How do you all deal with time management - and specifically time estimate - problems?

I always underestimate how long things will take, both because we ADHD’ers view time differently and because I don’t build in time for getting distracted.

I work with a partner who asks me by when I can get something done rather than giving a deadline. I appreciate the flexibility but I always short sell myself and end up pulling all-nighters to meet my self-imposed unrealistic deadlines.

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I do this too. It’s terrible. Such a bad habit in law. I’ve read to multiply my expected time by 2.5 to set a more realistic deadline. It ends up feeling way too far out and it’s hard to admit to, but that’s me. I do excellent work, but I’m a little slow. But that’s the truth. And it doesn’t make it any better for me to set false expectations

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That’s legit me.

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I think it helps to figure out the root cause of the problem. For me, I don’t start right away for a variety of reasons but it’s centered around task initiation rather than not being a good judge of how long things take — I usually screw myself over because other things are more interesting (I favor short term rewards over long term benefits, classic ADD) or because the task just feels overwhelming and so I try to delay feeling like a failure or like I don’t know how to do something (perfectionist/anxiety tendencies that are tied to ADD). No matter how much time I give myself I’ll push it off until the last minute, so being a better judge of timing or getting a partner to give me a cut off time doesn’t really help people like me.

If you’re like me, I’ve found that it helps when I spend 10-15 min on it right away — meaning like the first window possible after being assigned something. I try to pick a 15 min block when there’s a concrete cut off afterwards (I.e., I have another meeting, I’m meeting someone for lunch or dinner, I have a workout scheduled, etc.) because it forces me to at least START and I get a chance to wrap my head around how I can break the rest of the task up. Going back later feels less scary but I’ve already started. (I tell myself it’s like jumping into a cold pool — its not so bad once you’re in it.)

I prefer the 15 min block (as opposed to giving myself say 1 hour) bc 15 min is barely any time at all. I know there’s only so much I can do in that timeframe so it’s way less pressure on my perfectionist tendencies.

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This is a great idea — thank you!

Tell boss that you thrive off concrete deadlines that are end of business day (5 pm). That way you can’t procrastinate into the night to get it done by the morning. If you operate better under pressure, the 5 pm deadline should light a fire during the day not night

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I always block out more time than I need, partly because I already have anxiety about not meeting deadlines

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This is what I do as well. ALWAYS block off more time than what you think you will need.

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Calculate by how much you are usually off. Is it usually double the time? Triple? 1.5x? After a few tries, you’ll find an average margin of error. So whenever you have an idea of how long it will take, just add the multiplier. Might help sometimes. If you don’t feel like doing all this, just add more time to your mental estimate.

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This is great advice. This helps me a lot as I struggle with this as well.

Hey. What I do is that I set alarms everytime to remind myself that I have to finish this certain task and move on to another.

I always add a week to whatever time I'm thinking in my head.

Multiple 2.5x the times you actually think it will take you. #theadhdway

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