u/trioh281jsnf

Solo founder here. Was spending my evenings typing client follow ups and meeting notes instead of doing literally anything else. It was eating into everything.

Started dictating about 6 months ago. Took maybe a week to not feel weird talking to my computer. Now I draft emails in like 30 seconds instead of 5 minutes. Meeting recaps happen right after the call while I still remember what we talked about instead of hours later. I talk through project specs and clean them up after.

Talking through problems out loud makes the thinking faster too. Stuff I'd spin my wheels on in writing just comes out cleaner when I say it.

It's not perfect. Sometimes you get garbage transcriptions and have to retype stuff. And you look ridiculous talking to your monitor in a coffee shop. But the time trade off is worth it.

If you type all day and haven't tried it yet, grab a free trial somewhere. Worst case you're out ten minutes.

Diagnosed with ADHD at 33. Turns out my keyboard was the bottleneck.

I figured I was just lazy. Got diagnosed three months ago, started meds two months ago, and suddenly a lot of stuff clicked.

I'm a dev. For years my coding sessions looked like this: sit down, open the file, write three lines, get distracted, come back, re-read everything, write two more lines, repeat. I'd spend four hours and get less done than in one focused hour.

I blamed my setup, my environment, my willpower. The usual advice was useless. "Make a list." I have lists of lists. "Pomodoro." Great, now I'm getting interrupted by a timer too. "Just focus." Thanks, cured.

What actually helped? Three things.

Whiteboard next to my desk. When my brain is jumping between three bugs at once, I dump it on the board. Not to organize it, just to get it out of my head. Later I look at it and figure out what actually needs fixing.

Voice memos. If an idea hits while I'm walking or making coffee, I hit record instead of telling myself "I'll remember this." I won't. Now I've got a folder full of messy recordings I process once a day.

Dictation for actual coding-adjacent work. This was the big one. Writing docs, PR descriptions, Slack messages, any kind of prose, typing was the bottleneck. By the time my fingers caught up to my brain, the thought was gone or I'd clicked into something else. Formatting, fixing typos, switching to the right window, all of that gave my brain room to wander off.

So I started talking instead. Simple workflow: say the idea, don't edit, clean it up later. Half sentences. Tangents. "Scratch that." If I try to make it sound good on the first pass, I lose the thread entirely.

What I use: Apple Dictation for quick stuff. Otter for meetings. And I built my own tool, DictaFlow, because most dictation apps paste text, and that doesn't work in the locked-down remote desktops I deal with.

The result isn't that I'm suddenly a 10x dev. I just don't lose ideas anymore. The gap between thinking and capturing got smaller, and that made more difference than any productivity system I've tried. Meds helped with the focus piece, but the capture piece was a separate problem no pill was gonna solve.

If your brain runs faster than your hands, try getting it out first and cleaning it up later. Whiteboard, voice memo, dictation, whatever.

33 yrs young, got diagnosed with ADHD about six months ago. I've been a developer for years, and honestly, the diagnosis explained a lot of things I used to think were personal failures.

The biggest one: I'd sit down to code, have the whole idea in my head, start typing, and lose it halfway through. My brain moved faster than my fingers. Then I'd stare at a half-finished function, open a tab to look something up, open another tab, and 40 minutes later the original thread was gone.

Here's what I've been trying that's actually helped. Not saying it works for everyone.

Stop waiting for the "right brain state"
This one took me way too long to internalize. I kept waiting until I felt focused and ready before starting anything. That feeling never shows up. What works is starting when it feels wrong. 2 to 5 minute sprints. Even if the first few minutes are garbage, just getting moving usually kicks things into gear. Momentum matters, annoying as that is.

Dictation for first drafts
Typing is serial, thought to fingers to keys to text. My ADHD brain is parallel, it's already three thoughts ahead while my hands are still on the first one. Speaking closes that gap. I dictate the rough version of whatever I'm working on, emails, docs, code comments, sometimes pseudocode, then clean it up after. The cleanup part uses a different mental mode, and my brain handles that better.

Tools I use:
- Apple Dictation for quick one-liners. Built in, free, fine.
- DictaFlow ($7/mo) for actual writing sessions. Hold a hotkey, talk, release, text appears wherever the cursor is. No switching apps, which is huge because context switching wrecks me. The mid-sentence voice correction feature helps too, I go off on tangents mid-sentence constantly so being able to correct by voice instead of grabbing the keyboard saves me from losing the thread.
- Voice In (Chrome extension) when I'm working in Google Docs or web forms.

Externalizing everything!!!
If I don't write it down, it doesn't exist. I use Obsidian for notes and a physical notebook for daily task lists that I cross off by hand. Something about physically crossing items off works better than checking digital boxes. My working memory is basically a buffer that flushes every 30 seconds, so external systems aren't optional.

