My whole life I have struggled to be on time for things. I used to think it was because my mom was naturally late to school, church, and other events, but when I started driving and could control my own time, I was still late for almost everything. It wasn’t until I got to college that friends of mine started pointing out the symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, that I display. One of these symptoms was time blindness. I had never heard of time blindness until then, and when I started learning more about it, I felt incredibly validated. Understanding more about this has helped me immensely, and I want to raise awareness about time blindness and address some ways to combat it.
The ability to understand and manage time is primarily linked to activity in the prefrontal cortex of the brain, and low activity in this area or disruptions in connectivity can cause an individual to experience time blindness. This can lead to many issues, including overestimating or underestimating the time it takes to complete tasks, losing track of time, and having trouble following a schedule. I have experienced these things my whole life and faced significant criticism and frustration from others because of it. I will pack multiple events into a day, fully believing I can make it work, and end up late to one or all events, which not only affects myself but also everyone else involved. Friends of mine have felt like I don’t prioritize time with them because of my common tardiness, and I am always confused because I have every intention of being on time for everything I have planned.
Once I realized I experience time blindness and have been failing to cope with it for many years, I decided to look into ways to stay more on schedule. The first way that has helped me cope with time blindness is to plan for much more time than I think I need. When in doubt, I would rather have an extra thirty minutes to an hour between activities than run late for all of them. To do this, I often have to remove myself from the situation and counteract the way my brain wants to cram activities by instead planning an ample amount of time for each activity. It seems incredibly simple, but it can be life-changing for someone who regularly experiences time blindness.
Another way to combat time blindness is to put events in your calendar and set calendar alerts and alarms. I’m not saying you need to be a professional planner overnight, but when you know you could forget about an important event or underestimate the time needed to get there, you should give yourself multiple alerts starting a few hours beforehand. This will ensure that you are consistently reminded of upcoming events and encourage you to prepare earlier.
For me, I often lose track of time while using technology, whether I am online shopping, editing pictures, or scrolling through social media. To avoid spending significant amounts of time on your phone, and being late to events because of this, try setting screen time controls for certain apps, or your phone as a whole. If you feel that screen time is a problem for you, look at how much time you spend on your phone on average, and work on lessening this, starting with reducing it by just ten minutes each week. By spending less time on your phone, you will have more time to stay on schedule in the real world.
Time blindness is different for everyone who experiences it, and not every solution will work for each person. However, if you struggle with being chronically late to events, I would encourage you to research time blindness and start experimenting with some of these tactics to organize your time.