Literally my whole life. As a kid, as a teen and as an adult I still struggle. It’s one of the symptoms that is hard to have other people understand because it looks like you’re just inconsiderate or a giant slacker. And unfortunately you can’t just say “ Oh hey I have ADHD which gives me an altered sense of processing time and information and although I got up earlier todays to leave in time I was distracted by A-B-C along the way, and while I knew I only had 5 minutes left on the clock in my head I felt I can do this before I leave, which ended up taking 15 minutes” I’ve had tardiness in school and work issues my whole life
A primary symptom. And not so much with hours, more with minutes. They just vanish. One minute I have 20 minutes left. The next I only have two minutes left. But I did something that only lasted like 3 minutes (to me)? And then I miss the bus or whatever and someone's mad at me.
Time blindness is ruining my life! I tried setting hourly alarms but it backfired (for me, at least). After a day or so, I ended up tuning the alarm out and mindlessly switching it off because “I’m just in the middle of something” 😂 still looking for a solution!
OMG YES exactly this.. When people tell me to just set an alarm and i tell them this, they just tell me to "just dont turn it off then". People just dont understand and all my attempts to explain just sound like excuses when i hear them coming from my mouth.. ughhh
Yes this was the same issue for me. It just got tuned out and/or started to aggravate or make me anxious. So it didn't work for me. Also, I struggle with trying to track how long things take. I tried setting timers, but what happens is I always forget to stop them at the end of the task or forget to start them.
I have that same issue. When the alarm goes off I don’t often think about how I’ve accidentally spent too much time doing this one task, but that if I just spend another ten minutes I might be done, or get a good amount more done. But then that ten minutes turns into 30 or 60, and I get frustrated with myself again.
3:40 Yes! The first ADHD med I tried gave me severe anxiety and my old provider insisted we treat the anxiety before I tried ADHD meds again, but the baseline anxiety only got better after my new provider prescribed a different ADHD med. My anxiety was primarily caused by trying to behave in a neurotypical fashion without adequate executive function, and my anxiety improved as soon as I properly treated the ADHD.
The stopwatch idea sounds like a great way to figure out an average over time. As for setting an hourly alarm, I can see how it can be a helpful exercise, but on a daily basis, I actually just have 3 recurring alarms - and it helps me remember to eat, something everyone in my family can regularly forget until starving at bedtime: 1) the first alarm is five minutes before my roommate starts her work from home shift, so I know it's transition time from early morning to late morning (this only goes off on weekdays), 2) noon daily, so I have a lunch and Rx reminder (sometimes I just dismiss it, but it's there), and know it's time to transition from morning to afternoon, 3) and 5 p.m. daily, to remind myself to snack if I don't have dinner plans yet, take any missed meds, transition from afternoon activities to evening activities. It helps me to manage my energy (not time) within three or four blocks of time in a 24-hour period, and only stick to timed schedules when it's required for an appointment or project - then I'll set reminders for 1 hour, 30 minutes, and 7 minutes before I have to be out the door. If you have trouble with hitting snooze on alarms or reminders, I find it helpful to set another within just a minute or two with a different ring tone, and a third for really important things that require promptness. Usual ring, different ring - "oh, what's that?" - and third reminder: loud rooster crow to jolt me out of my distraction and out the door with my keys. Caution: use sparingly to be effective and not overwhelmed. 🥰👍
Primary symptom for too. Most days I wake up, try to eat the breakfast I made at 8am before 10am, hyperfocus until around 4 when I remember I've been trying to reach a stop point with work for hours to go to the bathroom and eat lunch, then its magically 8pm, and then somehow 10-midnight. I hate it, but timers on my phone combined with techniques like the "5 second countdown to get up" really do help a ton.
Definitely a primary symptom for me (though I’ve not been assessed yet). If I have three errands that should take no longer than 2hours to fully complete, it takes me 6 or 8 hours to get home because I spend SOOO much time just sitting in the car (on social media or some other waste). My daughter will call me and say, “Ma, are you in a parking lot??” Yes, dear. I am 😔
As for being consistent, your videos are consistently good. If you prefer a set posting schedule (or even a semi-set one), it might help to ask yourself, if I make the posting time the primary goal, what about the vids am I willing to be more flexible on? Length? Animations? Editing? Format? Deeply felt messages? EDIT: A hybrid idea: "I'm going to aim to post the first and 15th of every month - perhaps with the summer/holidays off - and if I'm inspired, I'll post something between those times as well."
Thank you so much for watching and your advice. Your advice here really hits close to home. I think your hybrid idea is really what I need to get started. A lot of time I start something trying to implement it as I see others, or how I think it should be done. But the idea of setting a schedule for two videos a month to get started and if I feel inspired I can do more is the way I should have started this channel. As time goes on and I see that my workflow is getting faster I can work my way to a weekly video. Thank you so much for your comment and advice. I will try to keep the videos coming as long as you keep the advise coming as well.
I love using my phone as an alarm to keep track of time, but then I see the notifications I have ignored for the last hour, get distracted for another hour and then cant remember why I even had the alarm set. The struggle is real. I got a second phone for just music and alarms, it helps but then ppl think I'm ignoring them all day. I make TH-cam playlists the night before so I don't waste my morning scrolling for something to entertain myself.
My watch beeped on the hour right when you mentioned that tip LOL. I'm currently experimenting with the app Tiimo, you can set it to beep when you are about to change tasks and when you change tasks. Time blindness is really hard for me and I was thinking I need something to alert me at the turn of every part of the day scheduled. So far its working, not completely, but helping me have more awareness of how time is moving through the day, despite my obliviousness to it.
I’m late to work every day, it doesn’t matter when I start to get ready for work, I’m 5-10 minutes late. I wake up 2 hours before work? I’m 10 minutes late. I wake up 15 minutes before work, I’m 10 minutes late.
For me during the week its not so bad, i have a specific hour to leave the house, do my tasks at works but on the weekends omg i don’t get anything done. Time flies. By the time i get up, eat breakfast, read my newspaper, do my shopping list, eat lunch snd finally get to groceries its 4pm on Saturdays. I shouldn’t take me forever. Other people spend there Saturday outside doing plenty of stuff they love and still have plenty of time to get to the groceries but not me.
