Tools and Tricks to Improve Your Executive Functioning
Part 2: Time Blindness and Impulsive Choices
In my last post, I wrote about the practice of externalizing memory as an essential part of managing ADHD. Here, I will tackle a different common challenge of ADHD: “time blindness” and impulsive choices.
How Does ADHD Affect Choices About the Future?
ADHD is often associated with difficulties in planning and time management. For example, people with ADHD find it harder than others to estimate time, and to notice how much time passes while they’re doing a task [1, 10, 13].
These practical problems seem to go together with systematic biases in time perspective [8]. For example, one study found adults with ADHD to be more present oriented, and their view of the past as well as the future to be more negative and less positive than that of control participants [2]. The strongest predictor of ADHD were low scores on future-oriented statements that involve planning, organization, and timekeeping.
In line with this, many studies have shown that people with ADHD tend to make more impulsive choices than others [5]. Even when given time to think about their choice, they tend to favor small immediate rewards over larger delayed rewards more often than people without ADHD [7, 11, 12]. These are surprisingly robust findings that have been replicated in many studies and confirmed through meta-analyses, which showed minimal evidence of publication bias [5, 7].
ADHD Hacks Part 2: Taking Care of Your Future Self
While ADHD makes planning for the future particularly challenging, very few people complain about making decisions that are too good for their future, such as saving too much money for retirement or eating too healthily.
So, whether or not you have ADHD: would you like to align your daily choices more with your longer-term goals? Here are some tricks that can help us delay gratification and act in the best interest of our future selves.
1. More immediate rewards: reduce time between your action and its consequences
If potential consequences in the future are not enough to motivate you, you may have to add immediate consequences to your actions that align with the direction you want to go in. That means that you reinforce actions that align with your future goals, and make your unwanted actions (e.g., habits you want to break) harder or less rewarding. There are many ways to do this, and it might require some creative thinking to come up with your own tricks. Here are some ideas to get you started.
Breaks as rewards
Schedule your breaks for after you complete a task, instead of taking them as a way to procrastinate before you get started. That way, your natural needs for coffee breaks, meals, relaxation, etc., act as rewards for tasks you’ve completed. After practicing this regularly, your brain will learn to associate your work with the following reward through experience, and starting the task will become a stronger (reinforced) habit. As a nice side effect, you’ll be able to enjoy your breaks more if you feel that you deserve them.
Token-systems
Rewards do not need to be physical for humans (though they can!). Even for children, token systems work really well, where desirable behaviors are rewarded with tokens, which can be saved up and exchanged for a bigger reward (such as a favorite meal, or a new toy). There is no reason to think token systems should be any less effective for grown-ups, just because we think we should not need them anymore in order to motivate ourselves. The only challenge with token systems for adults is that it is usually within our own control to withhold that bigger reward (such as a bigger purchase) until we’ve collected enough tokens. If you’re working towards a real reward, you might want to work with someone who helps you set up a specific token schedule and is “holding” that reward for you.
Symbolic rewards
Rewards can also be entirely symbolic, such as in the form of stickers or “gold stars”. Again, they work even with children, so why not use again what worked in the past? One of my clients made the astute observation that it was precisely their symbolic nature that made stickers effective for her: as opposed to “real” rewards, there was no temptation for her to give herself a sticker for a task she didn’t complete.
If stickers are not your style, maybe color-coded spreadsheets will do the trick to track your progress?
Fast checklists
Create “fast” checklists: break your task up into many sub-tasks that you can check off rapidly, as you work through them. This has the added benefit of making your task more specific and therefore actually easier. It also means, however, that the creation of a “fast checklist” is in itself a task, perhaps the hardest one. Acknowledge it as such, schedule it, and reward its completion. One of my clients had the most success when he added “Write Next Fast Checklist” as the last bullet to his fast checklist.
Make tasks self-rewarding
When possible, make tasks more exciting or interesting (= self-rewarding). This might require some creative thinking, and is not always possible, but might be worth some thought. Can you modify your task to make it more fun, even at the cost of some of its effectiveness? Where this works well is for activities like exercise or chores, which might be more fun when listening to music, podcasts, or audiobooks. For example, Kathy Milkman and her colleagues found that their study participants were more likely to visit the gym when they were combining their exercise with listening to the Hunger Games as an audiobook [9]. They called their trick “temptation bundling”.
