Time Tip for Time Blindness!

Time Tips for Time Blindness!

Let’s talk about time management and ADHD! This is one of the most common topics that my clients bring to coaching. They’re often feeling overwhelmed by the very idea of time management. In many cases, they’ve already tried a few (or many) approaches; some don't work, some worked for a short period, but nothing sticks. By the time they start coaching, they're doubtful that ANY time system will be doable for them.

What’s the first thing others tell them to do? Get a planner. While that's not bad advice, it's incomplete advice. We all need some system of organizing our time as we navigate modern life and a planner can be an important part of a whole system. A time system will have other parts, though. There is one part of this system that many people with ADHD miss; how will we support our lack of time sense?

Most people with ADHD lack a reliable sense of time, we just don’t FEEL it like others around us! Even those of us who are ALWAYS early probably aren't feeling time in a neurotypical way; they're early because of the buffers and other strategies they've put in place in order to be punctual.

Our unique perception of time might mean that we don't have the same internal experience of 30 minutes or an hour passing as our neurotypical peers. That can translate into struggles judging how much time we need to get to the office, to get ready or how much time we’ll need to complete that research paper.

With ADHD, our sense of time isn’t so much a “knowing” as a “guessing” and that makes all of time management more complicated! Because of this, it can be helpful to find tools that help our time-blindness.

Use Your Senses: Vision and Touch

Children don't start out experiencing and judging time the same way adults do. It's a developmental skill and we help them develop it. We use strategies like representing time (or other number-based concepts like money) in physical ways in order to help them build this sense.

In math class, teachers might use manipulatives like candies or cars so learners can both see and hold the numbers in their math problem. This extra sensory input can help bridge the gap between their internal sense of the concept of 5 Skittles and the reality of it.

Using tools that help connect our senses to time can give adults get a better grasp on time, too! For example, using a visual timer, sand timer, or even sticky notes to represent blocks of time can help us make the connection between the nebulous idea of time with our physical world.

Use Your Senses: Auditory

Traditional timers can quickly become background noise for many of us. When I set too many auditory timers, I tend to ignore all of them! That may not be true for you, but if it is, it might be time try a different auditory tool.

A brilliant idea one of my clients cam up with was to make play lists of songs she loved to keep track of time. She had different time lengths for these playlists and used them to keep track of her time. She noticed that after a while, a certain song in her play list list would trigger a “feeling” of “5 minutes left” in a much more powerful way than traditional timers had in the past.

Benefits of Connecting Time to Your Senses

When you represent time in your physical world, it makes a few things easier.

1. Keeping Track of Time

If you can see, feel, or hear time (and not rely on yourself to feel it), it helps you judge the passing of it. Glancing at a visual timer and seeing that one third of the original “piece” of time you started with is left will help you internalize both the time you’ve spent and the time remaining.

2. Transition with More Ease

Once our attention has dialed into a task, it can be jarring to “come to” and realize that we’ve time warped and now have to switch to something else- quickly. When you don’t “feel” time, your days are full of these not-so-pleasant surprises. Representing time in your physical world can help. You'll actually see these coming and be able to prepare for them, which makes transitions much easier!

3. Getting Started

When you don't feel time, you're likely to assume "dreaded tasks" take much longer than they do! The result? Overwhelm and difficulty with initiating tasks. If you think an undesirable job is going to take hours, it can be next to impossible to get started. Using a visual timer (or song playlist) can help you “contain” time when you’re overwhelmed by how long you think things will take. You can put a limit on the time you’ll spend, set your visual timer, and only work for that long. Limiting the time you’ll spend (and actually seeing that limit) makes task initiation possible!

Embracing the unique way your brain processes time can help you bridge that gap between your personal sense of time and the time-drive world around you. This approach makes tracking time easier, helps with smooth transitions, and can help you beat procrastination and overwhelm.

Finding an ADHD-friendly time management system that will work for you can be tricky, so if you need more support, professional coaching can help! Have questions or just want to chat about how we can help? Don’t hesitate to reach out!

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