My time blindness is weird and wildly inconsistent. One day I sit here trying to work and nothing is happening. I sit here for what feels like 2 hours. Then I check the clock, and it's been 15 minutes. Another day I have 45 minutes of work left, so I pick a 30ish minute task thinking maybe I can stretch it to fill out the rest of the day. So I work at it slowly. 10 minutes later I'm done and questions have arisen.
primary symptom. I have zero sense of time. no idea when things happened in the past other than not today. I have to use a timer to break time into blocks, but I have to find a timer that doesn't add to my anxiety. if I have an appointment I can't do anything else cause I won't know it's time for the appointment. I have to watch the clock to make it on time. Thank you for your videos, they are helping.
Hack: music … make a playlist that’s 15 minutes for tasks like taking a shower. I used to try to count in the shower but ADHD LOL I always forget to keep counting then start from 1…2…3. I’m so happy that girl went viral this is my mission in life. I will help save us from the oppression of time!
I use the 'idea' of time blocking. I have enough awareness to realize when my attention is waning, so I switch to a different task. It doesn't end my timeblindness, but it helps me to be more productive at work. I do feel like I am constantly working which is tiring, and I feel unable to perceive or realize 'need' signals-like thirst, hunger, bathroom breaks. Work can be hard. I call it the Void and I cannot control when or how long I am in the Void. Sometimes I just have to enter the Void and permit myself to take a mind journey until I come out on the other side. I've referred to it as Dimension Hopping too. I've really been trying my best to explain the struggle to a few of my team mates...the initial responses were harmful and unhelpful, but I've continued my efforts and feel like I have allies and a more understanding and supportive team.
Oh my, that void is so relatable. And the fact that you cant control when and how long. Makes it so hard to explain it to people and make it sound believable
This is so much better for me, female adhders talk like I do, a video that could take 10 minutes takes half an hour and I lose interest, great job. It's a primary symptom and at 53 I'm at the verge of just not caring about..anything because I'm so tired 🙂👍.
I'm currently 30 years old and about 7 weeks ago I started my education to become an electrician. While the basic course normally is 20 weeks, I and 3 others in my class have to do it in 12, because we've all completed high level maths, physics and Danish (which is my langauge) The problem here is that I have forgotten pretty much everything I learned because it was 10 years ago I took those courses! So we basically have to learn, and relearn, everything but in half the amount of time, and as someone ADHD that is a f*cking demanding! Hell, it's demanding for people without ADHD! I'm talking 4-5 new subjects every week, plus we're expected to write a rapport on the project we're working on, which is meant to show our understanding of the field of electricity. This ranges from simple outlet installations to creating a system that will activate a motor at certain situations to managing the relay that controls everything! Everything has to look organized, of course, and oh my Gandalf, am I a perfectionist when it comes to the aesthetics! I often unscrew components because they're 1 millimeter out of place or not lining up with everything else. So I'm working slow, but y'know... quality over quantity, right? The true struggle is, on top of all that, that I continuously overestimate my abilities to get things done in a certain timeframe! So, since I also get VERY easily distracted from other people talking, I stay in class pretty much daily to get some work done. And I am productive when I can work alone and in solitude. That would all be well and good, if it wasn't for the fact that I also have a 1 year old Golden Retriever, Hector, who is my everything and the amount guilt I feel sometimes for not being able to walk him everyday or to cuddle him for hours and play with him, just breaks my heart. Also I have type 1 diabetes, that I have to manage or else it could kill me... Which it almost had 3 times, because I forgor... But what has helped me tremendously was to schedule the weekdays, and fucking sticking to it! I go to bed at the same time every night, wake up at the same time every morning, feed Hector at the same time everyday, go to school at the same time every morning, etc. I might fail that last one daily, but... But schedules and daily routines are such a big help! I even have a schedule for what I need to study! Schedules and lists are the best IMO, because my brain does not work remembering important things. Thank you for coming to my TedTalk.
It’s a primary symptom . It’s just my life . Thanks for making these videos . I don’t have coping mechanisms for this, except for trying really hard to be productive after I realize I took too much time to do aomething
I experience it as both if that makes sense. Many times I spend more time getting ready to do a project than the actual project. You mentioned perfectionism in the video too which intrigued me because I was once laid off from a job due to my perfectionism, spent a lot of time making windows and making them as perfect as can be but I wasn’t making enough of them on my shift
For me, this presents itself the worst when I'm teaching. Battling the clock in my classroom is a daily struggle. I need to put time stamps on my lesson plans for each and every activity, so that I can keep in time. If I don't, I won't complete my lesson plan.
For me, it varies from day to day, I am inconsistent, same with the other things I have going on. Some days the dyslexia is off the charts, some days when its quiet(no distractions !!) my brain can processwords and numbers. But when it comes to time, I have to set alarms on my phone, one to say" " get ready for work, " one to say" leave now". I now know not to rely on my brain to know 👩🔧
Howdy, I definitely have time blindness. Along with hyper focus etc. I have for the last couple of years used reminders on my phone. I sometimes have up to 20 a day. Have basic tasks in there that I have to complete every day and some that I have to complete weekly and monthly. I also set timers when I am doing something so I realize how much time has past. Things I haven’t figured out is how not to arrive at work an hour early, how to get out of hyper focus on something. I do set timers when I am focused on something, but sometimes I ignore them🤣. I just keep pushing remind me in an hour! Like your videos, thanks for posting.
Time blindness for sure is a primary symptom, at least for me. It has been a huge detriment in my life, and until I figured out I had ADD (only a couple of months ago) I didn't even know it was a thing. Now I am also trying to figure out how to work around it. I saw a video recently with the life hack of putting a clock next to the computer AT EYE LEVEL. So I grabbed the alarm clock at my desk and it's right here in front of my computer monitor, which so far seems to be helping, at least when I'm lost in internetland. I'm sue there are many other ideas out there... can't wait to find more!
