It has taken me quite a few months to work on this project. It’s not because it’s a difficult coding project. It’s not because I only code on the weekends during the school year. In fact, there’s only one reason that gets in the way of me completing my projects at a quicker pace: It’s my ADHD. 🙄
First, let me tell you my background…
I started learning about web design and computer coding while teaching second grade in 2011. A parent asked me to get involved with the Hour of Code. I went to the training at Code.org in NYC. After learning how to teach coding to children I was hooked. I decided that my bonus career after teaching would be web design. Well, 11 years later, I’m now a self-taught web developer and in my 30th year of teaching. I’m ready to take that leap into early retirement and hopefully into my new career in web design.
Now back to the ADHD…
My coding journey has not been easy. I have fought through periods of self-doubt and frustration when concepts I thought I understood quickly left my brain. There were many times in the beginning where I would start my coding file over because I got stuck on one vision and lost my way. This happened recently with my Scoot project for Frontend Mentor (FM).
When I initially started working on the project, I was moving along at good pace. Then I got sidetracked by some ‘div’ or element and I lost my focus. I started to second guess the choices I made for coding— using regular HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Should I have used Bootstrap and SCSS/Sass instead? 😳
Ughhh!
This is why I decided to put my frustration out into the universe. I know I’m not the only web designer/developer with ADHD. Decision making is one of my weak areas. I can easily get caught in a color palette rabbit hole and still emerge an hour later with multiple choices. Sigh… I don’t have the answers for how to make my ADHD behave (unfortunately, I can’t take the medicine). I would love to hear from other web developers who have similar issues.
Thankfully I’m back on track and close to completing this project. In fact during the time it’s taken me to write this blog post, I finished another FM project. Check out my React JS Todo List here.
Happy Coding!
BovaryCee 
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