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Time has been a perpetual struggle for me.
Im always late, and Ive neverseriously, neverfully completed a to-do list.
Something that would take another person an hour might take me three.
ADHD can take this subjective experience of time to its extremes.
Its just a very different gauge depending on how active my brain is at the moment.
productivity coach and author ofThe 1 Day Refund: Take Back Time, Spend it Wisely
And both can contribute to the sensation of time blindness.
When were interested, we hyperfocus, says ADHD coachTracy Otsuka, author ofADHD for Smart Ass Women.
In this state of being, minutes or hours can fall away without you really noticing.
Its not unlike being in aflow state, in which time is often felt to be standing still.
For instance, taking a shower might take 20 minutes in theory.
McCabe says the majority of people with ADHD self-report issues with time management.
So if you have an ADHD diagnosis, some of these experiences may sound familiar.
That goes for the short term and the long term.
How does time blindness affect everyday life?
productivity coach and author ofThe 1 Day Refund: Take Back Time, Spend it Wisely
When we falter, she says, procrastination [and] stress can hinder our personal and professional growth.
And its beyond frustrating to come up short of others expectations when youre trying your best to keep up.
In reality, people with ADHD are just operating with different neurobiology.
8 tips for how to deal with time blindness
1.
And that can apply to time, too.
She also suggests using music to keep track of time.
(Remember that concept of a short time horizon?)
So she broke down the work into smaller tasks and communicated with her editor to build an accountability plan.
[For people with ADHD], time is not intuitive, explains McCabe.
McCabe also recommends leaving buffer time between tasks.
(Its tougher to feel good about the five things youdiddo, when 15 things are left undone.)
Write to-do lists that you could actually finish (meaning, shorter ones).
And give yourself permission to celebrate every one of your achievements, no matter how small.
And what you might not realize is that you already do have a system, Otsuka says.
There are things that youve had to get done, she says.
Youve used the system to get those things done.
Theres no right or wrong here, but rather, this is about experimenting and finding what you like.
It doesnt matter what works for everyone else, says Otsuka.
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