Time Agnosia (aka Time “Blindness”)

Somehow it’s already tomorrow and you were just in 1997

Time agnosia is the official-sounding name for one of the most mind-melting parts of ADHD: the inability to reliably perceive or sense the passage of time. And it’s so real. For most people, time is a steady tick-tock rhythm. For us? It’s more like a cursed funhouse mirror — sometimes stretched, sometimes warped, sometimes just completely missing.

You’re either deep in hyperfocus, where five hours vanish in a blink, or stuck in “I’ll start in five minutes” purgatory that somehow becomes Thursday. You swear it was 10 a.m. a second ago… now it’s dark and your laundry’s still wet.

Welcome to time agnosia, where time is either RIGHT NOW (and screaming) or NOT NOW (and possibly fictional).

What time agnosia can look like:

  • Taking a “quick break” and emerging three hours later with a new personality and several unfinished drinks
  • Consistently underestimating how long anything takes, even things you do daily
  • Treating “next week” as if it exists in another dimension
  • Getting lost in a task and completely losing track of everything else
  • Forgetting about events until they’re already happening (or until someone texts, “Where are you?”)
  • Planning your day like you’re a robot and executing it like you’re in a dream state

It’s not a time management issue. It’s a time perception issue.

ADHD brains often experience time in only two categories:

  • Now — urgent, immediate, intense
  • Not Now — vague, distant, emotionally disconnected

This makes long-term planning, transitioning, and meeting deadlines without panic feel… mythical.

What can help?

The full Time Agnosia Deep Dive will go all in on this, but here’s a quick sampler to get you started:

  • Visual timers – Let your brain see time passing (because it sure can’t feel it)
  • Time anchors – Tie new tasks to consistent daily routines
  • Body doubling – Let another human be your external timekeeper
  • Countdown alarms – Use multiple cues to bridge “not now” into “almost now”
  • Time blocking with compassion – Build in buffer zones, because your brain doesn’t believe in transitions
  • Treat time like a resource – Track it like you would energy or spoons: it fluctuates!

This section links to a full Time Agnosia Deep Dive, where we’ll explore:

  • The neuroscience behind how ADHD distorts time
  • Practical tools to externalize time
  • Strategies for planning, starting, and finishing when time feels unreal
  • How to forgive yourself for living in a different temporal reality
Deep Dive