Tips for Increasing your Time Awarenes

A client of mine recently said to me "I have to work on my time management but I never get to it!" Does this sound familiar? Problems with time management seem to lie at the heart of the difficulties faced by many adults with ADHD.

Everyone has issues with time management especially when life gets busy, priorities conflict and we over commit, but people with ADHD tend to have more trouble with time management then people without. For many people with ADHD time is not something that can be accurately estimated or judged.

Whether you have ADHD or not, you will find that there are many benefits to being able to manage your time. When you are in control of your time you will find yourself more relaxed, you will be able to accomplish what you want to, know what tasks you need to do and be able to prioritize and not over commit yourself.

Since many people with ADHD have so much trouble understanding time and truly can not internalize how time works, how can someone with ADHD ever expect to be on time?

Here are some strategies:

• Externalize time by creating visual, audible or tactile (sense of touch) cues.
• Use a SINGLE calendar, whatever kind you like and always carry it with you.
• Take time to use the planner.  Set aside time early in the week to plan ahead.  Take 5 minutes each morning to review the day ahead.
• Maintain a TASK list. It should include single action tasks not projects.
• Always wear a watch and hang up analog clocks in your office and home. Analog clocks show the passage of time as well as what time it is.
• Set your clocks accurately. If you insist on setting them ahead, make sure they are all set to the same time.
• Give yourself more time to perform a task then you expect it to take. A general rule of thumb: Multiply the time you think the task will take times two!  For example if you think it will take  10 minutes allow 20!
• Assume there will be traffic. Bring a book or something to do in case you are early.
• Schedule time with yourself to DO the projects on your list, don’t just write down due dates.
• Before you agree to take on a new task, review what you have already committed to and decide if you can realistically add it to your load.
• Instead of allowing a project to take a certain amount of time from you, decide how much time you are willing to give it. Empower yourself to control your projects and your time!

 

Attention!

Control Your Focus and Create Your World

Are you easily distracted? Do external circumstances dictate your mood and energy levels? Do you get so caught up in the details that you fail to see the bigger picture? When outside elements control the way you perceive things, it’s time for a shift of attention!

The ability to control where you focus your attention allows you to create your environment. It’s something we’re all born with, thought that’s easy to forget, and it gives us the energy to do work, finish projects and succeed in our endeavors big or small. By increasing your awareness to include the whole picture as well as the details (something that’s not easy for everyone – we all tend to get caught up in our own personal minutiae) you enable yourself to react to situations with enough rationality to direct them toward your objectives.

Let’s analyze this.

Awareness is influenced by our surroundings (and what we perceive that to mean as individuals). You can consider your environment to be your home, your neighborhood, your state, your country, the world and so on… But the more you’re aware of, the broader your scope. The narrower your point of view, the smaller, and conversely, seemingly more important your thoughts are to you. But really, the opposite is true. If you’re caught in your own head, stuck only on the details, small things seem bigger and more important than they are. This happens all the time because awareness can only include things we take the time to notice.

But if you recognize that we’re all connected, part of a universal energy wherein our individual highest good benefits the greater good, whether or not you had a bad hair day seems insignificant. Likewise, your concern over a rocky relationship lifts to reveal the real issue. If you stay in a situation where you’re unhappy without trying to fix it, you’re not benefiting anyone, least of all yourself or your partner. There is a world of love out there, waiting for you to be a part of it.

Consider that we become aware by placing our attention on something. Before placing your attention on that thing, it didn’t exist for you. Once you became aware of it, it’s real and part of your consciousness on some level. By observing, you make things alive in your own universe. On the other hand, when you put less attention on something, it tends to disappear. Problems don’t go away, no. But by focusing on the solution, you may find you get there quicker. Remaining focused on bad brings bad. Finding the positive incorporates it into your reality.

Is your life precisely what you wish it to be? If not, no matter the reason, you can still learn to control your attention, and thereby, learn to create it. Does that mean you can materialize something out of nothing? No. Awareness and action work hand in hand. But without the former, all the work in the world may prove useless.

