#22 ⌛The PM Interview and Timekeeping

How to make time for the important things in life and get things done a little faster.

Today’s newsletter is brought to you by a 3-hour sprint.

Part 12 of the Product Manager Interview and Executive Function (EF) Series. Scroll to the bottom to see the domains of EF I’ll be covering in no particular order.

1. The PM Interview and Executive Function Overview

2. Task Initiation

3. Flexible Thinking

4. Self Monitoring Part 1

5. Self Monitoring Part 2

6. Planning and Prioritization

7. Organization (Part 1 Feelings)

8. Organization (Part 2 Strategies)

9. Emotional Regulation (Part 1 Accessibility)

10. Emotional Regulation (Part 2 Outbound)

11. Impulse Control and Working Memory

12. Timekeeping

🌋Takeaways

• Time blindness is the inability to accurately perceive or estimate the passing of time.

• Time blindness can have serious impacts on everything you do.

• The more vividly you can imagine feelings and consequences, the more motivating it will be.

• Improving time management skills takes practice, tweaks along the way, and lots of patience.

• Now shorter and with more line breaks for your attentive ADHD.

🐼Learn more about ADHD Coaching

⭐Introduction

My newsletter has a time problem. I write long-form form stories for an audience with an attention disorder. Why should I expect you to read my posts when I barely can? I’m reminded of this every time I find a grammar issue after I’ve published a post. Maybe you noticed them and thought less of me. Or maybe you never noticed them because you are just like me. Either way, I can write too much and edit too inattentively to be an effective newsletter for people with ADHD. Right?

Thank god I have ADHD and I’ll forget the shame in a few minutes. Or maybe it’ll get seared into my memory when you negatively comment below. What was I talking about again? Ah yes, timekeeping. The thing helps me under and overestimate the time it takes me to do everything.

I don’t think my daughter has ever seen one of these. A pastel blue bell-style alarm clock in the middle of blue and pink color blocks.

💀Story - Being shackled by the shame of lateness

Every week I battle time to complete my newsletter. On average it takes me 8 hours to write one newsletter and I publish not too long after I finish. I have no backlog of prepared issues to publish. No backups in case I’m sick. Just me and my ADHD fixation on writing each week.

In a true ADHD fashion, I created a goal to write a newsletter and didn’t bother to research how to best launch and maintain a newsletter. I dove in headfirst and 22 weeks later, here I am. Still writing and publishing on Wednesdays…ish.

While I may not be late to show up to job interviews or movie times, I often struggle to estimate how long a task should take. Most of the time I underestimate the time it will take me to do a task. In my head, the newsletter should only take me 3-4 hours a week. Job interview prep should only take me 2-3 hours. Getting dinner on the table should only take 20 minutes. Nope, nope, and nope.

What’s crueler is if I’m on track complete a task under the planned time, I tend to slow down and let myself get distracted. Surprise, I’m late again. Or use the extra time to ruminate on how I messed up since I got it done too fast. It’s a cycle of tardiness and shame running on my hamster wheel of ADHD.

A hamster running on a clock wheel created by AI. It’s weird but enough it’ll entertain you. An abstract drawing of a block clock with hamsters where numbers should be.

⚗️Science - How time blindness impacts life

Time blindness is the inability to accurately perceive or estimate the passing of time. It was first coined in a 2001 research paper testing the differences in time estimation and task reproduction of children with ADHD vs controls. It’s something ADHD brains share so much, scientists gave us a new term. Some consider it as part of the diagnosis criteria¹.

ADHD time blindness can disable our ability to form and maintain relationships. Not getting things done in the time you expected or established with others has a domino effect on everything else you do. “Showing up late to dates, meetings, and everything in between sends a message: I valued you less than something else. A person left waiting every time feels they’ll never be as important as literally anything else you could be doing.”² Recognize your disability can unintentionally others. It is difficult to work or be friends with others if they don’t believe you respect their time.

I’ve chosen to let time blindness give more time for the newsletter instead of getting a job. It’s easy to justify to myself that writing about interviewing with ADHD is the same as practicing for interviews. It’s not. You wouldn’t want someone who has only read about how to drive, driving you to the hospital right?

I need something more emotionally powerful than my time blindness. Something that reminds me each hour why I’m doing what I’m doing. For me, that’s the fear of missing out on experiencing life with my wife and daughter. Not going on vacations to Thailand and Europe or getting that unicorn bed for her I keep promising. And the most American problem, not having health insurance because healthcare is tied to employment.

I haven’t left the country in 4 years and that makes me feel antsy. A pink flamingo floating in teal-colored water.

🦄Strategies

• Double the time estimate (source)

  • I do this with daily tasks. I double whatever it is even if I think I’m close. It’ll save you from shame and letdowns.

• The more vividly you can imagine feelings and consequences, the more motivating it will be. (source)

  • Surprise, emotional regulation is at the heart of what drives our actions.

• If you break a task down and you still can’t start, then it’s not little enough. Make it smaller. (source missing)

  • Task initiation and time blindness go together on this one. If you can’t estimate the time properly, break it down smaller and you’ll get a better sense of what needs to be done to create a better estimate.

• Improving time management skills takes practice, tweaks along the way, and lots of patience. But it also depends on self-compassion and celebration: Go for small wins first and notice your successes. Soon enough, they’ll grow into the long-lasting changes you desire. (source missing)

  • Don’t be afraid to change the order of tasks to get the dopamine hits you need to keep on task and fight time blindness. Knowing when to walk away or continue to focus is equally important.

• Listen to music (source)

  • Listening to music has been shown to help most people focus. For people with ADHD, it can help your ability to perceive time by providing an external cue for your brain to track time while you focus on another task. In addition, it may also provide the emotional stimulation needed for your brain to kick its own time perception system or the emotional state needed to stay on task.

✨Conclusion

I set a goal for myself to get this newsletter done in 3 hours and less than an 8-minute read time. I also wanted to make it more ADHD-reading-friendly. Two of my mentors have told me I spend too much time on the newsletter. I know that I do and I kept telling myself I would change. I finally found a reason to do it.

If I continue to do what I’m doing and stay time blind, I’ll miss out the some of the important things in my life. Making memories with my family, and making the world more accessible for others. If you need an accessibility product manager or an ADHD coach, reach out. I’d love to learn what’s important in your life too.

I published this with 40 seconds left in a 3-hour timer and 6-minute reading time.

🐼Time blind and in a bind?

⏭️Next Week

Attention and focus. My favorite subjects.

A wheel with 10 domains of executive function: organization, attention and focus, impulse control, time-keeping, planning and prioritization, self-monitoring, working memory, flexible thinking, emotional control, task initiation.

1. https://www.verywellmind.com/causes-and-symptoms-of-time-blindness-in-adhd-5216523

2. https://adhdhomestead.net/time-blindness-feels/