I have ADHD. Not the cute "oh look a squirrel" kind. The kind where I hyperfocus for 6 hours on the wrong thing, emerge disoriented, and realize I missed the actual deadline.
For 15 years I built automation systems for startups. I built the tools everyone else used to stay organized. Meanwhile I couldn't switch from "code mode" to "email mode" without a 45-minute existential crisis.
Last year I tracked my time for one week. The results:
I was losing 5 hours a day to the space between tasks. Not the tasks themselves. The transitions.
What finally worked was treating transitions as a system design problem, not a willpower problem.
I call it the Context Switch Protocol. Five components:
Before switching, plant an anchor. One sentence about where you're stopping. A timer for when you'll return. A physical object on your keyboard. The anchor reduces re-entry cost from 20 minutes to 30 seconds.
A 3-minute sequence: stand, drink water, walk to a different room, state the next task aloud, sit in a different position. This is the clutch. Your nervous system needs a signal that "we are shifting now."
Your environment encodes your task. Different browser profile for different projects. Different playlist for different energy states. Different lighting for different times. The brain reads the room before it reads the task.
Track for one week: when do you peak? What drains you? What energizes you? Schedule hard transitions during high-energy windows. Don't fight your biology. Use it.
After a hard switch: 5 minutes of nothing. One song. One sentence of gratitude. Without recovery, each transition gets harder. With recovery, they get easier.
After 6 months:
I didn't work harder. I stopped losing time to the space between.
I turned the protocol into a guide for other builders with ADHD. The actual system I use every day, with emergency protocols for when you're stuck in hyperfocus on the wrong thing, when you can't start the important thing, and when you need to switch from creative to administrative.
$7. One-time. 30-day refund if it doesn't change how you work.
Get the ADHD Context Switch Guide →