Gamify your tasks
The strategy of “gamification” also uses these elements of defining, tracking and rewarding progress. In addition to that, gamification could include timed challenges or competition to make your tasks more exciting. Again, this might not work for all of your tasks, but when it does, it can be very effective.
Work with someone else
Another way to add accountability is to work with someone else. This adds an immediate consequence (someone else’s success) to your showing up for your work. Only use this strategy if you know that you WILL show up for someone else in a way that you wouldn’t for yourself. An example of this is “body doubling”, where you work on your task by yourself, while someone else is present (in real life or virtual via camera), who is also focusing on their own task. Their mere presence can help you stay on track. Additionally, it may boost your motivation and make the task more enjoyable and achievable. If you can’t think of any friends or colleagues who would benefit from this kind of work session with you, consider a virtual platform such as Focusmate, which sets you up with a stranger for virtual sessions.
2. Constrain Future Options
Pre-commitment
Consider restricting the choices of your future self, if you’re sure that your current preference will be better in the long run, but are worried your future self might lack self-control. One of the oldest examples of a pre-commitment strategy was Ulysses’ instruction to his sailors to bind him to the mast of their ship, while it was sailing past the island of the sirens. That way, he would be able hear their enchanting song, but not act on it. Meanwhile, his sailors filled their ears with wax, as a different way of shielding themselves from the same temptation [4]. In modern life, some effective forms of pre-commitments are setting up automatic savings accounts, making plans to exercise with someone else, or throwing out the sugary snacks in your pantry.
Design a strong “default option”
This is a concept from choice architecture. It is essentially a toned-down version of pre-commitment: make your desired option the easiest one. Remove obstacles, so that you will automatically do your planned action, if you don’t make any active and effortful decisions to the contrary. For example, instead of throwing out all sugary snacks, you might just put them out of sight on a higher shelf. Similarly, you might write down meal plan before going grocery shopping, and put those meals in the calendar. Without having to actually constrain any of your options, designing a healthy (but delicious!) default might already make a difference in your eating habits.
Routines are a special case of setting a strong default. In order to build a routine that really sticks, think it through in detail. Design your ideal routine in a way that excites you, or at least feels realistic and friendly. (Always be kind to your future self!) Schedule it, then practice it. Don’t expect it to work right away. Start practicing it as a way of collecting data of what works, and what needs to be planned differently.
3. Visualize the Future
Visualize the future in more detail. In her recent book “Attention Span”, Gloria Mark [6] recommends that we picture ourselves relaxing at the end of the day, in order to find more motivation to be productive during the day.
If you tend to run late for appointments, visualize the people who might be waiting for you, or visualize getting there early enough to greet them as they arrive.
If you want to save more money for retirement, picture yourself as an older person. Several studies have shown that people are more willing to delay monetary rewards after looking at realistic virtual images of their future selves [3]. Real-world tests even have confirmed that this would be a cost-effective, practical, and scalable intervention to nudge people to save more for their retirements [14, 15].
4. Dare to Over-Correct
Do you consistently underestimate how long something should take (even more so that other people)? First of all: recognize the problem. Be honest with yourself as to whether chronic lateness is a problem that affects your relationships, your work, or other aspects of your life. For example, when you have appointments, do others more often have to wait for you than you have to wait for them? If they – even while being polite – see this as a lack of respect for their time, it will affect your relationships.
If you’re serious about wanting to fix this, plan more transition time than you think you need, and extra buffers. Set yourself a challenge of being always early for an entire month, then evaluate whether you like your life better this way. (Bring a book, laptop or phone to keep you entertained while you wait. In case you didn’t know: that’s most likely what other people are doing too, if you rarely have to wait for them.)
Similarly, does chronic lateness affect your work? Do you miss out on opportunities by missing deadlines? If you’re a freelancer or contractor, do you short your own income with estimates that are too optimistic? Try the other extreme for a while. Under-commit and overdeliver, until your time estimation skills become more realistic. Don’t make promises if there is uncertainty.
This might require some sacrifices. It likely requires you to limit to yourself to fewer commitments. You might have to admit in advance that you can’t accomplish as much as you or others would like you to. Will that be painful? Absolutely. But that particular pain is not unique to ADHD. Remember that it’s not your fault that life is so short.
To sweeten the pain: insert buffers into your schedule that double as breaks. Enjoy the break you get when you’re done with a task earlier than you thought.
Ready to Take Care of Your Future Self?