I always overestimate how much time it takes to do things and either always feel mad at myself (e.g., for not starting the day yet) which creates a huge anxiety and affects my productivity or I just feel paralyzed (e.g., i cant go to the gym right now cause it would take 3 hours - although it would certainly take less than that). Anyone having that overestimating version of time blindness? Also, stopwatch idea has been helpful recently.
Yes, I have it both ways over and under estimating the time. Especially if there is something I have to get done and something I want to get done, I always think it will take me less time than it really does to do what I have to get done. It gets really annoying. Thanks for watching
@@stevewithadhdan idea I’d come across is multiplying the expected/budgeted time to complete everything by 2. I’d say a better twist on it would be to have a difficulty multiplier. So if it’s an easy task you estimate it’ll take an hour. You multiply the budgeted time by 1.25. Medium task budgeted time = 1.5 * expected completion time Difficult task budgeted time = 2 * expected completion time. And to combat time blindness, when I did successfully wrangle my ADHD for a year, what I’d done was use my phone calendar and I’d work in 2 hour time blocks. And because my calendar goes off I’d be able to know “hey the budgeted time for this task is up”. I’d also add the pomodoro method to this cause that allows you to know “hey 1 of the 2 hours for my budgeted task have passed”.
I wear an old casio digital, and it can beep every hour. I would always have assumed it would be a stress factor, since knowing how I easily stress out, but I got the advice on yt to turn it on, and it's only been for two weeks now but it's a wonderful thing. It really is time blindness I have, but now I notice time passing and it actually puts me more at ease, because now I can follow time. Ofcourse if I'm procrastinating a sudden beep can be a stressing reminder, but it seems it more often becomes a motivator to kick it off or put it down, whatever I'm sitting with. It's really weird and surprised me a lot! Another thing that has helped me in doing smaller tasks, is putting on some music I know and like, and see if I can finish before it stops. It works for short tracks, long tracks, even has worked with albums I know well. But I have to know them well, otherwise I stop to listen and the stop listening to google something irrelevant. I concluded that no matter if I am focused or distracted it really helps for me to have time "cut up" into pieces, to not be overwhelmed. It's like eating an elephant, you have to take one bite at a time. Backstory: I research and try these tricks like crazy because I always knew I have a special ... dynamic, but only two weeks ago I got confirmarion from the doc that I have adhd. It explains so much. So now I'm re-meeting myself. Great video, very interesting to hear about your observations and it's awesome you want to hear about ours too.
Bro, I’m here watching your vid because I have no time awareness or rather have time blindness. I found it interesting that you mentioned having slower reflexes because often it seems as if I’m so deep in my head thinking about everything else that it’s like my eyes are just perceiving life as a reality tv show and I’m just there casually watching something happening before my brain tells my body, “Hey…move!”. However, if I’m hyper focused when working or for example riding a dirt bike or I’m present in my mind, then my reflexes are quicker. I don’t know if I even make any sense right now. All I know is that I’m an adult whose trying to get my ADHD under control. I recently found out I have the inattentive type so I’ve been good at masking it from most people (or rather, most people think I’m not ADHD because I don’t exhibit the hyperactivity), but it really affects my life. Keep making the vids bro. Every little bit of insight, experience and suggestions help. Thanks!
Ps. You have fantastic video and audio quality and a great presence in front of the camera. It makes viewing info about this subject way more pleasant. Keep it up!
I don’t get if it’s primary or secondary, as I think it’s both maybe. I focus on a task and then realize it’s taken much more time than I think it should’ve and get frustrated. But it sounds like hyper focusing as well, which I also do a lot. I do get distracted sometimes, but usually it’s just me loosing track of time. I’ll tell myself to go easy on the cleaning and just do the kitchen and living room. Then I spend all day cleaning just the kitchen and get mad that I didn’t do the other room or find time to rest or play with my kids. I’ll tell myself to make a simple dinner like spaghetti since it’s late. Even with premade sauce sometimes. Not even the veggies as I forget sometimes. An hour and a half later I’m like, why am I only just now almost done? It’s premade spaghetti. What could possibly make it take this long? I didn’t make any sides either. It’s frustrating. And I want to teach but I’m afraid I won’t have the time to get things done in a timely fashion and still have time to myself and family. And sanity
I have Alexa/Echo devices in a couple places around my home. I use the timer, alarms and reminders etc all through the day. If I don't, tasks don't get finished or food gets burned. It's easier than using the timer on my phone. I also use a large chalkboard calendar and a small magnetic chalk board (for a daily task list...I find it easier to use than a notebook).
I've returned to Ed so I got loads of clocks and cooking time I lose time I use to be late for everything but I under stand aww stopwatch sound great thanks for sharing
Yes! Huge chunks of the day just disappear for me as well, and I really wonder where the time went. Even when I'm not hyperfocused the hours just seem to fly by. I have things I want to do, but the one thing I decided to do just took 4 hours longer than expected :D
Thank you for sharing! I totally have experienced time blindness and am OCD about things being perfect. It’s such a huge challenge for me as I am growing my TH-cam channel and my Etsy shop. I have started to track my time to see where it goes. Fingers crossed to see how diligent I am 😅
It's a primary symptom. I have to have background noise or my brain is always searching for "sparkly" I have found that if I play a movie that (of course) I know by heart, and I know how long the movie is, when my brain reaches for that "distraction" I can tell about how much time has passed just by hearing the words of the script. This works great with my ADD brain which HATES hearing alarms go off - 'you can't tell me what to do.' But hearing Maverick or Jack Sparrow for a few seconds calms me and keeps me focused!
