Time blindness is a common problem for people with ADHD, so equally hard is estimating the time it will take to complete a task.
How can I help myself be less time blind?
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Set an alarm to go off every 10 minutes, or which ever chunk of time works best for you.
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Account for breaks.
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Use time tracking apps
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Time yourself
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Use Historical Data
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Assess how long it took after you’ve completed the task
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Combine the steps to make a schedule
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Check you have the time in your schedule
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Decide Who You Need to Involve
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Gather everyone involved
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Get feedback on your estimation
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Estimate someone else’s time
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Imagine how long you think it would take someone else to complete the task.
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Have Someone Else Estimate for You.
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Use a three point estimation
- best-case scenario
- worst-case scenario
- most realistic scenario
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Understand What’s Required
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List all the steps
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Bottom-Up/Inside view estimating: break it down into atomic tasks
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Top-down/Outside view estimating: look back on previous projects that might be similar shape/size/complexity and see how long they took
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Estimate the time required for each step
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Order These Activities
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Add in extra time
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Always overestimate your time requirements 2x-3x
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Estimate in Ranges
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Multiply & divide your estimate by 4, that gives you the lower-end and upper-end of your range.
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Calculate Your Fudge Ratio
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Create and refine your fudge ratio (actual time/estimated time)
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Make your estimate when you’re feeling tired or unmotivated.
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Track your confidence in the estimation and use that to get a better picture of what different levels of confidence indicate
References
- https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/estimating-time-for-tasks
- https://zapier.com/blog/how-to-estimate-time/
- https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newPPM_01.htm
- https://lifehacker.com/how-to-get-better-at-estimating-time-for-tasks-1626399924
- https://edgefoundation.org/tips-to-overcome-adhd-time-insensitivity/