There is a certain irony of spending a day writing a blog post about managing your time because you have had so much to do that day and also get chronically distracted! Whilst this is an introductory exercise, and I have two modules under my belt completed well within the allotted 12-month timebox, I still thought it important to stop and reflect heading into this module.
A few times in previous modules I've been caught out with my time. The biggest gaps have been to do with my mental health, but I've also not acknowledged that the difficulty of the course will increase as the sections progress. I have discovered that allocating the same amount of time for each section is a recipe for disaster!
Time Blindness
In April of this year, I was finally diagnosed with ADHD. Getting this clarity started to put so many of my life experiences into context. One of the aspects of ADHD that often has a huge effect on lives is a deficit in executive functions relating to time. This is often described as "Time Blindness" by clinicians and those in the neurodiverse community [3]. The video [1] below is a really good overview, and I particularly appreciate that the speaker talks to how this particular aspect has huge ramifications in adult life.
Adult life is about showing up. ADHD chronically gets in the way of this, and not because you are selfish, insensitive, or callous. People with ADHD are often more sensitive than neurotypical people. We just can't follow through with intention. I definitely saw this in action at the start of my last module: my tutor gave me a large window to complete my work, and instead of making me feel comfortable, it had the opposite effect and I ended up with crippling inactivation paralysis.
So, going into this new module, I need to up my accountability. It's not my tutor's job to do this for deadlines - they hold me to account on other aspects. So I need to make sure that I try approaches that help me along the way. I found an informative article [4] that gives some tactics, and I was pleased to see that I have already put some into practice:
Breaking down tasks
My professional life has led me to learn a lot about Agile development frameworks and Lean processes. Knowing myself better this year, I realise that I have been drawn to these approaches as they promoting breaking down work into small (but meaningful) chunks, and put into place ways to create much smaller feedback loops - thereby increasing accountability.
I already do a lightweight personal Kanban for my studies, but as this is only visible in my studio, it's sometimes not been followed or updated as much as I would like. My studies do not live in isolation but amongst all of the other activities and commitments in my life. So I have started to try and manage this in a slightly different way.
Operate on the worst-case scenario
Now, this doesn't mean I am pessimistic. I just understand humans have a cognitive bias to estimate time in an overly positive and ego-centric way. This is then exacerbated by my time blindness! My Dad was in the Navy, and would hold us accountable in my childhood for being ready: "If I was late for the ship, it would sail without me!". This has actually been a positive influence in my life. I usually start from a place where I assume that things will take the longest time possible and that mistakes will happen. I then try and work back from there to try and start in good time for that outcome.
It's by no means perfect, but it does mean that I hate feeling unprepared, and use my brain's inclinations to help me research on what I need, and hopefully give myself enough time to pull things together with the assumption that I will get sidetracked multiple times along the way! I usually still end up with a last-minute dash, but the difference is that I can cope with it.
Bullet Journalling
Over summer I wanted to try a different way of organising myself. I did some research and found bullet journaling. My previous impressions were that this was the domain of super-mums, YouTubers and scrapbook collectors. What I didn't realise was that the core method was created by a guy with ADHD who did a very similar job to me! [2] Understanding how he'd translated some of the techniques we use with teams to journalling unlocked how this could be useful for me.
So I've been trying my best to use my journal every day. I still have gaps, especially on weekends but it's becoming more and more useful as a place to get things out of my head, but not to become overwhelmed. I'm slowly getting more done each day with these micro-accountabilities.
Tight timeboxes
The main thing that gets in my way during a module are activities that have a higher strength in capturing my attention than my uni exercises. This is hardest for those exercises that I am less excited by. I have developed lots of mechanisms to tailor my environment to avoid time-sucks like gaming or watching TV, and re-focus that time to my studies.
That means that I know I can actually get the hours in if I structure my space in the right way. But, I also need to have my goals placed within much shorter time horizons than other students might be able to get away with. I think it will be important to continue this with my new module and Tutor, and set myself shorter, ambitious deadlines. My earlier sections can be the shortest, as typically they are a bit easier. This gives me two benefits:
If I need to extend a deadline, it doesn't go from on-time to late, it goes from ambitious to on-time. But if I do meet that ambitious deadline, it won't be because I have rushed the work, it will be because of focus, hard work, and application.
I can extend the timeboxes gradually as the sections progress, to give myself the space needed to give the final sections the time and effort they deserve.
Finally, the one thing I need to keep aware of when taking these approaches is not burning out and exacerbating other mental health challenges like my cyclothymia. This is one area in which I hope my tutor can contribute: to help keep me accountable from a wellbeing perspective. Making space for exercise is something that I want to do more of, and I am sure it will help with much of what I have written above.
Let's do this!
References
Barkley, R., 2014. 30 Essential Ideas You Should Know About ADHD: 5A ADHD Is Time Blindness. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmV8HQUuPEk [Accessed 3 December 2020].
Carroll, R., 2018. The Bullet Journal Method. London: 4th Estate.
Read, B., 2020. What Is ‘Time Blindness’ And Do You Have It?. [online] The Cut. Available at: https://www.thecut.com/2020/04/coronavirus-self-isolation-time-blindness.html [Accessed 3 December 2020].
Tuckman, A., n.d. Are You Time Blind? 12 Ways To Use Every Hour Effectively. [online] ADDitude. Available at: https://www.additudemag.com/slideshows/stop-wasting-time/ [Accessed 3 December 2020].
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