I definitely get this as well. Don't know of any advice for estimating times taken doing a task, timing it could help, but this is all organisation, and taking the time to start categorizing useful tasks in my life... as much as I find that to be a fun idea... it sounds like a big job, and I really don't want to start it lol. I also find estimating the times that things happened in the past to be next to impossible as well, the older I get the more I can remember things that happened 5 or 6 years ago feeling only 2 or 3 years, no idea lol. I feel so embarrassed when people ask me questions like "oh when did this happen" and I go "ahhhhh .... .... maybe 3 years ago" no clue haha. One piece of advice for time keeping though, using google calendar for literally EVERYTHING, and an app/widget for android called sectograph which you can set as your analogue clock widget on the first screen of your phone's home screen (and i think also smartwatches) where it actually shows little pie chart sections where events are in your calendar, along with the amount of time until that event and between events. Also the google calendar widget, very useful to have docked just to the right, on the second home screen (19 spaces left for most important apps in this arrangement).
This is my life. My sense of what time it is, how long things might take, and how much time has passed since the last time I looked at the clock (5 minutes? 2 hours? Who knows!) are all but nonexistent unless it's a single thing I've done countless times, like it's a known fact that it takes 90 minutes to drive to my parents' house. What's maddening is trying to figure out why it takes me so much longer to do Thing A than it does for another person to do that same thing. Example: my husband drives to the store, shops for an entire list of things, and drives home and is returning about 45 minutes after he left. But somehow it takes me 20 minutes just to drive TO that same store, let alone shop and then drive home again? Make it make sense! That exact task will take me close to 2 hours. I swear, it's as if I stumble into a wormhole or just stop on the side of the road and enter a fugue state for an hour or so, though I'm reasonably certain neither of those things actually happen. Why does it somehow, magically, take 10 entire minutes for me to walk from my bathroom to the front door when I have to leave in the morning? It's like 5 yards away! How? Drives me nuts.
What’s this got to do with ADHD? This is just a normal human experience guys! You get in the flow, time flies. Things take time to do - yes it’s frustrating. Also time is speeding up, I do believe. 😂
I sometimes use a visual timer: it gives a visual representation of the time remaining, it can be easier foe me to understand how time I have before I need to transition to the next task by how many dots are left
I’ll sit in my car to clear my mind and then “40 minutes” somehow ballooned into 3 hours and the sun is going down. Then I’ll tell myself that it won’t happen again and next h thing I know I’ve been doing it for 2-3 weeks.
One of the worst consequences I’ve had recently is… I have a prescription medicine that is a life long medication (not ADHD related). I had an appointment to get the meds filled… and there was a mistake and the prescription wasn’t sent in. But I had plenty left from the previous fulfilled prescription. So I didn’t go get it immediately. When I tried to get it refilled… apparently SIX MONTHS had passed since my appointment and the doctors office refused to send the prescription. Now I have to have another appointment to try to get my meds.
This great on my days off time flies so fast on days have work or just things to do l have alarm for my job even thogh l know what time l go in l have 3 arlm set one is to remind me in an hr and a half l think your going to work then in 30 minutes are you all dressed then there a 20 minute are you in the car 🚗 cause it take 14 minutes but sometimes l push it but l have it set 10 before my actual time so am not really late
I implement something I like to call "time awarenagement" which allows me to be aware of time so I can manage my time better. I made a video about it. I think. I'm also trying to be consistent with TH-cam videos but it seems like the more I try, the more I fail.
Definitely primary for me. The alarm idea terrifies me as I have co-morbid CPTSD. Loud noises scare me and mess up my whole day, so an alarm is probably the worst thing I could do. I do like getting silent pop up reminders on my phone, so I try to integrate that as much as possible.
Stop worrying about consistency. Seriously. How much do YOU actually care whether a channel you follow releases videos on a regular schedule? Sure, there are definitely people who do, but YOUR target market is people like you and I with ADHD. I can barely sense the passing of a week, I definitely won’t notice whether you released a video on time. Not to mention that I’m still working through the videos you have already posted, like this one from a year ago. Make your videos when you have something to share and stick to what matters to you. Choose quality and relevance before quantity and pace. Time blindness is a problem for those who need to control every minute of their day. My advice to others is to free yourself from the constraints imposed on us by neurotypical folk who don’t really understand why THEY need everything done their way. Nothing has been more liberating than cutting out the unnecessary schedules of others.
Every single thing you said is what I feel! I know I’m not alone in this but it helps to hear someone else. I was diagnosed a yr ago (age 59). It’s getting worse with age. I need coping skills too, I will use the timer idea. I always have too many balls in the air at once. Thank you for sharing, I’ll keep watching.🫶
Yeah, I have received quite a few comments about the music. For you, is the problem with the volume which makes it a bit distracting? Is it my choice of music that makes it distracting, or would you think that my videos would be better if I didn't have music at all? Thank you so much for your feedback. It is really appreciated.
You should not waive with your hands in front of the camera. What a nasty habit of all of these you tubers, YT celebrities and content and ad creators, I just imagine, that if they could they would literally stick their fingers into your eyeballs 😮
I use a Time Timer to make sure I don't miss standing up, going to an appointment, planning for a meeting. A simple 1-hour alarm at my desks can really help. Unlike a phone alarm every hour, I get to control this when I need it. Since I work at a desk (IT) it's important for me to stand so the timer helps!
I can lose 6 hours ! Lol I now say it happened 2 days to 10 yrs ago. So basically the other day. Sorry just heard you. I feel like I will never keep up
what if you also have anxiety as well as inattentive adhd as a adult ? and possible head trauma from being hit on head as a child two seperate times (damaging slightly, the flesh at least around the skull and one scar on forehead puffs up even when i get hot or sweat, the scar tissue
Literally my whole life. As a kid, as a teen and as an adult I still struggle. It’s one of the symptoms that is hard to have other people understand because it looks like you’re just inconsiderate or a giant slacker. And unfortunately you can’t just say “ Oh hey I have ADHD which gives me an altered sense of processing time and information and although I got up earlier todays to leave in time I was distracted by A-B-C along the way, and while I knew I only had 5 minutes left on the clock in my head I felt I can do this before I leave, which ended up taking 15 minutes” I’ve had tardiness in school and work issues my whole life
A primary symptom. And not so much with hours, more with minutes. They just vanish. One minute I have 20 minutes left. The next I only have two minutes left. But I did something that only lasted like 3 minutes (to me)?