Body doubling
Working in the same room as another person, even if we're not collaborating. Coffee shops work for this. So do co-working spaces. The social pressure of someone else being productive nearby keeps me from opening the 15th tab. I know this sounds like a cliché ADHD tip, but it's a cliché because it works.

Medication
Not going to give medical advice, but starting Vyvanse changed things. Not a silver bullet, but it raised my floor. The bad days aren't as bad.

Feels like half of us are running the same experiments in parallel, trying to figure out what sticks. What's helped other ADHD devs here?

Been using Obsidian for about two years now. Daily notes, project docs, the usual stuff. One thing that kept annoying me was how clunky it is to get thoughts into Obsidian when I'm away from my desk, or when I just don't feel like typing.

I tried a few things. The mobile app keyboard is fine for short entries, but writing long notes on a phone is a slog. Voice memos to text worked okay, but it added friction, record, transcribe, copy, paste, format. Too many steps.

What I ended up with is dictation that types straight into Obsidian at my cursor.

On desktop I use DictaFlow ($7/mo, free local tier available). I hold a hotkey, speak, let go, and the text shows up wherever my cursor is in Obsidian. It works in edit mode and preview mode. No copy-paste, no app switching, no breaking the flow.

The feature I didn't expect to use all the time: mid-sentence correction by voice. If I mess up a word while dictating a long note, I say a correction phrase and it deletes back and retypes without me touching the keyboard. Sounds minor, but when you're dictating a full daily note or project writeup, it saves a ton of interruptions.

On mobile I just use Apple Dictation for quick capture. Not ideal, but fine for one-liners.

Other tools I've seen people use: Talon for power users, which has a steeper learning curve, Voice In for Chrome if you're taking notes in the browser, and Wispr Flow ($18/mo) if you're Mac only.

Not trying to sell anything. Just sharing the workflow, since Obsidian is my main thinking tool and getting text into it faster made a real difference in how much I actually write versus how much I mean to write. What dictation or voice-to-text setups are other Obsidian users running?

I got diagnosed with carpal tunnel about 18 months ago. Numbness in my thumb and first two fingers, burning at night, the whole mess. Working as a software developer meant I couldn't just stop using my hands.

Here's what actually helped me. Not medical advice, just what worked after a lot of trial and error.

Night splints
This was the first thing my doctor suggested and honestly I should've done it sooner. I wore rigid wrist splints on both hands while sleeping. It took about two weeks before the nighttime burning stopped. I hated them at first, felt like I was sleeping in handcuffs, but they made more difference than anything else I tried.

Nerve glides
Three times a day. Takes maybe two minutes. The basic one where you make a fist, extend your fingers, bend your wrist back, then extend your thumb. There are a bunch of variations online. The key for me was doing them consistently, not just when the pain flared up.

Ergonomics I actually stuck with
Split keyboard, Kinesis Freestyle, and a vertical mouse. Monitor at eye level so I'm not craning my neck forward. Nothing fancy, but the split keyboard especially meant I could keep my wrists flat instead of angled inward.

Breaks that aren't just scrolling on my phone
Timer on my desk, 25 minutes on, 5 off. During the 5 minutes I stand up and move. Not scrolling. Not "resting my hands" while doomscrolling Twitter. Actually getting up. It sounds too basic to matter, but it stopped the pain from piling up over the course of a day.

Dictation, not a replacement, just fewer keystrokes
This one surprised me. I wasn't expecting voice typing to help as much as it did. I use a few different tools:

Apple Dictation for quick messages, it's built in and free.

Tried Dragon, but it's expensive and honestly felt like software from 2010.

Tried Wispr Flow ($18/mo). Worked fine in normal apps, but the paste-based insertion broke constantly on remote desktop sessions I use for client work.

What I use most now is DictaFlow ($7/mo). Hold a hotkey, talk, release, text shows up at your cursor. The feature I didn't know I needed is mid-sentence correction by voice, if you stumble over a word you say a correction phrase and it deletes back and retypes without touching the keyboard.

I also use Voice In (Chrome extension, free tier) for web-based stuff like Google Docs.

I'm not replacing typing. I still type. But cutting daily keystrokes by half gave my wrists enough recovery time between sessions that the numbness stopped creeping back. That was the real win.

About 6 months to feel mostly normal
The first month I noticed no change and almost gave up on the whole routine. By month three the nighttime numbness was mostly gone. By month six I could work a full day without thinking about my hands. I still wear the night splints. Still do the nerve glides. Still use dictation. It's maintenance now.

What's worked for everyone else here? Carpal tunnel seems to hit everyone different, what combo of things actually stuck for you?

Long time lurker here...my wrists were basically wrecked about a year ago. I'm a developer, typing 10+ hours a day. Sharp burning in both forearms, and some mornings I couldn't even hold a coffee mug without flinching.

Here's what actually made a difference for me. I'm not saying it'll work for everyone, but after a year of trial and error, this is what got me from daily 3/10 pain to basically nothing.