Whether or not you struggle at all with time blindness, or impulsivity, or any other ADHD symptoms: would you like to start taking better care for your future self?
If you’d like to put some of the strategies I mentioned here into practice, or explore others with me, I’m excited to hear from you. I often see people go through astonishing transformations starting with small practical changes. It is always exciting and rewarding for me to be part of that process. I’d love to help you figure out where to start, and how to develop your own tricks that work best with your personal style and preferences.
by Ursina Teuscher (PhD), at Teuscher Decision Coaching, Portland OR
Picture Credits:
Images 1, 2, and 5: created with the assistance of OpenAI DALL-E and Microsoft Designer
Image 4: picture of stickers donated by my coaching client with permission to share
References:
[1] Barkley, R. A., Edwards, G., Laneri, M., Fletcher, K., & Metevia, L. (2001). Executive Functioning, Temporal Discounting, and Sense of Time in Adolescents with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD). Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 29(6), 541–556. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1012233310098
[2] Carelli, M. G., & Wiberg, B. (2012). Time Out of Mind: Temporal Perspective in Adults With ADHD. Journal of Attention Disorders, 16(6), 460–466. https://doi.org/10.1177/1087054711398861
[3] Hershfield, H. E., Goldstein, D. G., Sharpe, W. F., Fox, J., Yeykelis, L., Carstensen, L. L., & Bailenson, J. N. (2011). Increasing Saving Behavior Through Age-Progressed Renderings of the Future Self. Journal of Marketing Research, 48(SPL), S23–S37. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkr.48.SPL.S23
[4] Homer. (2024). The Odyssey (W. C. Bryant, Trans.). Standard Ebooks. https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/homer/the-odyssey/william-cullen-bryant
[5] Jackson, J. N. S., & MacKillop, J. (2016). Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Monetary Delay Discounting: A Meta-Analysis of Case-Control Studies. Biological Psychiatry. Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, 1(4), 316–325. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bpsc.2016.01.007
[6] Mark, G. (2023). Attention Span: A Groundbreaking Way to Restore Balance, Happiness and Productivity (Original edition). Hanover Square Press.
[7] Marx, I., Hacker, T., Yu, X., Cortese, S., & Sonuga-Barke, E. (2021). ADHD and the Choice of Small Immediate Over Larger Delayed Rewards: A Comparative Meta-Analysis of Performance on Simple Choice-Delay and Temporal Discounting Paradigms. Journal of Attention Disorders, 25(2), 171–187. https://doi.org/10.1177/1087054718772138
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[9] Milkman, K. L., Minson, J. A., & Volpp, K. G. M. (2014). Holding the Hunger Games Hostage at the Gym: An Evaluation of Temptation Bundling. Management Science, 60(2), 283–299. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2013.1784
[10] Nejati, V., & Yazdani, S. (2020). Time perception in children with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): Does task matter? A meta-analysis study. Child Neuropsychology: A Journal on Normal and Abnormal Development in Childhood and Adolescence, 26(7), 900–916. https://doi.org/10.1080/09297049.2020.1712347
[11] Patros, C., Alderson, R., Kasper, L., Tarle, S., Lea, S., & Hudec, K. (2015). Choice-impulsivity in children and adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): A meta-analytic review. Clinical Psychology Review, 43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2015.11.001
[12] Pauli-Pott, U., & Becker, K. (2015). Time windows matter in ADHD-related developing neuropsychological basic deficits: A comprehensive review and meta-regression analysis. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 55, 165–172. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2015.04.011
[13] Ptacek, R., Weissenberger, S., Braaten, E., Klicperova-Baker, M., Goetz, M., Raboch, J., Vnukova, M., & Stefano, G. B. (2019). Clinical Implications of the Perception of Time in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): A Review. Medical Science Monitor : International Medical Journal of Experimental and Clinical Research, 25, 3918–3924. https://doi.org/10.12659/MSM.914225
[14] Robalino, J. D., Fishbane, A., Goldstein, D. G., & Hershfield, H. E. (2023). Saving for retirement: A real-world test of whether seeing photos of one’s future self encourages contributions. Behavioral Science & Policy, 9(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1177/23794607231190607
[15] Sims, T., Raposo, S., Bailenson, J. N., & Carstensen, L. L. (2020). The Future Is Now: Age-Progressed Images Motivate Community College Students to Prepare for Their Financial Futures. Journal of Experimental Psychology. Applied, 26(4), 593–603. https://doi.org/10.1037/xap0000275
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