Time blindness and ADHD: Strategies To Help Students Manage Their Time (evidence-based practices)
- Sean McCormick
- Sep 9
- 8 min read
Updated: Sep 12
(Last Updated: September, 2025)
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As a parent, watching your child struggle with the concept of time can be both frustrating and concerning.
You’ve seen the scenarios unfold:
homework takes longer than planned
morning routines become chaotic races against the clock
simple tasks drag on endlessly
This is a deeper challenge known as 'time blindness,' a common and often misunderstood aspect of ADHD.
This article aims to provide guidance for parents and educators navigating the perplexing world of time blindness in their children and students.
We'll delve into practical strategies and insights, empowering you to help your child manage these challenges.
From deciphering the nuances of time blindness to implementing adaptable and effective methods, our hope is to support you in transforming daily frustrations into opportunities for growth and learning.
While there is no "one size fits all" method for managing time blindness as a student with ADHD, teaching your student to try various strategies and executively choose their own system, is a key.
What is Time Blindness?
Understanding the concept of time blindness is crucial in grasping the challenges faced by individuals with ADHD.
Rachael Green, in an article from Verywellmind.com, explains it as a sensory issue rather than an intentional disregard for time.
Time blindness is the inability to sense the passing of time and it can make nearly every aspect of a person's life more difficult. The important thing to understand is that it's more like a sensory issue, not an intentional disregard for time.
Simply put, it's an inability to accurately sense how quickly time is passing, affecting nearly every aspect of life.
A study published in the Journal of Attention Disorders in 2011 illuminates this further...
It found that college students with ADHD often struggle with estimating how long past activities took, which can directly impact academic success. This difficulty in perception leads to several practical challenges.
For instance, individuals with ADHD often underestimate how long tasks will take, from completing homework to finishing a project at work.
They might find themselves believing a tedious or seemingly simple task can be done more quickly than is realistically possible.
Another study published in the National Library of Medicine reinforces this, highlighting that people with ADHD not only struggle with estimating time but also feel overwhelmed as time seems to slip by without substantial task completion.
...individuals with ADHD have difficulties in time estimation and discrimination activities as well as having the feeling that time is passing by without them being able to complete tasks accurately and well
Imagine a scenario where a student believes they can finish an assignment in an hour, only to find three hours have passed with much left to do.
This is a daily reality for many with ADHD, where time seems to be a constantly moving target.
What Are The Common Symptoms of Time Blindness in Students?
Time blindness, particularly prevalent among individuals with ADHD, manifests through several common symptoms:
Difficulty Estimating Time Duration
A student thinks they can finish a five-page essay in an hour but actually needs three hours.
Frequent Lateness
A student consistently misses the first 10 minutes of morning classes, underestimating the time needed to get ready and commute.
Poor Long-Term Planning
A student remembers about a major science project only two days before the deadline, having underestimated the time required for research and experimentation.
Procrastination
A student waits until the night before an exam to start studying, mistakenly believing a few hours will be sufficient.
For more on procrastination, check out my article series on Why Students Procrastinate.
Difficulty with Task Transition
A student gets so engrossed in a history assignment that they unintentionally skip their math homework, misjudging the time spent.
Misjudgment of Time Passage
A student starts playing a video game for a 'quick break' and ends up playing for three hours, missing their study group meeting.
Over or Under-Utilizing Time
A student spends an entire afternoon perfecting a single art project while neglecting other subjects that also require attention.
Feeling Overwhelmed with Time Management
A student feels constantly stressed and unable to handle their weekly study schedule, which their peers manage without issue.
Now that we know what the biggest challenges with time blindness are, let's look at what strategies can help address it.
5 Evidence-Based Strategies to Manage Time Blindness
1. Keep a clock or watch within view at all times
The first key to managing time blindness is to become "Time Aware".
A recent experimental study from the Journal of Cognition manipulated external clock-speed and found that when clocks run “slower” people increase time monitoring (i.e. checking the clock more often) and get better at time-based prospective memory tasks.
This supports the idea that having an external clock (or visible time) helps people monitor time and improves their ability to remember to act at certain times.
Visual timers are a practical tool, offering students a clear indication of time passing during their study periods.
So, good time management is impossible unless there is a clock or watch within view at all times.
Therefore, never assume that you can estimate the passage of time accurately without a clock.
To increase time awareness, practice guessing what time it is without looking at the clock.
The more comfortable you get with keeping time at the forefront of your mind, the more accurately you will be able to predict the time and adjust your behavior.
2. Track your daily activities
Tracking your daily tasks is a great way to see how you are spending your time.