Exercises that helped
Tendon glides first thing in the morning. Three sets of 10. It took about a month before I noticed anything. I also did wrist flexor stretches, the kind where you extend your arm palm up and pull back on your fingers with the other hand. Prayer stretches too. I do all of these 2-3 times a day now, and it takes maybe 3 minutes total.

What I changed at my desk
I got a split keyboard, the Kinesis Freestyle. That was the biggest hardware fix by far. It took me about two weeks to adjust to the layout, but my wrist angle is way more natural now. I also switched to a vertical mouse, and raised my monitor so I'm not hunching forward.

The thing nobody told me about breaks
I used to power through 3-4 hours without moving. Now I use a timer, 25 minutes on, 5 off. During those 5 minutes I actually stand up and walk around. Not just scroll on my phone. It sounds stupidly simple, but it made a real difference in how my hands felt by 3pm.

Dictation, the part I didn't expect to help as much as it did
I was skeptical about voice typing at first, but it ended up cutting my daily keystrokes by maybe 50-60%. That gave my hands enough recovery time between typing sessions that the pain stopped piling up.

I use a few different tools depending on what I'm doing:

For quick stuff like Slack messages or one-line replies I just use Apple Dictation. It's built in, fine for short bursts, not worth paying for.

For longer writing, emails, docs, code comments, I switched between a couple. Wispr Flow ($18/mo) is solid, but the paste-based insertion broke on remote desktop sessions I use for client work. Talon is powerful but has a steeper learning curve than I had patience for.

What I use most now is DictaFlow ($7/mo). Hold a hotkey and talk, release and it types wherever your cursor is. The feature that actually made it stick, if you mess up mid-sentence you say a correction word and it deletes back and retypes by voice. Sounds minor, but when you're dictating a whole email it saves you from grabbing the keyboard constantly.

There's also Voice In, a Chrome extension with a free tier, which I use specifically for web forms and Google Docs. Different tool, different job.

None of this replaces typing. I still type. But spreading the load across my voice and hands meant I wasn't hammering the same tendons for 10 hours straight.

Took about 4 months to feel normal-ish
The first month nothing changed. The second month I noticed I wasn't wincing in the morning. By month four I could do a full workday without thinking about my hands. I still do the stretches. I still use dictation. It's maintenance now, not emergency repair.

What's worked for other people here? Everyone's RSI is different, so what combo of things worked best for you?

I've been working remotely and traveling for about two years now. Cafes, co-working spaces, airport lounges, sometimes just a hostel common room. And one thing kept coming up: typing is awkward in half these setups. Tiny tables. Loud neighbors. Laptop on my knees. Every time I tried dictation, it fell apart.

Most dictation apps paste text. When you're bouncing between VPNs, remote desktops, and different wifi networks across five countries, paste gets blocked all the time. I'd dictate a whole email, hit insert, and nothing would show up. Or it would land in the wrong window. After enough misses, I just gave up on it.

What finally fixed it was keystroke simulation. Instead of copying to the clipboard, the app types the characters one by one like a keyboard. No paste to block. No audio redirects to mess with. It just types wherever your cursor is, whether that's Gmail, Slack, Notion, or some corporate remote desktop your client makes you use.

I built a tool called DictaFlow around that idea. A few things I added because I wanted them as a nomad:

• Hold-to-Talk. Press a hotkey, speak, release. No always-on mic draining your battery or recording cafe conversations.
• Actually Override. If you misspeak, say a correction word and it deletes back and retypes mid-sentence by voice. Huge when you're in a noisy space and stumble over words.
• Works on Mac, Windows, and iOS. Local models are free. Cloud models are $7 a month.

Site: dictaflow.io

Full disclosure, I'm Ryan and I built this. It's the tool I wish I had when I first started working from random places. If you've been fighting with dictation on the road, maybe it saves you the same headache.

Working remote means I spend half my day inside Citrix and RDP sessions. One thing that drove me crazy: dictation apps always rely on pasting text, and remote clients block paste. I'd finish a whole paragraph, hit insert, and watch it disappear into nowhere. Or land in the wrong window.

Tried Apple Dictation (too basic). Wispr Flow ($18/mo, still clipboard-based, same issue). Dragon (expensive, Windows-only). Nothing worked.

What I didn't realize until recently: keystroke simulation solves this. Instead of pasting, the app types the characters one by one. To the remote desktop it just looks like someone typing fast. No paste blocking, no audio redirect, no IT involvement.

I got frustrated enough to build my own called DictaFlow. It also has a few things I wanted: hold-to-talk (no always-on listening), and Actually Override (fix a misspoken word mid-sentence by voice, no keyboard needed).

Local models are free, cloud is $7/mo.

Site: dictaflow.io

Full disclosure — I'm Ryan, I built this. Not selling, just wanted to share the one thing that finally worked after years of dictation failing in the exact places I needed it most.

Would anyone in this sub benefit from this? Trying to decide if it's worth my time to build this out further. Thank you.