Does anyone else have problems with time perception? Sometimes 4 hours feels like one. Other times, even when i keep checking my watch or set alarms I feel like I need to keep pushing it "5 more minutes" or "1 more minutes" and before I know it it's been another hour, but I really can't help it even tho I know I should stop. Like I was taking a test today and one prob that shoulda taken 20 mins somehow took 45. I checked my watch and knew I should prolly move on but I felt liek I was almost done and had a compulsion to keep going. Also, I feel like things take me waaaaay longer than they should. I feel like the taking longer effect may have worsened since starting my meds but maybe its just that I'm more aware, or things are harder, or it's after the meds have worn off. Anyhoo, just wondering what everyone elses experience w. time perception is.

Time is a very elastic substance for most, if not all, of us with ADHD. Happens to me all the time and I have been medicated for close to a year now! :D

In Short - Absolutely. Time is a difficult concept. I have a coach who recommends setting an alarm every fifteen minutes for awareness purposes. To be aware of how long it takes to do something (or better yet - to choose how long I will spend)... is my dream. I've been relatively successful with this technique this week. took me six months to remember to do it. Sigh.

When I was a kid I always wondered why my dad would get up at four o'clock in the morning and still not be ready to leave for work three hours later. By that time he would be in the shower, train left 20 minutes ago, rice cracker balancing on the sink (no time for sandwiches), shouting at me to get ready for school.
Unfortunately, I totally get it now, but I don't really know why the whole thing kicked in so late. (Maybe I should add that I diagnosed myself, but I'm pretty sure I have ADD) Funny thing is, my time perception used to be much better when I was younger. Anyone recognize that?

I can never get to work on time and my kid is always late because I have to take her to school. In the office or at home it takes me way longer than anyone else to finish things.Yes and then 5:00pm comes and I am mad cause I was in the middle of doing stuff. Same thing when I get home trying to make dinner and get the kids to bed.There aren't many times for myself I haven't sat down in a nice bath in like a year.I do have the computer though but I am usually doing it between things. Before my second daughter was born I could handle it, now I am a mess with having a schedule. That is bad because my kids are used to no routines. This probably happens with moms a lot. These are the reasons I seeked meds. I still haven't figured out how much I should get done in an hour.:rolleyes:

Gah hours fly by for me! I'm so busy in my head I don't realize the time is just slipping past me.

I feel like it's not only a matter of perception but a total lack of "relationship" with time. I KNOW it's there, and I KNOW it's ticking away, but I somehow don't understand what it means. This is especially true for travelling times; the more often I've been somewhere the less time I think it will take me to get there. I somehow make the shortest time it ever took me my new reference point, then automatically think I can do better than that. 90% of all days it takes me at least 30 mins to get to work, but sometimes, when everything is perfect and I can just jump on the bus/metro whatever, it will take me 20. Which leads me to conclude that 15 minutes is a very reasonable estimate and makes me another 15-20 minutes late for work on top of snoozing times and time spent on plucking my eyebrows or playing the piano before I leave for work. It runs in the family though. Can't remember a single day when my sisters and I didn't have to run for (or after) the school bus.

And I'm a statistician, so I really, really should know how to calculate an average... :o

Add me to the list. I have a huge problem with time perception. I also have the problem of making the shortest time it takes me to go somewhere as the reference point, and I am constantly running late. It doesn't matter if I am up 30 minutes or 4 hours early... I still do it. :( ...yet I can't fix it. :confused:

Sometimes I sit down at the computer to do something that should only take maybe 20-30 minutes, and then the next thing I know, it's 3 hours later! I hate that, too.

I have tried bribing myself and saying I can treat myself to something if I make it on time for a certain number of days or something similar, but I haven't been successful with that either.

Personally, I think we'd all be better off without clocks, calendars, and schedules. They used to tell time by the sun, and followed the moon and the seasons. Anyone know where I can get a way-back machine?

Haa... sometimes I feel like, I think there's way too little time in a day to do all that I really want to do. So I just wish I lived in a time capsule that has no sense of time and I could finish what ever I needed to finish in the time capsule, and then when I'm finally finished, I could come back to the real time right now.. and see that not even 5 minutes have passed.
Hehe... wouldn't that be nice?

I have a problem w/time as well...I finally invested in a phone that has a schedule (Blackberry Pearl) to help me out...

Paper calendars dont help me as I will forget to look at it, I needed something w/an alarm and....setting appointments and tasks on my phone is fun, so that makes me want to do it...

Yes, one hour sometimes feels like 5 minutes...I call myself Earlybird to remind myself to be early....its a lie...I dont have a handle on time!

Isn't that a brain thing? e.g. time perception

http://www.unisci.com/stories/20011/0227013.htm
http://www.nikhef.nl/pub/services/biblio/bib_KR/sciam14327039.pdf



Every ADHDer is different, symptom-mix-wise, IME.
e.g. My own time perception is very good. (e.g. "10 minutes have passed")