Time Management Guide for People with ADHD
For many people the following signs feel familiar. You often forget what you need to do. You struggle to stay focused. You have trouble finishing tasks. You get bored easily. You find it hard to do things in order. To avoid mistakes you lean into perfectionism. You find scheduling difficult.
These are common symptoms of adult ADHD, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. ADHD is a condition marked by ongoing inattention, restlessness, and impulsivity. It is often noticed in childhood and can improve with age, yet more than six percent of adults worldwide are affected. It was once dismissed as laziness or a personality issue, but it is now understood as a condition that can benefit from treatment.
How a simple note led me to Time Blocking
I experience many of the signs above. I forget tasks, lose focus, get bored easily, and sometimes over manage to avoid mistakes. So I started taking notes. At first I wrote in a notebook, but I still missed things because I did not always look back at the notes. Then I began writing everything on the calendar I open at least once a day. Looking back, that was when I started to use Time Blocking in daily life.
Once I began putting important items on the calendar, I missed far fewer tasks. With the note sitting on a real calendar event, it became easier to see what needed to be done by when. Since I was already using the calendar every day, I no longer needed a separate tool for task management, which also reduced the time I spent managing instead of working.
This is close to the idea of Time Blocking. Time Blocking means splitting the day into blocks and assigning tasks to those blocks. Even before I assigned exact hours, the habit of writing tasks on the calendar was the lightest way to begin.
Time Blocking for people who live with or suspect ADHD
Time Blocking for ADHD is not very different from the general method. Collect tasks in your calendar, leave breathing room between blocks, assign work to time, and focus on one thing at a time with single tasking.
If ADHD makes you forgetful or easily distracted, start with one step at a time. First, simply gather everything in the calendar so nothing slips through the cracks. Trying to do too much at once can trigger perfectionism and make you quit before Time Blocking has a chance to help. I now use several Time Blocking patterns at work and in life, but if I had tried to start big, I might have given up. Forcing a new method on your life can become a source of stress.
Finally, Time Blocking is not a treatment for ADHD. It will not replace medical care. But if you live with ADHD and struggle with scheduling, Time Blocking can give you a helpful behavior routine and offer partial relief by making it easier to capture, plan, and finish your work.