[clay_the_ripper]

I can relate to this, especially on a side project where there is no one looking over your shoulder or holding you to a deadline, it’s very easy to spend too much time on the wrong things.

The stress you feel is the feeling of not having enough time to actually do the thing you’re wanting to do. But it’s important to recognize that the reason you don’t have enough time is because the thing you are working on, will not move the needle on the side project.

Deep down you know this, but it doesn’t matter because it’s hard to stop when you get stressed and emotionally deregulated. This is a very common trait in ADHD.

When I start to feel that stress, I typically will try to force myself to step away from whatever I am doing and take a five minute break. After I take a break if I still want to work on whatever it is, I force myself to put an end time on it, and also to relate the task back to a larger goal that will move the needle on my project. If I can’t do either of those things, then I stop the task. Hope it can help, it’s not easy.

See if you can get yourself obsessed with working on things that will move the needle like a new feature instead of rewriting old code.