What is going on
Barkley describes ADHD as, among other things, a problem of managing yourself in relation to time: the future does not pull on behaviour the way it should (Barkley, 1997). Adults with ADHD report much stronger problems with self-management to time than others (Barkley & Fischer, 2011).
If time does not show up inside, the answer is to put it outside, where you can see it.
Make time visible
People described several ways of turning time into something concrete:
- Blocks with real length
- Put tasks on a calendar as blocks, not lines in a list. You see how full the day is.
- Countdowns
- A visible timer turns "soon" into a number.
- Race the clock
- Some people gamify a task by competing against a timer.
- Bounded windows
- Work in a fixed window, like 25 minutes, so the end is in sight.
- Heads-ups
- A warning before something starts, not only when it starts.
- Assign days
- Give each task a day or a slot. A task with no time is a task that never comes.
Keep it in sight
A planner only helps if you look at it. Put the time where your eyes already are, like your Home Screen, your lock screen or your watch.
How Grip helps
Grip puts your day on your Home Screen with colours for done, running and soon, and shows your plan as blocks of time across three days, a week or a month.