ADHD and Troubles with Time Perception: Hyperfocus or Time Wasting?

Follow these time-management strategies – with intention – to help you manage attention, dislodge from the present, and stretch your time horizon to feel the future.

Every interruption is like a roll of the dice — you never know if you’ll be able to get back on track. Sheer willpower is too unreliable to resist these time-wasting distractions; you need rules and systems. If you’re tempted to check social media during your workday, for example, keep your phone away from you, or at least on silent mode. Make use of web-blocking tools to take willpower out of the equation.

As you preemptively reduce and eliminate distractions, make sure to elevate the tasks that need your focus.

Whether a digital calendar, productivity app, or paper planner, the best scheduling system is the one you’ll use consistently. The more you use a system, the better it works. Even partial usage leads to tangible benefits.

To-do lists quickly become graveyards of failed aspirations. Why? Because we struggle to answer this question: Is now the time to work on that? What about this other task instead?

Add tasks to your schedule so they don’t languish on your to-do list or even fall off your radar. Making tasks time-specific increases the likelihood that you’ll see them through. Plugging tasks into your calendar will also fill your schedule and make time more concrete for you.

Temporal discounting elongates the space between action and consequence. That’s why waiting for natural consequences — far off in the horizon — doesn’t often work for people with ADHD. Rig the system by shortening that space between present and future.

Compensate for temporal discounting by pausing to visualize how you will feel in the future if you do (or don’t) act now.