Time is a wonderful human construct. It allows us to organise all manner of aspects of our life to the very second. A daily stand up, a project kick off, a dentist appointment, lunch with my mum. It allows us to carve off distinct parts of the future so that we can use them in productive ways. So what happens when you have poor executive function and there is zero distinction between 5 minutes from now and 5 hours from now?
Many ADHDers suffer from time blindness. We have an absolute inability to gauge the passing of time in any meaningful way. Sometimes things that were months ago seem like they happened just yesterday, and sometimes when it feels like you’ve got all the time in the world to complete a short, simple task… VOOP! An entire afternoon will disappear, the task won’t be complete and you’ll be late for that dinner with your best friend.
TL;DR – I inherently have no ability to tell time or tell how long a task will take in the context of a given block of time. If through some miracle I DO manage to plan an activity, I am likely to forget the 6 others things required to do this activity in a timely manner. Oddly this often makes me early, but exhausted and ill-prepared.
Another of my ADHD guides, Rox and Rich of ADHD_Love have talked in their book Dirty Laundry about how Rox sees time as either being right now or “sometime in the future”. In 15 minutes time or in 5 hours… It doesn’t matter. If it’s not now, it’s “later”. There is no distinction between the two.
Part of this issue stems from our problematic executive function. Our ability to make a plan based on how long we think a task will take is absolutely non-existant. Even if we know exactly how long it takes to get to town for that lunch with mum, we’re more than likely going to forget the time we need to allow to hang the washing quickly before we get out the door, put our shoes on, brush our teeth, let the dogs out for the loo and then walk to the car. If we say “I’ll be five minutes” you can count on it being thirty minutes of REAL time. You know…. Unless the well established anxiety from always being late kicks in. Then we’ll be uncomfortably early, with furry teeth and a sinking realisation we’re going to have to rewash our laundry and clean up dog poop on the carpet when we get home.
Check out this great example from ADHD_love:
The other thing that’ll derail us is our amazing ability to get distracted by the smallest little…
Another great neurodivergent Tiktoker, Catieosaurus tells it in a really great way, comparing our ability to focus on one finite piece of time even while the rest of the day unravels completely around us.
This has been super fun to learn about and reflect on. In hindsight I spent a lot of my adult life simply not planning. I became that impulsive person who flew by the seat of his pants and just made it up as I went along. I’d be labelled with cool words like “fun”, “spontaneous” or often just “laid back”. Compliments, right? Nope. Just (as my grandfather would say) incapable of “organising a piss up in a brewery” and I simply learned to play to that skillset – or lack thereof. Maybe this is a little like masking?
So can I plan? Can I get stuff done by a deadline? Can I arrive on time with all my ducks in a row? Yes. Absolutely yes. But that – as with most other tasks that are comparatively simple for neurotypical folks – absolutely drains that finite pool of executive function. I end up exhausted and with very little left in the tank for anything else requiring cognition of any kind. So yes. But wow does it make life more of a challenge.
My ADHD Playlist 