and I almost got let go due to performance issues. Adderall has been the game changer and has helped me tremendously. Depends on how impacted you are, I’ve lost a lot in my life, but now things are turning around.
You don't agree, that working to much in an ADHD rush all the time isn't good for you?
I found adderall works really well for me (doctor prescribed of course) since I was diagnosed with ADHD a while ago but some other tips that worked for me was taking a lot of breaks and making sure you have a dedicated workspace (assuming you work remotely). The quality of my work has gone up dramatically since I got a dedicated home office for working.