This is the first post of the Demystify Executive Functioning & How It Impacts Women with ADHD. Like I stated in the first post executive functions are the brain skills that a women with ADHD uses these skills every day to learn, work, and manage daily life. Trouble with executive function can make it hard to focus, follow directions, and handle emotions, including time management which I will be discussing today.
What Is Time Management?
Time management is a broad set of skills related to understanding how to use time, how to use it effectively and how it impacts yourself and other people around you. Time management is among the many executive functioning skills that we use in combination to live productive and successful lives. Some of the possible signs of time management challenges might include:
Identify and understand time concepts (minute, hour, tomorrow, week, month, etc.)
Complete simple tasks within an allotted amount of time
Follow a timeline to finish chores or tasks on a deadline.
Accurately estimate how much time it will take to complete a task.
Budget and prioritize sufficient time to complete a task.
Arrive on time for appointments and social activities.
Create a schedule with sufficient time to complete all necessary activities in a week.
Increase work speed to complete a deadline but avoids ‘rushing around’
Avoids procrastination or putting tasks off to the last minute.
How Can Time Management Help A Women with ADHD?
Having good time management skills can be very helpful when completing a task:
Allows to pace yourself instead of rushing at the last minute
Helps you feel in control so you can feel confident that you are on schedule and will do a great job on whatever task or project you are working on
Improves habits in which you will be less likely to be late for appointments, won’t miss deadlines and complete tasks more easily
Gives you time to do other fun things. When you use your time wisely you will be able to finish your tasks or projects on schedule which will give you tine to do other activities you enjoy
Strategies for Time Management
As with all executive functioning skills, time management abilities can be strengthened and improved over time. Here are some strategies to assist a women with ADHD with time management challenges
Pacing Yourself and Adjusting– When you have a lot going on sometimes a women with ADHD might think the best strategy is to go full-force to get all of your tasks and projects done. This isn’t the greatest thing to do because you will tire yourself out and burnout. Then your projects on your list will suffer along with you mental energy and confidence. So, this is where pacing yourself comes in.. Pacing yourself means setting a speedy that works for you and your type of ADHD. When you start on a task or project, identify three reasons why pacing yourself will help you accomplish your task or project. It also helps you get things done with breaks along the way and keeping your energy at a constant level.
Finding A Balance- Understanding time management isn’t always about getting tasks or projects done. It is about understanding yourself to achieve a good work-leisure balance. This means finding a healthy balance between how much you are working and spending time with family, friends and positive activities. Without a healthy work leisure balance its likely that you will get burned out and reduce your productivity. To achieve a healthy work-leisure balance you will want to
Identify three positive and healthy activities you could incorporate into your schedule
Pay attention to your mind and body if you are feeling exhausted, lonely or irritable
Make sure you are getting enough sleep and eating healthy
Minimizing Distractions- If you want to work on good time management as a women with ADHD, you will need to learn how to minimize your distractions. These are the things that get in your way of work or a task. Sometimes it can be difficult to avoid distractions especially if it is your phone or children. However, getting rid of the distractions will help you finish your work or tasks sooner. So you can ask yourself the following
What is the most challenging distraction for you to minimize?
What is your plan of action for doing it? For example, your cell phone is your distraction, your plan of action to reduce the distraction would be to put it out of sight and put it on silent.
In closing, as a women with ADHD we re so quick to judge ourselves when something goes wrong, like forgetting a meeting or being 20 minutes late for an appointment because we can find our car keys. When your executive dysfunction means you forget a meeting, or are late completing an assignment, or leads to a pile of dishes, it’s not a flaw in your character, it’s just a flaw in your tools. This is wonderful because it means you don’t need to be fixed. Only your tools do.