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?

• Set an alarm to go off every 10 minutes, or which ever chunk of time works best for you.

• Account for breaks.

• Use time tracking apps

• Time yourself

• Use Historical Data

• Assess how long it took after you’ve completed the task

• Combine the steps to make a schedule

• Check you have the time in your schedule

• Decide Who You Need to Involve

• Gather everyone involved

• Get feedback on your estimation

• Estimate someone else’s time

• Imagine how long you think it would take someone else to complete the task.

• Have Someone Else Estimate for You.

• Use a three point estimation

  • best-case scenario
  • worst-case scenario
  • most realistic scenario

• Understand What’s Required

• List all the steps

• Bottom-Up/Inside view estimating: break it down into atomic tasks

• Top-down/Outside view estimating: look back on previous projects that might be similar shape/size/complexity and see how long they took

• Estimate the time required for each step

• Order These Activities

• Add in extra time

• Always overestimate your time requirements 2x-3x

• Estimate in Ranges

• Multiply & divide your estimate by 4, that gives you the lower-end and upper-end of your range.

• Calculate Your Fudge Ratio

• Create and refine your fudge ratio (actual time/estimated time)

• Make your estimate when you’re feeling tired or unmotivated.

• Track your confidence in the estimation and use that to get a better picture of what different levels of confidence indicate

References

1. https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/estimating-time-for-tasks
2. https://zapier.com/blog/how-to-estimate-time/
3. https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newPPM_01.htm
4. https://lifehacker.com/how-to-get-better-at-estimating-time-for-tasks-1626399924
5. https://edgefoundation.org/tips-to-overcome-adhd-time-insensitivity/