                                The ADD sense of time 
                      leads to intense "now or never" sensations,
                         wild outbursts of creative activity
        
                       Article plus footnotes and two sidebars
                        
                                  Dave deBronkart
                                 
                        "When it came to perception of time, 
                        [Edison] was lost. Experiments were 
                        timeless . . . in Edison's mind events 
                        blended and telescoped into each other, 
                        and he misplaced even fairly recent 
                        events by as much as three months. `I 
                        have got no memory at all for dates,' 
                        he confessed."
        
            
             Many modern Hunters report a sense of time like Edison's.
        They have no sense that time is slipping by, yet once they get
        started on what Thom Hartmann calls "Hyperfocus," they have an
        extraordinary ability to bring things together "all at once." The
        result can be unexpected and creative results which are often
        produced in a mad flurry of activity. 
        
             This script, played out over and over again, can leave other
        people shaking their heads in disbelief (or dismay). Many ADDers
        grow up with a string of such episodes, which invariably end in
        remarks such as "See what you can do when you apply yourself?" 
        
             But it's not a matter of will power. A behavior pattern this
        strong and this consistent, occurring in so many people, is
        rarely a matter of laziness. It suggests there's something in the
        structure of the situation that makes it happen. 
        
             I propose that this pattern is caused by the ADD sense of
        time, in which there are only two moments: "Now" and "Not Now." 
        (Not Now is also known as "Some Other Time.") Two traits are
        important, and each has multiple consequences in the ADD sense of
        time.
        
        Main subhead:
        Trait 1: 
        "All at once" sense of time
        
        Minor Subhead: 
        Time is irrelevant to the Hunter's mind
        
             When the Hunter's in the hunt, no other time is important:
        the only time that matters is Now. The Hunter must not tire,
        either physically or mentally. Nor must thoughts be devoted to
        what's happening next month.
        
             In contrast, agriculture requires a sense of time.  As
        Hartmann pointed out in his talk at the Adult ADD Conference in
        Ann Arbor (May 1993), when it's time to plant the seeds, it's no
        time to go off pursuing some fascinating new idea. An agrarian
        has to do things at the right time, and has to know when the time
        is right.
        
             The Hunter lives in the moment. Either the time for
        something is Now, or it's Not Now. There are no shades, no subtle
        gradations of time between now and next week. For that matter,
        next week doesn't seem much different in urgency than next month,
        and next month doesn't seem much different from next Fall.
        (That's why many of us start our Christmas shopping in
        mid-December -- at the earliest!)
        
             When it's Now for the Hunter, time isn't a factor: nothing
        else matters, just the pursuit of the goal. And when the hunt is
        Not Now, then time doesn't matter, either. In fact nothing
        matters until the moment is Now.
        
        Minor Subhead: 
        Seeing things "all at once" means 
        we have no "depth perception" 
        for the passage of time
        
             The everyday experience of depth perception has a strong
        parallel in how we sense the passage of time.
        
             Depth perception lets us sense when something is
        approaching.  Whether it's a car on the highway or a beast in the
        bush, we need to know when things are getting closer, and we need
        to know how fast they're approaching.  Survival depends on it.
        
             Similarly, most people have a sense of how rapidly dates are
        approaching: how many shopping days until the holidays, how long
        until that paper is due, how much time before supper. 
        
             But not everyone has that sense.  Some people live their
        lives constantly running up against deadlines.  Year after year
        they end up wondering what stores are open late Christmas Eve. 
        Or they wait until the last minute and pull marathon project
        all-nighters, over and over and over again.  Or they're
        chronically late for supper even when they WANT to be there on
        time. 
        
             Why?  Because they simply don't notice the time going by. 
        Like someone with no depth perception, they have no sense that an
        object (the date) is approaching.  It's just as if each moment
        had no connection to any other, so changes in "distance" were not
        apparent.
        
        Minor Subhead:
        The alternative:
        peripheral vision lets you 
        be aware of more, "all at once"
        
             But depth perception isn't the only way to survive. You can
        also prosper by being aware of what's going on all around you. In
        the vision metaphor, that's called peripheral vision.
        
             Some birds, for instance, have eyes on the sides of the
        head.  Their two visual fields don't overlap so they don't have
        depth perception.[See note 1] Instead, they have more peripheral
        vision: they see more of what's going on around them. They're
        more aware of everything going on all at once.
        
             My sense of time is like that: peripheral vision, with lots
        going on all at once, but no "depth perception," little sense
        that anything is getting closer.
        
             Now let's look at how this trait - no sense that time is
        passing - unfolds in the life of an ADD person.
        
        Effect 1: Endurance 
        (if the topic is interesting)
        
             When most people start working on something, it "gets old"
        after a while. But if you have no sense that time is passing, and
        the work is interesting, nothing can stop you except physical
        exhaustion.
        
        Effect 2: No sense that the future 
        is getting closer.
        
        Consequence 1: Impatience. "I want it *now*" is commonly heard
        from ADD mouths, from board rooms to baby's room. Why so
        impatient?  Because to someone with no sense of time, "in a
        little bit" simply means "Not now." 
        
             And to someone with no sense of time, "Not now" is the same
        as "Never."
        
        Consequence 2: Intensity.  If there's no future (just Now), then 
        there's nothing to save your energy for.  When you're "on,"
        you're on all the way.  Quite literally, ADDers sometimes feel
        such intensity that they say "It's now or never" and throw
        themselves into things passionately. (And they LOVE the
        stimulation they get from such intense experiences!)
        
        Consequence 3: Time slips away, imperceptibly.
        
