‘Time-blindness’ is a feature of ADHD. Essentially so many of us have just two time zones – NOW and NOT NOW!
Time Blindness and Priority
We must acknowledge our difficulty in this area. Then we work on understanding what is getting in the way.
We’re not lazy, we have very busy minds which can scupper our best laid plans! As an example, we may see an appointment coming up and then quickly decide we have time to do something else first, and that can lead to being LATE AGAIN.
Drawing on personal examples, here are examples of my time blindness.
- Hanging the washing out five minutes before a work meeting on MS Teams and then logging on late
- Making a note of the time of a commitment on my phone calendar and then later forgetting about it completely and missing it or being late
- Misremembering the time of an appointment convinced that it was a different time to the real one
- Cramming in stops on the way to meeting somebody in the car and leaving insufficient time to make the meetup
- Distraction of trying to squeeze in a phone call and not enforcing boundaries to end the call in time for the meeting you’re due to attend
- Packing too much in and struggling with a deadline and then messaging the other party and telling them that I’ll regrettably be late
- Indecision over whether to go to e.g. concert, comedy gig, football match etc and hoping for ‘the cosmos’ to make the decision for me. When it doesn’t I might either drag myself to it but late for the start of not go because my dithering has made it pointless to go late
Understanding Time Perception and Social Pressure
We regularly underestimate how long a task will take, or overestimate our available time.
Because of this, we end up late.
We often feel embarrassed, ashamed, and worried others will be fed up with us.
This pattern can make you feel you are LATE AGAIN and it makes us feel ashamed of ourselves, we worry then that people will get disappointed in our tardiness.
It is like we are wired to be productive and use all our time but rubbish at channeling it. Like having special abilities but no user manual.
No wonder life feels exhausting.
We are evolved from pack animals and worry about being cast out, which is an ancient survival instinct.
This is evident by how Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria (RSD) takes hold without warning.
ADHD, Time Perception, and Study Habits
The scientific answer lies in ADHD and differences in the prefrontal cortex of the brain. Dopamine flow affects timing estimation, so immediate tasks dominate perception while the future feels abstract. This makes time feel uncertain and distant.
Cramming for exams happens at the last minute. Urgency finally focuses attention on the task at hand. LATE AGAIN, the habit forms because urgency prompts action.
We hyperfocus and lose track of time, often spending hours on a project beyond what we should. This pattern can make us late for other commitments. It’s not laziness or lack of effort; it’s a different way of handling time.
To combat this we have to first acknowledge it and then build a structure around how to work with it. And without feeling bad about ourselves. It’s actually quite empowering to admit to others that we struggle with timing and ask for patience as we work with it.