And then I miss the bus or whatever and someone's mad at me.
Time blindness is ruining my life! I tried setting hourly alarms but it backfired (for me, at least). After a day or so, I ended up tuning the alarm out and mindlessly switching it off because “I’m just in the middle of something” 😂 still looking for a solution!
OMG YES exactly this.. When people tell me to just set an alarm and i tell them this, they just tell me to "just dont turn it off then". People just dont understand and all my attempts to explain just sound like excuses when i hear them coming from my mouth.. ughhh
Yes this was the same issue for me. It just got tuned out and/or started to aggravate or make me anxious. So it didn't work for me. Also, I struggle with trying to track how long things take. I tried setting timers, but what happens is I always forget to stop them at the end of the task or forget to start them.
@@melsgalleria Same! Infuriating, innit?
totally@@miadreckett8289
I have that same issue. When the alarm goes off I don’t often think about how I’ve accidentally spent too much time doing this one task, but that if I just spend another ten minutes I might be done, or get a good amount more done. But then that ten minutes turns into 30 or 60, and I get frustrated with myself again.
i am never able to do everything i want because there’s never enough time. before you know it it’s 11pm and i still have stuff to do 😢
3:40 Yes! The first ADHD med I tried gave me severe anxiety and my old provider insisted we treat the anxiety before I tried ADHD meds again, but the baseline anxiety only got better after my new provider prescribed a different ADHD med. My anxiety was primarily caused by trying to behave in a neurotypical fashion without adequate executive function, and my anxiety improved as soon as I properly treated the ADHD.
What medications did you try? I seem to have the same Loop of the ADHD increasing the anxiety
The stopwatch idea sounds like a great way to figure out an average over time.
As for setting an hourly alarm, I can see how it can be a helpful exercise, but on a daily basis, I actually just have 3 recurring alarms - and it helps me remember to eat, something everyone in my family can regularly forget until starving at bedtime:
1) the first alarm is five minutes before my roommate starts her work from home shift, so I know it's transition time from early morning to late morning (this only goes off on weekdays),
2) noon daily, so I have a lunch and Rx reminder (sometimes I just dismiss it, but it's there), and know it's time to transition from morning to afternoon,
3) and 5 p.m. daily, to remind myself to snack if I don't have dinner plans yet, take any missed meds, transition from afternoon activities to evening activities.
It helps me to manage my energy (not time) within three or four blocks of time in a 24-hour period, and only stick to timed schedules when it's required for an appointment or project - then I'll set reminders for 1 hour, 30 minutes, and 7 minutes before I have to be out the door.
If you have trouble with hitting snooze on alarms or reminders, I find it helpful to set another within just a minute or two with a different ring tone, and a third for really important things that require promptness. Usual ring, different ring - "oh, what's that?" - and third reminder: loud rooster crow to jolt me out of my distraction and out the door with my keys. Caution: use sparingly to be effective and not overwhelmed. 🥰👍
This is terrific! Practical and articulated beautifully. Thank you.
Primary symptom for too. Most days I wake up, try to eat the breakfast I made at 8am before 10am, hyperfocus until around 4 when I remember I've been trying to reach a stop point with work for hours to go to the bathroom and eat lunch, then its magically 8pm, and then somehow 10-midnight.
I hate it, but timers on my phone combined with techniques like the "5 second countdown to get up" really do help a ton.
Definitely a primary symptom for me (though I’ve not been assessed yet). If I have three errands that should take no longer than 2hours to fully complete, it takes me 6 or 8 hours to get home because I spend SOOO much time just sitting in the car (on social media or some other waste). My daughter will call me and say, “Ma, are you in a parking lot??” Yes, dear. I am 😔
As for being consistent, your videos are consistently good. If you prefer a set posting schedule (or even a semi-set one), it might help to ask yourself, if I make the posting time the primary goal, what about the vids am I willing to be more flexible on? Length? Animations? Editing? Format? Deeply felt messages?
EDIT: A hybrid idea: "I'm going to aim to post the first and 15th of every month - perhaps with the summer/holidays off - and if I'm inspired, I'll post something between those times as well."
Thank you so much for watching and your advice. Your advice here really hits close to home. I think your hybrid idea is really what I need to get started. A lot of time I start something trying to implement it as I see others, or how I think it should be done. But the idea of setting a schedule for two videos a month to get started and if I feel inspired I can do more is the way I should have started this channel. As time goes on and I see that my workflow is getting faster I can work my way to a weekly video.
Thank you so much for your comment and advice. I will try to keep the videos coming as long as you keep the advise coming as well.
@@stevewithadhd Have fun! 👍
I love using my phone as an alarm to keep track of time, but then I see the notifications I have ignored for the last hour, get distracted for another hour and then cant remember why I even had the alarm set. The struggle is real. I got a second phone for just music and alarms, it helps but then ppl think I'm ignoring them all day. I make TH-cam playlists the night before so I don't waste my morning scrolling for something to entertain myself.
My watch beeped on the hour right when you mentioned that tip LOL. I'm currently experimenting with the app Tiimo, you can set it to beep when you are about to change tasks and when you change tasks. Time blindness is really hard for me and I was thinking I need something to alert me at the turn of every part of the day scheduled. So far its working, not completely, but helping me have more awareness of how time is moving through the day, despite my obliviousness to it.
I’m late to work every day, it doesn’t matter when I start to get ready for work, I’m 5-10 minutes late. I wake up 2 hours before work? I’m 10 minutes late. I wake up 15 minutes before work, I’m 10 minutes late.
For me during the week its not so bad, i have a specific hour to leave the house, do my tasks at works but on the weekends omg i don’t get anything done. Time flies. By the time i get up, eat breakfast, read my newspaper, do my shopping list, eat lunch snd finally get to groceries its 4pm on Saturdays. I shouldn’t take me forever. Other people spend there Saturday outside doing plenty of stuff they love and still have plenty of time to get to the groceries but not me.
My time blindness is weird and wildly inconsistent.
