Lost in Time: A Guide to ADHD and Time Blindness
If you’ve ever found yourself wondering where time went, you’re not alone. You might relate to this classic scenario: You sit down for “just five minutes” to watch a show in the afternoon, only to emerge hours later wondering why it’s dark outside. Time blindness often tags along with ADHD through overestimating and underestimating the time required to complete tasks. Instead of fearing these scenarios, come back to this blog to remind yourself how to swap time blindness with time awareness!
To foster time awareness, it is important to understand how much time we have, how we use it, and how we prioritize our tasks and activities. Time is a finite resource, and where we focus our attention has a significant impact on our productivity. Below are some tips to enhance your time management.
1. Set Timers: Use your phone as a trusty sidekick! Turn on your stopwatch for everything- getting ready, eating, even winding down. This will give you accurate data to help you estimate how long future tasks will take. On the other hand, if you’re about to dive into a potentially time-consuming activity, set a timer beforehand. When it goes off, it’s a cue to take a break or switch tasks.
2. Time Blocks: By breaking your day into manageable segments, you can become familiar with how much time you need for every aspect of your day. This not only helps you with focus, but also allows you to be more aware of how you’re spending your time.
3. Visual Reminders: Create colorful visual reminders of your schedule to keep time in sight! Invest in a wall calendar or planner to jot down various activities. These visual cues can make it easier to see what’s coming up and how your time is allocated.
4. Be Realistic and Practice: Set realistic standards for yourself and your abilities. Just like overestimating and underestimating can fuel time blindness, acknowledge that you can falsely appraise your capabilities. Time estimation takes practice. Make sure to remember that you will gradually develop a better sense of how long tasks take.
5. Celebrate Small Wins: Did you remember a meeting? Finish a task on time? Celebrate it! At the end of each day, write down three things you accomplished, no matter how small. This helps shift the focus from what you didn’t get done to what you achieved.
Navigating time blindness can feel like an uphill battle, especially for those of us with ADHD. However, with the right strategies in place, you can cultivate a greater awareness of how you spend your time and make the most of each day. Remember, it’s all about progress- each step you take toward better time management is a step toward a more organized life. Here’s to making every moment count!
