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Time Blindness
The term time blindness describes a persistent difficulty in managing time and perceiving how quickly it passes. People who struggle with time blindness may be frequently late, find it difficult to plan their day or meet deadlines, or become easily absorbed in time-wasting activities (playing video games, for example) without realizing how much time has passed.
Time blindness is often associated with ADHD, as many children and adults with ADHD struggle to manage their time and may feel that their internal “clock” is faulty. However, it is possible to feel like one is “time blind” without experiencing other symptoms of ADHD, and there are other conditions that can lead to impaired time perception, including autism, depression, and neurological impairment due to traumatic or nontraumatic brain injury.
If left unchecked, time blindness can have a significant negative impact on interpersonal relationships or academic or career success. Fortunately, many people can employ strategies that help them manage their time more effectively and better understand how it passes.
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All humans have an internal mechanism that allows us to notice and measure the passage of time. While few people can do this task as perfectly as an actual clock, most are able to, in general, gauge with relative accuracy how much time has passed or how much time is needed to complete a task. People whose internal clock is consistently off may have what some psychologists refer to as time blindness. While underestimating how much time has passed tends to cause the most problems, it is also possible for someone to overestimate how much time has passed and potentially cut events short as a result.
Time blindness is related to the brain’s executive functions, or the cognitive processes and skills that allow us to map out and achieve our goals. Though the causes of time blindness are not yet fully understood, underlying differences in brain structure and function—often, but not always, related to ADHD—are theorized to be a contributing factor.
Time blindness is not a diagnosable medical condition and it does not appear in the DSM; instead, it’s a colloquial term used to describe persistent difficulties in understanding and managing time. However, many of the problems it describes—such as poor time management or problems meeting deadlines—are included in the diagnostic criteria for ADHD.
Some signs that could indicate time blindness include chronic lateness, missed deadlines, persistent procrastination, and a tendency to misjudge how long a task will take to complete. People with time blindness may also find themselves getting so deeply engrossed in an activity that they fail to notice how much time has passed, or regularly feel like time is “slipping through their fingers.”
Researchers don’t fully understand the causes of time blindness. Some neurological studies have found that children and adults with ADHD have reduced activation in the prefrontal cortex, a part of the brain responsible for executive functioning, which may be related to time blindness. Irregularities in the brain’s dopamine pathways may also be implicated in time blindness.
Someone who struggles with time blindness is likely to be frequently late, even to important appointments, or lose track of time when engrossed in an engaging activity. This behavior may come across to loved ones as lazy or rude, or as if the person is uninterested in maintaining the relationship. Making it clear that such seemingly disrespectful behavior may actually have a brain-based cause, such as ADHD, can help smooth things over—but taking steps to improve one’s time management is likely to be the best way to strengthen a relationship damaged by time blindness.
Time blindness and ADHD are closely related. Studies have found that, compared to neurotypical individuals, both children and adults with ADHD find it challenging to estimate how much time has passed or complete activities within a certain amount of time. This time blindness may even extend to their memory; some studies have found that people with ADHD find it more difficult than others to remember the order in which past events occurred. Some ADHD experts, such as neuropsychologist Russell Barkley, have gone so far as to say that ADHD is, at its heart, a disorder of time blindness. However, because ADHD is a complex condition that can present in various ways, it may not be accurate to say that everyone with ADHD also struggles with time blindness.
And though time blindness is most often discussed in relation to ADHD, it’s not the only condition that may result in time blindness. Autism, OCD, and other related conditions may also lead to time blindness in certain circumstances.
Not necessarily. Time management problems are just one symptom of ADHD; other symptoms include making careless mistakes, avoiding tasks that require sustained mental effort, feeling restless or as if one is “driven by a motor,” and behaving impulsively or recklessly. If several of these other symptoms are present in addition to time blindness, an evaluation for ADHD may be warranted.
Other conditions that impair executive functioning may also result in time blindness. These include autism spectrum disorders, anxiety, depression, traumatic brain injury, and others.
Time blindness is a common challenge for those on the autism spectrum. As in ADHD, this may be related to anomalies in the prefrontal cortex. Autistic individuals may also struggle with abstract thinking, which can make non-concrete concepts like time and planning more challenging to understand.
OCD can interfere with the perception of time; specifically, when someone becomes fixated on an obsession or starts engaging in a compulsive behavior, they may lose awareness of time or how quickly it is passing. Planning tasks and accurately determining how long they will take may also be difficult, and even anxiety-inducing, for people with OCD and other related disorders.
People with nonverbal learning disorder often struggle to organize their time, plan out the steps required to meet a goal, and read analog clocks. These challenges may appear similar to time blindness, though little research exists on time blindness and NVLD specifically.
Because time blindness can be a serious impediment to academic, workplace, and relationship success, figuring out how to get better at recognizing and managing the passage of time is of paramount importance. Fortunately, there are many small, concrete steps one can take to make time more visible and its passing more noticeable. These include wearing a watch, setting reminders and alarms throughout the day, and building buffer time into one’s schedule to account for inevitable missteps.
Setting frequent alarms—one when you need to start getting ready, for example, and one when you need to leave—can keep you on track. Changing your “focus time”—the time you associate with an event—can also help. If you know you need to meet your spouse at 6:00 PM, focusing on 5:45, rather than 6:00, can get you moving earlier and give you some much-needed breathing room.
Alarms can be helpful here. If you know you tend to get lost in a particular activity—whether that’s drawing, reading, or playing video games—setting an alarm for when you want to wrap up can help you enjoy your hobbies without derailing your other obligations. Avoiding time-sucking activities altogether on days when you have especially important things to do may be a useful strategy as well.
Absolutely. Many therapists and counselors specialize in helping clients identify their time management weaknesses and develop specific strategies to overcome them. Cognitive behavioral therapy, while not the only option, has shown to be effective at improving time management and thus may be a particularly useful approach to try.