One day I sit here trying to work and nothing is happening. I sit here for what feels like 2 hours. Then I check the clock, and it's been 15 minutes.
Another day I have 45 minutes of work left, so I pick a 30ish minute task thinking maybe I can stretch it to fill out the rest of the day. So I work at it slowly. 10 minutes later I'm done and questions have arisen.
primary symptom. I have zero sense of time. no idea when things happened in the past other than not today. I have to use a timer to break time into blocks, but I have to find a timer that doesn't add to my anxiety. if I have an appointment I can't do anything else cause I won't know it's time for the appointment. I have to watch the clock to make it on time. Thank you for your videos, they are helping.
Hack: music … make a playlist that’s 15 minutes for tasks like taking a shower. I used to try to count in the shower but ADHD LOL I always forget to keep counting then start from 1…2…3. I’m so happy that girl went viral this is my mission in life. I will help save us from the oppression of time!
I use the 'idea' of time blocking. I have enough awareness to realize when my attention is waning, so I switch to a different task. It doesn't end my timeblindness, but it helps me to be more productive at work. I do feel like I am constantly working which is tiring, and I feel unable to perceive or realize 'need' signals-like thirst, hunger, bathroom breaks. Work can be hard. I call it the Void and I cannot control when or how long I am in the Void. Sometimes I just have to enter the Void and permit myself to take a mind journey until I come out on the other side. I've referred to it as Dimension Hopping too. I've really been trying my best to explain the struggle to a few of my team mates...the initial responses were harmful and unhelpful, but I've continued my efforts and feel like I have allies and a more understanding and supportive team.
Oh my, that void is so relatable. And the fact that you cant control when and how long. Makes it so hard to explain it to people and make it sound believable
This is so much better for me, female adhders talk like I do, a video that could take 10 minutes takes half an hour and I lose interest, great job. It's a primary symptom and at 53 I'm at the verge of just not caring about..anything because I'm so tired 🙂👍.
I'm currently 30 years old and about 7 weeks ago I started my education to become an electrician. While the basic course normally is 20 weeks, I and 3 others in my class have to do it in 12, because we've all completed high level maths, physics and Danish (which is my langauge) The problem here is that I have forgotten pretty much everything I learned because it was 10 years ago I took those courses! So we basically have to learn, and relearn, everything but in half the amount of time, and as someone ADHD that is a f*cking demanding! Hell, it's demanding for people without ADHD!
I'm talking 4-5 new subjects every week, plus we're expected to write a rapport on the project we're working on, which is meant to show our understanding of the field of electricity. This ranges from simple outlet installations to creating a system that will activate a motor at certain situations to managing the relay that controls everything! Everything has to look organized, of course, and oh my Gandalf, am I a perfectionist when it comes to the aesthetics!
I often unscrew components because they're 1 millimeter out of place or not lining up with everything else. So I'm working slow, but y'know... quality over quantity, right? The true struggle is, on top of all that, that I continuously overestimate my abilities to get things done in a certain timeframe! So, since I also get VERY easily distracted from other people talking, I stay in class pretty much daily to get some work done. And I am productive when I can work alone and in solitude.
That would all be well and good, if it wasn't for the fact that I also have a 1 year old Golden Retriever, Hector, who is my everything and the amount guilt I feel sometimes for not being able to walk him everyday or to cuddle him for hours and play with him, just breaks my heart.
Also I have type 1 diabetes, that I have to manage or else it could kill me... Which it almost had 3 times, because I forgor...
But what has helped me tremendously was to schedule the weekdays, and fucking sticking to it! I go to bed at the same time every night, wake up at the same time every morning, feed Hector at the same time everyday, go to school at the same time every morning, etc. I might fail that last one daily, but... But schedules and daily routines are such a big help! I even have a schedule for what I need to study! Schedules and lists are the best IMO, because my brain does not work remembering important things.
Thank you for coming to my TedTalk.
It’s a primary symptom . It’s just my life . Thanks for making these videos . I don’t have coping mechanisms for this, except for trying really hard to be productive after I realize I took too much time to do aomething
I experience it as both if that makes sense. Many times I spend more time getting ready to do a project than the actual project. You mentioned perfectionism in the video too which intrigued me because I was once laid off from a job due to my perfectionism, spent a lot of time making windows and making them as perfect as can be but I wasn’t making enough of them on my shift
For me, this presents itself the worst when I'm teaching. Battling the clock in my classroom is a daily struggle. I need to put time stamps on my lesson plans for each and every activity, so that I can keep in time. If I don't, I won't complete my lesson plan.
For me, it varies from day to day, I am inconsistent, same with the other things I have going on. Some days the dyslexia is off the charts, some days when its quiet(no distractions !!) my brain can processwords and numbers. But when it comes to time, I have to set alarms on my phone, one to say"
" get ready for work, "
one to say" leave now". I now know not to rely on my brain to know 👩🔧
Howdy, I definitely have time blindness. Along with hyper focus etc. I have for the last couple of years used reminders on my phone. I sometimes have up to 20 a day. Have basic tasks in there that I have to complete every day and some that I have to complete weekly and monthly. I also set timers when I am doing something so I realize how much time has past. Things I haven’t figured out is how not to arrive at work an hour early, how to get out of hyper focus on something. I do set timers when I am focused on something, but sometimes I ignore them🤣. I just keep pushing remind me in an hour! Like your videos, thanks for posting.
Time blindness for sure is a primary symptom, at least for me. It has been a huge detriment in my life, and until I figured out I had ADD (only a couple of months ago) I didn't even know it was a thing. Now I am also trying to figure out how to work around it. I saw a video recently with the life hack of putting a clock next to the computer AT EYE LEVEL. So I grabbed the alarm clock at my desk and it's right here in front of my computer monitor, which so far seems to be helping, at least when I'm lost in internetland. I'm sue there are many other ideas out there... can't wait to find more!
I always overestimate how much time it takes to do things and either always feel mad at myself (e.g., for not starting the day yet) which creates a huge anxiety and affects my productivity or I just feel paralyzed (e.g., i cant go to the gym right now cause it would take 3 hours - although it would certainly take less than that). Anyone having that overestimating version of time blindness? Also, stopwatch idea has been helpful recently.
