ADHD & Time - Let's do the Time Warp. Unraveling ADHD's Time Horizons & The 'Back to the Future' of Neurology

ADHD Powerful Possibilities: New and Late Diagnosis & Beyond

ADHD Coach Katherine Sanders

Are you an ADHD adult who just doesn't 'get' time? Is it either speeding past or dropping slowly? Why is it so difficult to work on long term projects or goals?

In this insightful episode, we go rummaging through the unique relationship between ADHD and time - but not time management!

The focus is on understanding the way time and life interact for adults with ADHD, where the time pressures of deadlines, schedules, and daily tasks are complicated by the mysterious nature of 'time' - how it feels, why it's different, what we can do and more.

Understanding ADHD and Time Challenges:

We explore the concept of 'Now and Not Now', highlighting the difficulty in perceiving tasks that aren't immediate. This includes the challenges of time 'blindness' or temporal discounting, where estimating the duration of tasks or the speed of time passage becomes a hurdle.

Temporal Shifts and Cognitive Processing

The episode discusses how ADHD is linked with systematic biases in habitual time orientation. Insights from the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory (S-ZTPI) are shared, emphasizing the different perception of time in adults with ADHD.

Research Insights:

We share highlights from various studies highlighting the relationship between ADHD and time perception, including the impact of neurological factors like brain anatomy differences, blocked neural connections, and altered dopamine pathways as well as the RAS and reward sensitivity, including the impact of anxiety and emotion on how we can connect with the future.

Practical Strategies for Common Time-Related Struggles:

Katherine offers practical strategies to overcome common ADHD-related time challenges

Conclusion and Resources:

The episode wraps up with key takeaways and a group of strategies and apps that can be really useful - as well as two suggestions of what NOT to do!

Next Episode Preview:

Stay tuned for our next episode - episode 10 (and the last of this season before the new season launches Monday January 1 2024) - where we'll tackle prioritization, procrastination, and ADHD inertia, setting the stage for a deeper dive into these topics in the upcoming season.

None of the following links are sponsored in any way - I've tried them and found them useful.

https://www.focusatwill.com/ - music for focus time

https://www.rescuetime.com/ - rescue time

https://timemator.com/ - timing app for audit and planning

https://timingapp.com/?lang=en - timing app (auto tracking of time for mac)

https://www.thetimeparadox.com/ - Time Perspective Therapy

https://www.timetimer.com/collections/applications - the Time Timer app - FREE

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https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/psychology/temporal-horizon