Armed with greater awareness, you can be the change you wish to affect, in your own life and in the world at large.

 

Changing Negative Self-Deception into Positive Self-Action

Do you remember the gorgeous girl in high school who was convinced she was ugly? Her low self-esteem made her awkward (or even overly outspoken), resulting in bad luck when it came to romance; which, naturally, only reinforced her misperception of herself. This may have even been you or someone you’re close to. And you may still be experiencing the problem.

Or perhaps you can think of some inaccurate negative self-assessment in someone close to you right now? Maybe you even see it in yourself?

Inaccurate, negative self-perception is something that many of us struggle with – a conflict between how we see ourselves and how we are, objectively. Often, we become almost hypnotized by our frequent thoughts of ourselves – whether those thoughts are positive or cruelly negative.

This is where the frequent admonitions to “Think Positive” or recite affirmations arise from – yet recent studies show that trying to overlay positive statements over a chronic negative self-assessment is often ineffective. It’s like laying bright wallpaper over a crumbling wall; the wall may be ostensibly sunnier for a bit, but ultimately it's falling away. And it's till going to come down, because it's not the surface, but the underlying issue that needs to be resolved.

The more negative our self-image, the more convinced we are that nothing will change for the better – especially the circumstances of our lives. Psychologists have shown that people who are positive and cheerful tend to be enjoy more success, in large part because they don’t feel defeated at the outset. A good attitude about yourself will translate into more success, which makes you more energetic and then attracts more success, in an upward spiraling cycle.

But how to get there from here?

The first powerful step to change is remarkably easy. Just notice what you think about yourself. By that simple act, you’re bringing your repetitive internal ‘self-talk’ into consciousness.

As this comes into conscious focus, you may be surprised to hear how you talk to yourself, and how many of these ideas of yourself date back long years. While the outer circumstances of your life may have changed as you became an adult, your inner view of yourself may still be built on unfortunate experiences and the emotional memories of your childhood or adolescence.

The next step requires a little more dedication, but remains relatively simple. Keep a journal of these statements and to note when they occur. Are you harshest with yourself at work, at home, in your romantic life, with your children? What situations trigger negative self-talk?

Over time your journal will make these ‘trigger areas’ in your life obvious. Then you can try a technique derived from Cognitive Therapy. Draw a line down the center of a piece of paper. On one side write the negative statement and on the other, the actual reality – the truth.

For example:

That was so stupid!

I am so stupid! That was a careless mistake.

Everyone makes them occasionally.

Mistakes do not mean I’m stupid.

This will make your automatic, unconscious negativity obvious and allow you to make a clear and conscious decision if you want to continue to treat yourself in a manner you’d never treat a stranger, a child, a co-worker.

Why choose to treat yourself so differently than you’d treat others? Is his how you want to live your life? What would your life be if you treated yourself with the kindness you lavish on others? What might be possible for you to give and to create if you were 100% ‘behind yourself’? Think of what you might bring to the world.

Changing the world is a matter of changing our minds about the world – and that begins with consciously changing our minds about ourselves. From this radical decision to choose ourselves and create our lives, magic is made. When we are positive and kind with ourselves, it radiates out to everyone we meet and literally changes our environments. By concentrating on changing what is in our power to change, the world will be wonderfully, creatively different.

 