Yes, I have it both ways over and under estimating the time. Especially if there is something I have to get done and something I want to get done, I always think it will take me less time than it really does to do what I have to get done. It gets really annoying.
Thanks for watching
@@stevewithadhdan idea I’d come across is multiplying the expected/budgeted time to complete everything by 2.
I’d say a better twist on it would be to have a difficulty multiplier.
So if it’s an easy task you estimate it’ll take an hour. You multiply the budgeted time by 1.25.
Medium task budgeted time = 1.5 * expected completion time
Difficult task budgeted time = 2 * expected completion time.
And to combat time blindness, when I did successfully wrangle my ADHD for a year, what I’d done was use my phone calendar and I’d work in 2 hour time blocks. And because my calendar goes off I’d be able to know “hey the budgeted time for this task is up”.
I’d also add the pomodoro method to this cause that allows you to know “hey 1 of the 2 hours for my budgeted task have passed”.
Yes.. including the fact that the anger at yourself creates anxiety and paralysis and the feeling im never ready for things and keep postponing
By the way love how you videos are like so fun watched a few like great snack that fill you up thankyou
I wear an old casio digital, and it can beep every hour. I would always have assumed it would be a stress factor, since knowing how I easily stress out, but I got the advice on yt to turn it on, and it's only been for two weeks now but it's a wonderful thing. It really is time blindness I have, but now I notice time passing and it actually puts me more at ease, because now I can follow time. Ofcourse if I'm procrastinating a sudden beep can be a stressing reminder, but it seems it more often becomes a motivator to kick it off or put it down, whatever I'm sitting with. It's really weird and surprised me a lot!
Another thing that has helped me in doing smaller tasks, is putting on some music I know and like, and see if I can finish before it stops. It works for short tracks, long tracks, even has worked with albums I know well. But I have to know them well, otherwise I stop to listen and the stop listening to google something irrelevant.
I concluded that no matter if I am focused or distracted it really helps for me to have time "cut up" into pieces, to not be overwhelmed. It's like eating an elephant, you have to take one bite at a time.
Backstory: I research and try these tricks like crazy because I always knew I have a special ... dynamic, but only two weeks ago I got confirmarion from the doc that I have adhd. It explains so much. So now I'm re-meeting myself.
Great video, very interesting to hear about your observations and it's awesome you want to hear about ours too.
All of the above!!!
Bro, I’m here watching your vid because I have no time awareness or rather have time blindness. I found it interesting that you mentioned having slower reflexes because often it seems as if I’m so deep in my head thinking about everything else that it’s like my eyes are just perceiving life as a reality tv show and I’m just there casually watching something happening before my brain tells my body, “Hey…move!”. However, if I’m hyper focused when working or for example riding a dirt bike or I’m present in my mind, then my reflexes are quicker. I don’t know if I even make any sense right now. All I know is that I’m an adult whose trying to get my ADHD under control. I recently found out I have the inattentive type so I’ve been good at masking it from most people (or rather, most people think I’m not ADHD because I don’t exhibit the hyperactivity), but it really affects my life. Keep making the vids bro. Every little bit of insight, experience and suggestions help. Thanks!
Ps. You have fantastic video and audio quality and a great presence in front of the camera. It makes viewing info about this subject way more pleasant. Keep it up!
I don’t get if it’s primary or secondary, as I think it’s both maybe. I focus on a task and then realize it’s taken much more time than I think it should’ve and get frustrated. But it sounds like hyper focusing as well, which I also do a lot. I do get distracted sometimes, but usually it’s just me loosing track of time. I’ll tell myself to go easy on the cleaning and just do the kitchen and living room. Then I spend all day cleaning just the kitchen and get mad that I didn’t do the other room or find time to rest or play with my kids.
I’ll tell myself to make a simple dinner like spaghetti since it’s late. Even with premade sauce sometimes. Not even the veggies as I forget sometimes. An hour and a half later I’m like, why am I only just now almost done? It’s premade spaghetti. What could possibly make it take this long? I didn’t make any sides either. It’s frustrating.
And I want to teach but I’m afraid I won’t have the time to get things done in a timely fashion and still have time to myself and family. And sanity
I have Alexa/Echo devices in a couple places around my home. I use the timer, alarms and reminders etc all through the day. If I don't, tasks don't get finished or food gets burned. It's easier than using the timer on my phone. I also use a large chalkboard calendar and a small magnetic chalk board (for a daily task list...I find it easier to use than a notebook).
I've returned to Ed so I got loads of clocks and cooking time I lose time I use to be late for everything but I under stand aww stopwatch sound great thanks for sharing
I use 15 minute timers. More chances to catch myself. My kid started using a timer at school. It helps.
Yes! Huge chunks of the day just disappear for me as well, and I really wonder where the time went. Even when I'm not hyperfocused the hours just seem to fly by.
I have things I want to do, but the one thing I decided to do just took 4 hours longer than expected :D
Thank you for sharing! I totally have experienced time blindness and am OCD about things being perfect.
It’s such a huge challenge for me as I am growing my TH-cam channel and my Etsy shop.
I have started to track my time to see where it goes. Fingers crossed to see how diligent I am 😅
It's a primary symptom. I have to have background noise or my brain is always searching for "sparkly" I have found that if I play a movie that (of course) I know by heart, and I know how long the movie is, when my brain reaches for that "distraction" I can tell about how much time has passed just by hearing the words of the script. This works great with my ADD brain which HATES hearing alarms go off - 'you can't tell me what to do.' But hearing Maverick or Jack Sparrow for a few seconds calms me and keeps me focused!
I definitely get this as well. Don't know of any advice for estimating times taken doing a task, timing it could help, but this is all organisation, and taking the time to start categorizing useful tasks in my life... as much as I find that to be a fun idea... it sounds like a big job, and I really don't want to start it lol.