The study Strategies for Coping with Time-Related and Productivity Obstacles looked at college students with learning disabilities or ADHD.
In it, students reporting more consistent use of tracking/planning had fewer “time-blindness” or productivity obstacles.
Tracking daily tasks can be as simple as writing down what you are doing and how long you are doing it for.
If you'd like to use an app to track your time on tasks, check out the app Toggl.
A strategy that I like to use myself and teach my students to use is to plan their ideal week.
This helps visually compare how they want to spend their time (balancing school, work, and personal time) versus how they actually spend their time.
To build your own ideal week or to help your student build theirs, download my ideal week template for students.
Fore details on how to effectively use this resource, read my article Teach Your Students How To Plan Their Ideal Week, which takes you step-by-step through setting up the ideal week.
It's also a good idea to allow for time buffers to alleviate the stress of unforeseen delays or extend study sessions that require more time than anticipated.
3. Set alarms and reminders on your phone
Students can benefit greatly from external reminders, such as alarms and timers, which serve as prompts for starting homework and moving on to the next activity.
In interventions for ADHD / time management programs, reminders / alarms are often included as part of the strategy set and are associated with improvements in time management, planning, and assignment completion.
You can set alarms on your phone for each of your daily events every morning or evening to give you a sound or vibrational reminder of where you need to be and when.
You can also use the Apple Reminders app to set up daily, weekly or yearly reminders so you don't forget recurring events.
If you have an iPhone, you can ask Siri:
Hey Siri, remind me every (day, month, year) to (describe activity).
Many students have found this helpful when needing consistent reminders to take their medication.
4. Synch all calendars
Make sure to sync all your calendars together if you use multiple calendars for school, work and home.
This prevents double-booking yourself and missing important commitments.
For example, if a student has a group project meeting on their school calendar but a dentist appointment on the family calendar, syncing ensures both appear in one place.
It also helps with planning ahead, since you can see busy stretches before they sneak up on you.
Imagine realizing you have three tests and a soccer tournament in the same week! That’s much easier to prepare for if it’s all in one view.
Syncing also cuts down on mental load because you no longer have to remember which calendar to check.
A student who always forgets whether practice was on the team app or their Google Calendar can finally just glance at one screen and know exactly where to be.
5. Centralize and prioritize all assignments
Time blindness makes it hard for students to judge what really needs to get done first.
When students scatter assignments across notebooks, sticky notes, and apps, students waste even more time trying to piece it all together.
Systematic reviews of ADHD supports mention interventions that help students organize assignments in one place, set priorities, break tasks into subtasks, and keep deadlines visible. These, in turn, reduce missed deadlines and late work.
Centralizing everything in one place makes it clear what needs attention first.
For example, instead of being surprised by a history essay the night before it’s due, students can see it alongside smaller nightly homework and plan their time realistically.
The student dashboard template was designed exactly for this. It's an all-in-one tool that is part of my semester success blueprint course to track assignments, deadlines, and priorities without the mental clutter.
And, it includes a space to can place key contact information for all teachers so when you need to reach out to one of them, you know exactly where to find their email.
The Bottom Line
Here are the 5 strategies to help manage time blindness for students with ADHD:
Keep a clock within view at all times
Track your daily activities and set up your ideal week
Set alarms and reminders on your phone
Synch all calendars
Centralize and prioritize all assignments
Hope this helps 🤙🏻
This article is a part of the larger category of:
Related articles:
P.S. If you want to work on executive function skills with your students, consider joining hundreds of other educators and parents who have completed my Semester Success Blueprint Course. In less than 2 hours, this comprehensive course will teach you and your student the system I developed to help hundreds of students learn how to manage school effectively and raise their self-awareness and engagement with school.
About Me
Hey! I'm Sean 👋
I'm a former public school special education teacher who realized that executive function skills are more important than knowing when George Washington crossed the Potomac.
Since then, I've made it my mission to teach anyone who will listen about how to develop these key life skills.
In 2020, I founded Executive Function Specialists to ensure all students with ADHD and Autism have access to high-quality online executive function coaching services. We offer online EF coaching and courses to help students and families.
Realizing I could only reach so many people through coaching, in 2021 I started the Executive Function Coaching Academy which trains schools, educators, and individuals to learn the key strategies to improve executive function skills for students.
In 2023, I co-founded of UpSkill Specialists, to provide neurodivergent adults with high-quality executive function coaching services.
When not pursuing my passions through work, I love spending time with my family, getting exercise, and growing my brain through reading. You can connect with me on LinkedIn.
Want me to speak on executive function skills at your event? Learn more about my speaking topics here.