Time blindness describes a weak internal sense of time: ten minutes and an hour feel much the same from the inside, deadlines stay abstract until they are suddenly urgent, and estimates of how long things take are routinely off. The term is closely associated with ADHD, where it was popularised by the psychologist Russell Barkley, but many people recognise it to some degree.
Why it matters
If you cannot feel time passing, plans built on time quietly fall apart. The fix is rarely more effort; it is making time visible outside your head so you do not have to sense it.
How to apply it
- Keep a running timer where you can see it, not hidden in a background tab.
- Break work into short, fixed blocks so the end is always close and concrete.
- Write down how long tasks actually took, and plan from those numbers instead of from feel.
- Set alarms for transitions, not just deadlines.