Time Distortion in ADHD

Two-page infographic comic by Pina “ADHD Alien” Varnel — how ADHD warps the sense of time: a shortened “time horizon”, unreliable time estimation, and the strategies that help. Companion piece to the ADHD Alien comics archive; not part of the numbered series.

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Time Distortion in ADHD

ADHD affects how far into the future I can see and plan.

If I imagine that other people can see this far into the future…

…then with ADHD, I can only see and plan ahead about this far.

I often can’t get started on tasks if the deadline or goal isn’t within my time horizon.

My brain has trouble sustaining a feeling of reward and motivation if a goal lies outside of my time horizon.

So if there’s an interesting activity that will feel rewarding right away, I feel motivated to do that instead.

(But that’s usually not what I was supposed to do at all.)

That means that I tend to follow short-term activities, because those are the ones I can actually see.

But long-term goals and lasting life changes rarely feel rewarding right away, so I am less likely to be able to pursue those.

That is not a lack of willpower; that is a neurological problem.

So it often feels like I can’t make changes to my life. Paired with no dopamine reward for doing something ahead, it’s easy to feel hopeless.

For more in-depth information, I suggest the following books:

• Taking Charge of Adult ADHD by Russell A. Barkley, PhD
• Delivered from Distraction by Edward M. Hallowell, M.D. and John J. Ratey, M.D.
• Executive Functioning by Russell A. Barkley

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Time management is one of the executive functions that is affected by ADHD.

Executive functions are tools in our brain that help us to:

• self-motivate
• remember what we were doing
• remember where we put an object
• plan ahead and prioritize
• start doing tasks
• finishing tasks
• …and much more!

It feels like I can’t rely on time to flow at any one pace, so it’s hard to estimate how much time I have for tasks.

I always start out thinking I have all the time in the world…

…just to somehow end up being late.

It’s also hard to judge how long ago something has happened.

So sometimes I end up thinking I didn’t talk to someone in 2 days when in reality, it has been months.

It took me a long time to realize that I had problems with being late though.

[Sign] “Opening hours: (?)”

I was so afraid of being late that I always arrived at least an hour too early to everything.

So it’s extra heartbreaking being told over and over again that I just don’t care enough to be on time.

But there are things I found to support the rhythm of my own clock:

• Outsourcing my internal clock with visual timers
• Using songs to get a sense of how much time passes
• Instead of setting strict starting times, I set ‘time zones’ in which something should be started
• Making steps of the process my goals instead of only working towards the completion (This helps me to work on a number of things instead of focusing on one!)

For more in-depth information, I suggest the following books:

• Taking Charge of Adult ADHD by Russell A. Barkley, PhD
• Delivered from Distraction by Edward M. Hallowell, M.D. and John J. Ratey, M.D.

Part of ADHD Alien comics.

[Watermark on every panel] @ADHDAlien / @ADHD_Alien / @ADHD-Alien