The Curse of Too Much Time?

Sometimes it feels like you have all the time in the world.  You get up an hour early, or your expected appointment had to re-schedule.  Or perhaps you just have a quiet day and you want to get some things done and crossed off your to do list.  For many people these days are tremendously productive.  For those of us with ADHD however, these days are tricky.  We struggle with initiating tasks and organizing  our time.  For example a college student may not have a class until 10 or 11 in the morning, and would like to spend the morning hours going to the gym, or doing homework.  He or she finds that this is more difficult in practice; they may sleep too late and end up getting nothing done.  They may get up early enough, but spend the time puttering around their dorm room instead of studying or working out.  Likewise, adults may find that their plans to use time constructively are harder to put into practice than they expected.  You may head to the office early hoping to get caught up on work or get a jump on the day, but end up detouring to Starbuck's to get a latte and read the newspaper.

Maybe you recognize yourself or someone you know in the above examples.  I have come to believe that people with ADHD suffer from the "curse of too much time".  Or to put it another way, you could express this as an immutable law of ADHD: Without specific structured plans time will never be used for the purposes that it was intended for.  How can you ensure that your time is used productively?  How can you get things started so you can build momentum towards a productive day?  Here are a few essentials to keep in mind:

1. Being productive doesn't happen just because you want it to.  You need a plan!  And not just a list, although that's not a bad start.  You need to sit down and decide what you want to get done, what you will need to get it done, and how much time you'll need to do it.  Cleaning out the basement on a day that the local dump is closed may not be the best idea.

2. Have a back up plan; if you take the day off to get some painting done what are you going to do if it rains?

3. Make preparations before you begin.  If you plan to hit the gym in the morning before work pack your bag and have everything else needed ready to go the night before.

4. Be reasonable about what you can get done with the time you have.  Two hours may be plenty of time to balance your checkbook and pay bills but it may not be enough time to drive across town to go shopping.

5. Every now and then, take that extra two hours and just let it pass by.  Read, sleep in, enjoy a movie you've wanted to see, or indulge in some other pastime.  We all need rest and recreation.  Not every waking moment has to be 100% productive.

Having some free time can be a blessing or a curse.  Plan your free time carefully and you may find you have more of it than you thought!