ADHD 'Time Blindness': Why You Lose Hours Without Realising
“To the ADHD brain there are two times: now and not now.” – Dr. Russell Barkley
#3 Overcoming Executive Dysfunction for Peak Performance series
Ever sat down at your computer to complete a relatively simple task… then looked up to find hours had vanished? That’s time blindness—when your perception of time slips, leading to missed appointments, deadlines, or entire afternoons lost without a trace.
My bestie, Georgia, swears my relationship with time needs an intervention 😂 She says "10 minutes" is my go-to answer for everything, like it’s some magical, expandable unit of time, which to be fair, I do.
I used to constantly fall into the time vortex without realising it. Like when I told myself I’d spend 10 minutes checking flights before starting my day. Just a quick look, nothing major. Next thing I knew, it was golden hour. I had 17 browser tabs open (none of them related to my work), my to-do list was gathering dust, and I had no idea what day it was. It wasn’t procrastination, but rather, like time had evaporated into the void.
You check the time–it's 10AM. You blink.... suddenly it's 3PM. Where did the last five hours go?
These days, I’ve learned to recognise the trap before it happens and use visual time cues to keep myself on track. But trust me, it still takes a lot of effort.
Turns out, there’s a reason for this. Dr. Russell Barkley, a renowned clinical psychologist specialising in ADHD, describes time blindness as a "nearsightedness to time," where individuals struggle to sense and manage the passage of time effectively.
I LOVE how he describes it…
“To the ADHD brain there are two times: now and not now.”
“The “now” is big and all-consuming, and the “not now” is very small in the distance. Because guess what influences the perception of time in our brains?” You know this one.
Dopamine.
Combat Time Blindness With Visual Cues
Try this simple experiment: Use an analog clock or visual timer in your workspace. Seeing time pass creates a tangible sense of urgency and helps ground your perception of time.
I’ll leave you with this challenge: If you could see time more clearly, how would it change your daily life? Is it a lack of discipline, or a need for better tools?
