About Task Paralysis

Straight away: I am not diagnosed yet. So I'm hesitant to say "I have ADHD", because, truth is: I don't know it. There are, however, signs: My siblings have been diagnosed as kids, and I'm personally struggling with tasks that others deem to be "easy". I have a tremendous need for novelty, and I can hardly picture myself doing the same job for the next 30 years.

I'm not kidding: At the moment, I change roles every 2-3 years. That isn't really sustainable. Due to circumstances that were out of my control, I wasn't able to tackle that earlier. Also, it doesn't really help if you want to build a career: I can navigate myself around a lot of technical fields, but I have no special knowledge.

Also, quite often, I struggle with the execution of a strategy that I successfully laid out. I will simply refuse to do the first step, because everything now feels overwhelming.

So... there are signs. Yes. But that might be another article.

Also, there is something called Analysis Paralysis. But that's different, at least to me and to my understanding. And yes, I also had that, but for a really short period of time. Let me put it this way: When Analysis Paralysis kicks, my brain will run in circles. When Task Paralysis kicks, my brain doesn't run at all. That sucks.

About AI

I won't go as far and say that I HATE AI. I just shelled out almost 100 € in tokens (Max-plan for Claude) to code a game. And an iOS App. Because I need the latter and want the former. But I see all the bad stuff that comes with AI: People are loosing their jobs, loosing themselves. Art gets stolen, and suddenly, piracy isn't piracy any longer once large companies are doing the deed. That feels weird, to say the least.

(I grew up in the 2000s 👴, so I have some knowledge about piracy from back in the days.)

I refrain to use AI for anything artistic since a couple of months. I either buy it, or try to do it myself "the old way". I can fail, I can succeed - but I did it on my own. That's important. The effect AI has on artists is just too destructive.

What is it good for?

For me, personally? It helps me overcome my task paralysis. As mentioned earlier: I have a plan. A strategy. An idea. I just need someone (or something), who has fun in churning through the implementation. I have the ideas. But boy is coding exhausting. As I learned quite late in my life, it is indeed not normal to fight with your motivation to create code every time you tackle a new user story, but succeed once you started.

The Catch

Claude Code in this case is the something that just helps me getting started. And, lo' and behold, I see myself struggling to not get addicted to that. What do I mean by that? While overcoming the task paralysis on one hand, it quickly produces really good results. Last time I tried AI was in Fall of 2025. It's an understatement to say that a lot has changed. There are worlds between what is possible today and what was possible back then.

That means that the dopamine really kicks fast, because the cycle between "I have an idea" and "this is the result!" is so tremendously short. But Claude has token limits. You can only spend a limited amount of tokens per 5 hours or 7 days. But you can buy additional API tokens. And now you set yourself in a position where you throw endless money at your source of dopamine, like a junkie running to their dealer, begging for the next shot.

And, to be brutally honest: I know because I fell for it. After getting the Pro-plan, I added another 20 € for API credits. After that, I realized I should go for Max for this month, and also leverage some tricks like /modus opusplan to reduce the amount of tokens that are used.

But the dopamine feels so freaking good.