TIME MANAGEMENT

What is time management and why should I care about it? Managing time means investing your time to get what you decide you want out of life, including what you want out of being a member of a student organization. This concept of managing time assumes that you have clearly focused values and goals for your work, family, studies, social activities, other people, and most importantly, yourself. HOW WELL DO YOU MANAGE YOUR TIME? I do things in priority order. • I accomplish what needs to get done during each day. • I am always on time with assignments. • I use my free time efficiently. • I tackle difficult and unpleasant tasks without procrastinating. • I am working up to my potential. • I spend enough time planning. • I prepare a daily “To Do” list. THINK ABOUT YOUR BEHAVIORS WITH REGARD TO THE STATEMENTS BELOW: I prioritize my “To Do” list. • I keep an up-to-date schedule book. • I meet deadlines without rushing at the last minute. • I am up-to-date on personal paperwork. • I don’t let interruptions sidetrack me from my daily tasks. • I don’t spend too much time on trivial matters. • I wake up in the morning ready to tackle the tasks of the day. TEN TIPS TO HELP MANAGE YOUR TIME PLAN — Start each day by making a general schedule with specific emphasis on one or two things you would like to accomplish - including things that will achieve long-term goals. The more time we spend planning a project, the less time is required for it. Use a calendar. Analyze tasks and break them down into manageable parts. CONCENTRATE — The amount of time spent on a project is not what counts; it’s the amount of uninterrupted time. TAKE BREAKS — To work for long periods of time can decrease energy, as well as increase stress, tension, and boredom. Switching from a mental task to a physical task can provide relief. Merely resting can also increase your efficiency, reduce tension, and most importantly, benefit your health. AVOID CLUTTER — In most cases, clutter can hinder concentration and cause frustration and tension. When you find your desk becoming chaotic, take time to organize. Remember you can only effectively work on one thing at a time, so concentrate all of your efforts on the most important one. Clearing or organizing your desk nightly should be standard practice. AVOID PERFECTIONISM — There is a difference between striving for excellence and for perfection; the first being attainable, gratifying and healthy, while the second is often unattainable, frustrating, and neurotic. LEARN TO SAY “NO” — Learn to decline, tactfully yet firmly, requests that do not fit with your goals. If you explain that your motivation is not to get out of work, but to save time to do a better job on the really important things, you’ll have a good chance of avoiding unproductive tasks. DON’T PROCRASTINATE — Decide to change habits immediately, but don’t take on too much too quickly. DELETE TIME-WASTING ACTIVITIES AND HABITS — If you are wasting your time in activities that bore you, divert you from your real goals, and sap your energy, make changes in a positive direction or delete them from your schedule. DELEGATE — Learn to delegate the challenging and rewarding tasks, along with sufficient authority to make necessary decisions. AVOID THE WORKAHOLIC SYNDROME — Don’t let work interfere with the really important things such as family, friends, and enjoyment. COMMON CAUSES OF PROCRASTINATION Low tolerance for frustration • Fear of failure • Fear of success • Perfectionist tendencies • Distaste for a particular task • Self doubt • Feelings of being overwhelmed by “the whole task” • ”I find this task easier to do when I’m under pressure” • Waiting to “get into the mood” • Loss of desire to complete the task “TO DO” LIST TRICKS THE CHARLES SCHWAB PRIORITY LIST METHOD Write down your upcoming duties. Write down a number beside each duty to indicate which is more important. Do each duty in order of its assigned importance. Do not go on to the next one until the preceding duty is completed or when you have done as much as you could for the present period of time. Both are personal values, with “importance” Any uncompleted duties at the end of the concerning degree of value and “urgency” with timing. day become top priority for the next day. Add to the list. A B C D METHOD RANK YOUR TO-DO LIST AS FOLLOWS: Important and urgent Important, but not urgent Urgent, but not important Neither urgent nor important TIME BUDGET FORMULA The following is a formula for budgeting the number of hours in a week against the amount of predictable uses of your time. There are 168 hours in a week. Here is a sample of how one spends his/her time: Number of hours for sleep/week @ 8/night for 7 nights 56 hours Number of hours for meals/week @ 3/day for 7 days 21 hours Number of hours for classes/week 16 hours Number of hours for home work @ 4/class for 6 classes 24 hours Number of hours for job/week 8 hours Number of hours for travel time 2 hours Number of hours for personal hygiene 7 hours Total number of hours used 134 hours Subtract the total number of hours/week used for predictable activities (134) from the total number in a week (168). There are still 34 hours to be budgeted towards discretionary activities. Everyone’s schedule is different, so take a few minutes to figure out where your time goes. There are two rewards you can expect from effective time management..A decreased amount of stress and accomplished goals!

 

 

 

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