How to Watch A Clock You Can't See

Although I’m in good shape, I typically run late.

This is because a lot of people with Attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD), and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) struggle with time-blindness.

This makes it difficult to notice time passing, or accurately predict how much time you have to do any given task.

For example, it takes me forty minutes to walk to school, period. I can’t purchase a car, grow longer legs, or run to school. So, the time it takes to get there, will not change.

However, that doesn’t stop me from believing I can make a forty-minute journey in twenty minutes.

What does it mean to be blind to time?

According to verywellmind.com, a mental health website geared towards empowering people to care for their mental health, with evidence-based information. Researchers don’t understand how people measure time.

The closest thing they’ve come up with is the Scaler

Expectancy Theory. Where time is measured through an internal pulse-rate clock.

Intuitively, most people know how many times their heart beats per-minute, which is how they can tell how much time has passed.

Moreover, the brain brings all the pulse and external environmental information together to paint a picture of how much time has passed outside the body.

If the process is disrupted, like with neurodevelopmental disorders, time blindness can occur.

Leading to a host of symptoms such as:

• Underestimating or overestimating how much time has passed, how long a task will take, or how much time is left before an anticipated event

• Chronically missing deadlines or arriving late, even for things you are excited about

• Difficulty making a realistic schedule or sticking to a schedule

• Constantly “losing track” of time

• It may feel like time is “slipping away”

It can also show up in subtler problems like:

• Experiencing slow reaction times

• Difficulty regulating your speed of movement

• Difficulty remembering how long ago an event happened.

Time-Glasses for Neurodivergent Students

There are a few things you can do as a neurodivergent student to stay on top of time. If it even really exists, I’m still not convinced…

First, map out how long it takes to do things and set timers and alarms. Remember my example about how it takes forty minutes to walk to school? If you are constantly running late for work, school, or appointments time how long it takes for you to get there. Then, set an alarm to go off ahead of the time you have to leave, I recommend at least fifteen minutes. This will alert your brain that its time to go and the urgency will help you get ready.

Second, don’t get cocky, you are blind-to-time. What makes you able to manage it is the coping mechanisms you’re trying to learn by reading articles and blogs like this one. Whether you prefer using an app, like google calendars, or spreadsheets, block everything out from bathroom breaks to assignment work. But make sure to include buffer time, which means adding an hour to however long you think it will take to do something.

Third, schedule dopamine breaks or time wasters. It will help give your brain the little happy boost it needs to move forward. If you find you’re getting too distracted by Instagram Reels, schedule breaks to scroll. If you like to doodle, scribble away every twenty or thirty minutes. Do you need brain food to keep going? Are you like me and forget to eat? Keep your favourite snacks in a desk drawer and have a bite when you can’t take it anymore.

Finally, listen to music, it can help improve focus. And help neurodivergent people notice time passing. Our brain can’t help but notice when one song ends in a playlist, and another begins. I recommend classical or indigenous instrumental music.

Hopefully these tips help you “see” time more clearly.

Just keep buzzing,

Stephie Ribson.