If you have ADHD, estimating the time it takes to get your your work done can be difficult. On the one hand, you may underestimate the time that certain tasks will take. This can leave you overwhelmed with too much on your plate and not enough time to get it all done. On the other hand, you might overestimate the time that something will take to complete. If this happens, you might notice yourself with open, unproductive time or your efficiency might decrease causing you to take too much time to complete the assignment.
Estimating Time on Your Task List
To help you improve in this skill, I recommend that you get in the habit of estimating how much time a task will take to complete at the beginning of each day. At the end of the day, go back to your to do list and note the actual time that something took. Review your accuracy and reflect on where you can improve your estimating the next time.
This will take practice!
I encourage you to try this for a few weeks and see if your estimating skills improve. Do not give up quickly. This is something that takes some time before you will begin to see results. Let us know how it goes!
Laura, great strategy. I think estimating time is a key developmental lag for folks with ADHD. Good stuff!
Thanks for your feedback David – I appreciate it!