I also find estimating the times that things happened in the past to be next to impossible as well, the older I get the more I can remember things that happened 5 or 6 years ago feeling only 2 or 3 years, no idea lol. I feel so embarrassed when people ask me questions like "oh when did this happen" and I go "ahhhhh .... .... maybe 3 years ago" no clue haha.
One piece of advice for time keeping though, using google calendar for literally EVERYTHING, and an app/widget for android called sectograph which you can set as your analogue clock widget on the first screen of your phone's home screen (and i think also smartwatches) where it actually shows little pie chart sections where events are in your calendar, along with the amount of time until that event and between events. Also the google calendar widget, very useful to have docked just to the right, on the second home screen (19 spaces left for most important apps in this arrangement).
This is my life. My sense of what time it is, how long things might take, and how much time has passed since the last time I looked at the clock (5 minutes? 2 hours? Who knows!) are all but nonexistent unless it's a single thing I've done countless times, like it's a known fact that it takes 90 minutes to drive to my parents' house.
What's maddening is trying to figure out why it takes me so much longer to do Thing A than it does for another person to do that same thing. Example: my husband drives to the store, shops for an entire list of things, and drives home and is returning about 45 minutes after he left. But somehow it takes me 20 minutes just to drive TO that same store, let alone shop and then drive home again? Make it make sense! That exact task will take me close to 2 hours. I swear, it's as if I stumble into a wormhole or just stop on the side of the road and enter a fugue state for an hour or so, though I'm reasonably certain neither of those things actually happen.
Why does it somehow, magically, take 10 entire minutes for me to walk from my bathroom to the front door when I have to leave in the morning? It's like 5 yards away! How? Drives me nuts.
What’s this got to do with ADHD? This is just a normal human experience guys! You get in the flow, time flies. Things take time to do - yes it’s frustrating. Also time is speeding up, I do believe. 😂
I sometimes use a visual timer: it gives a visual representation of the time remaining, it can be easier foe me to understand how time I have before I need to transition to the next task by how many dots are left
I’ll sit in my car to clear my mind and then “40 minutes” somehow ballooned into 3 hours and the sun is going down. Then I’ll tell myself that it won’t happen again and next h thing I know I’ve been doing it for 2-3 weeks.
One of the worst consequences I’ve had recently is… I have a prescription medicine that is a life long medication (not ADHD related).
I had an appointment to get the meds filled… and there was a mistake and the prescription wasn’t sent in.
But I had plenty left from the previous fulfilled prescription. So I didn’t go get it immediately.
When I tried to get it refilled… apparently SIX MONTHS had passed since my appointment and the doctors office refused to send the prescription. Now I have to have another appointment to try to get my meds.
The day need 36 hours ! #adhdlife
I'm tracking time using a time tracking app to see how long it actually takes to do certain tasks.
Ironic I found this video next I didnt even know this was a thing. I dont even know where to start now.
How did you get in my brain?
This great on my days off time flies so fast on days have work or just things to do l have alarm for my job even thogh l know what time l go in l have 3 arlm set one is to remind me in an hr and a half l think your going to work then in 30 minutes are you all dressed then there a 20 minute are you in the car 🚗 cause it take 14 minutes but sometimes l push it but l have it set 10 before my actual time so am not really late
God that's me too thanks
I implement something I like to call "time awarenagement" which allows me to be aware of time so I can manage my time better. I made a video about it. I think.
I'm also trying to be consistent with TH-cam videos but it seems like the more I try, the more I fail.
Definitely primary for me. The alarm idea terrifies me as I have co-morbid CPTSD. Loud noises scare me and mess up my whole day, so an alarm is probably the worst thing I could do. I do like getting silent pop up reminders on my phone, so I try to integrate that as much as possible.
I have the same issue and keep the phone on vibrate next to me and it works.
Stop worrying about consistency. Seriously. How much do YOU actually care whether a channel you follow releases videos on a regular schedule? Sure, there are definitely people who do, but YOUR target market is people like you and I with ADHD. I can barely sense the passing of a week, I definitely won’t notice whether you released a video on time. Not to mention that I’m still working through the videos you have already posted, like this one from a year ago. Make your videos when you have something to share and stick to what matters to you. Choose quality and relevance before quantity and pace. Time blindness is a problem for those who need to control every minute of their day. My advice to others is to free yourself from the constraints imposed on us by neurotypical folk who don’t really understand why THEY need everything done their way. Nothing has been more liberating than cutting out the unnecessary schedules of others.
Every single thing you said is what I feel! I know I’m not alone in this but it helps to hear someone else. I was diagnosed a yr ago (age 59). It’s getting worse with age. I need coping skills too, I will use the timer idea. I always have too many balls in the air at once. Thank you for sharing, I’ll keep watching.🫶
I think this video would be even better without the background music.
Yeah, I have received quite a few comments about the music. For you, is the problem with the volume which makes it a bit distracting? Is it my choice of music that makes it distracting, or would you think that my videos would be better if I didn't have music at all?
Thank you so much for your feedback. It is really appreciated.
@@stevewithadhd no music at all is better
@@stevewithadhd at least while you're talking
You should not waive with your hands in front of the camera. What a nasty habit of all of these you tubers, YT celebrities and content and ad creators, I just imagine, that if they could they would literally stick their fingers into your eyeballs 😮
I use a Time Timer to make sure I don't miss standing up, going to an appointment, planning for a meeting. A simple 1-hour alarm at my desks can really help. Unlike a phone alarm every hour, I get to control this when I need it. Since I work at a desk (IT) it's important for me to stand so the timer helps!
I can lose 6 hours ! Lol I now say it happened 2 days to 10 yrs ago. So basically the other day. Sorry just heard you. I feel like I will never keep up
I use an hour glass that is 30 minutes to see how much time is passing.
Yes to everything
Brilliant tips! Thank you. I really hope you’ll continue making these videos, I love them!
what if you also have anxiety as well as inattentive adhd as a adult ? and possible head trauma from being hit on head as a child two seperate times (damaging slightly, the flesh at least around the skull and one scar on forehead puffs up even when i get hot or sweat, the scar tissue