        Major subhead:
        Trait 2: 
        Easily triggered orienting 
        response.
        
             The hallmark of ADD, the easiest thing to notice, is
        distractibility.  But as Hartmann explained in his book, that's
        just another name for responding to every signal in the
        environment.
        
             This trait has many implications in the ADD life, but I
        suspect none are more powerful and pervasive than its effects in 
        time.
        
        Consequence 1: One is constantly being interrupted, either
        externally or internally.
        
        Consequence 2: This means one never gets any experience of how
        long a task takes.
        
             We learn from what we experience. I can tell you exactly how
        long it takes to drive from my home to Boston, because I've done
        it hundreds of times without stopping. 
        
             But I have no idea how long it would take to drive from home
        to the supermarket to the sub shop to the pharmacy to the gas
        station and home without stopping, because I've never done that.
        
             An ADD person who's constantly switching tasks has one basic
        problem: s/he is constantly "driving" in short bursts, and never
        gets any experience of how long the total trip takes,
        uninterrupted.
        
             This has a major, sometimes catastrophic consequence:
        
        Consequence 3: Such a person has no way to predict how long a
        task will take. (See sidebar, "One, two, many.") Having never
        made the trip, the person is powerless to do anything but take a
        wild guess.
        
        Major subhead:
        The setup for deadline crisis
        
             Connecting the two traits where we left off, we get this
        picture as a project progresses:
        
         1. With no idea how long it will take, the worker feels "There's 
        plenty of time." Of course, with no sense of the size of the
        project, that's natural enough.
         
         2. Meanwhile, time is slipping away imperceptibly.
         
             What a setup! As if by magic trick, the time slips away and
        the project (which seemed to fit the schedule easily) sits
        untouched.
        
        SUDDENLY THE DEADLINE HITS!
        
             All of a sudden the time to do it is NOW!  At last. There's
        no time left to put it off, no choice to be made, no question
        that the work must be done Now. 
        
             And just as suddenly, the other characteristics kick in.
        Intensity takes over, gripping the mind, and endurance kicks in,
        enabling the worker to put in 48-hour stints or more. 
        
        We have hyperfocus.
        
        Does this sound familiar?
        
        Major subhead:
        How to harness these traits and 
        put them to work as we want
        
             Does this mean an ADD life is doomed to pandemonium, to
        out-of-control deadline crunches?
        
             Maybe, maybe not. The first question to ask is, do you
        *like* the way your life is? If so, then don't change it! If you
        enjoy your life and you're not messing up the lives of those
        around you, then why change?
        
             If you do want to change something, then decide what it is,
        and think about these tips:
        
        [each tip is a minor subhead]
        Tip 1: Understand that you 
        don't sense the passage of time 
        as others do. 
        
             Self-awareness is powerful. Once you realize that others see
        things you don't, you immediately understand why they act
        differently and expect things differently. This alone takes away
        some of the tension.
        
        Tip 2: Ask others for estimating advice.
        
             This can be done easily, even if you choose not to disclose
        your ADD to co-workers. (After all, the issue isn't ADD, it's
        your performance, which in this case refers to estimating
        ability.) 
        
             One ADD/Hunter executive routinely asks co-workers (above,
        below, and at his level) "Boy I've got a lot on my plate. I'm
        trying to get a reading on where I sit, schedule-wise. Could we
        toss some thoughts around for a few minutes?"
        
             It may take a few tries to find the "estimating partner"
        who's just right for you. But if you'll be patient, and
        experimental, you may find someone whose opinions are better than
        yours.
        
        Tip 3: Build up your experience of how long things take, by
        addressing your distractibility.
        
             Whether you do it by self-awareness, medications, or other
        therapy, develop the ability to shove distractions aside when you
        choose to.  Once you do, you'll be startled at how rapidly your
        estimating ability improves. After all, how many times would you
        have to drive the market-pharmacy-gas route before you knew how
        long it takes?
        
        Tip 4: Be much more conservative in the commitments you take on.
        
             When somebody asks you to add something to your to-do list,
        be careful! You may not be qualified to answer "Do you have time
        for this?"  
        
                "[Edison's] intentions were usually good, but he had
        trouble turning anyone down, and kept committing himself to far
        more than he could accomplish. . . . clocks and schedules were 
        nuisances." Conot, p. 111.
        
        Tip 5: Set up your work life so timelessness is fine. 
        
        If you can't stand punching a time clock, don't get a job
        supervising a 9-to-5 staff! [Footnote 2]
        
             Consider piecework, too, so that your "binge" tendency can
        be explosively profitable for you. Explosive binges are like the
        lion's hunt: they can produce enough "nourishment" to provide for
        long periods of low activity in between.
        
             Now look at the structural changes we've created: 
        
         1. Being aware that our experience is different from others, we 
        understand why we need to approach deadlines differently;
        
         2. The work situation may have changed to make time immaterial;
        
         3. By being aware that time slips away imperceptibly, we know to
        do a "reality check" more often, and to enlist the help of a
        partner.  Result: Time *doesn't* slip away imperceptibly anymore.
        
         4. By accumulating some experience at not being distracted, we
        build up our first-hand knowledge of how long things take. 
        
        So we work both aspects of the setup: the feeling that "There's
        plenty of time" and the tendency of time to slip away
        imperceptibly.  The result can be a marked decrease in unwanted,
        unexpected deadline crisis.
        
             Whether you want to be like Edison (making amazing
        discoveries though constantly off schedule) or be more like those
        you work with, knowing your own true nature is an invaluable
        first step.  Once you understand your ADD sense of time, you can
        work with it instead of against it.  And that's bound to make
        your life easier.
        
