Time Management
I recently came across an article in the Los Angeles Times on time management describing the role of working memory and the body’s internal clock in time awareness. It was of interest to me because being on time is usually a failing for people with ADHD, however, I am quite punctual and a few years back I worked with a partner who was also ADHD and punctual. ADHD and punctuality are not words that are normally in the same sentence. My former partner and I are unusual. He and I came at punctuality from different directions. The article relates the problems with the estimation of the passage of time at the level of hours and minutes that characterizes ADHD and schizophrenia and suggests that the common element with these two disorders is problems with working memory. Problems with working memory could cause problems with time management. My former partner relied on a gadget–a Timex watch which replicated his calendar from Microsoft Entourage and would beep loudly ten minutes before appointments. I relied on my internal body clock and my sense and estimation of the passage of time. Regardless, the article describes how you can improve your perception of time by improving working memory as well as assisting your body’s internal clock. Cogmed Working Memory Training is being employed by some clinicians as a treatment for stroke damage but it is being positioned more now as a way of improving working memory in individuals who have problems with it but in all other ways may be quite normal. Working memory problems exist in about 10% of the general population according to Tracy Alloway and more about her research at her university’s website. One of the recommendations that really hit home with me in the LA Times piece was the recommendation to use an analogue watch or clock rather than digital. The article quotes Dr Martin L. Kutscher, author of an upcoming book entitledOrganizing the Disorganized Child, “Time is a very ethereal, abstract issue especially for people with attention problems.” He goes on to say, “For these people, the visual image of, say 15 minutes on an analogue clock or watch is much more concrete than a static display of numbers on the face of a cellphone.” I am a gadget freak and was one of the first to own a digital watch decades ago. I went back to analogue because I could never tell what time it was. Oh sure, I knew it was 12:23:37 or whatever. But what time is that? A quarter after two does no register in my brain the same as 2:15. I did a little experiment way back then. I would ask someone with a digital watch what time it was just after I noticed they had looked at their watch. Invariably they would have to check their watch again to respond. I also asked people with analogue watches the same question again after they have just looked at their watches and almost never did they have to look at their watches a second time. I know the reason I am usually on time is not as simple as just using an analogue watch to assist my internal clock. But making time visual could be part of the reason why. Something else that I stumbled across some years ago that seems to help with staying on task at my desk is a metronome set at 60 beats a minute. Now whether marking the passage of time, as the metronome would, at the rate of one beat per second can actually assist the body’s internal clock and therefore also support working memory I have no idea but both these ideas have helped me with the management of my time an, to some degree, with staying on task.