Time Agnosia, Time Anxiety, And The ADHD Waiting Mode

I recently had a session with a client where we were talking about procrastination, and I noticed that they appeared to do something I did. I have a tendency not to do anything before an appointment, no matter what time of day that appointment might be. This is called ‘waiting mode’. So, I shared my hypothesis that I thought my client was doing this, and it turned out they were. This then led to me looking into this peculiar habit, and voilà, this article was born.

 

 

What Is ‘Waiting Mode’?

 

According to Bustle, for most people, it’s possible to do multiple things in 24 hours. For people like me, having a 15.00 appointment means I leave the rest of the day before the appointment is vacant. Basically, we essentially sit and do nothing while waiting for the appointment, hence it being called “waiting mode”. And annoyingly, I can still be late because of this, as more often than not, I won’t get ready early either. I’ll do that just before I leave, in the same way as if it was an early morning appointment.

 

For people with ADHD, this is a frustrating state where one event/task dominates that person’s brain, making it impossible to focus on anything else. But as far as I’m aware, I don’t have ADHD, so I’m not sure why it also affects me. However, it appears that many people experience this even though they don’t have ADHD. If Tiimo and InFlow are to be believed, the reason why this might be affecting people who don’t have ADHD might be because of a combination of executive dysfunction, anxiety, and time agnosia. Time agnosia, also known as time blindness, is when someone struggles to perceive the passage of time.

 

Autistic Qualia explained how anxiety can be a factor in your waiting mode. They suggest that it can be because you might be worried about missing your appointment, so you don’t want to lose track of time by engaging in other tasks. There’s also the possibility of having to mentally prepare yourself for the event or appointment that might put you into your waiting mode. For neurodiverse people with autism and ADHD, then the waiting mode might be a coping strategy for managing the common symptom of hyperfocusing (Autistic Qualia).

 

As reported by Bustle, a therapist by the name of Amy Braun states that the waiting mode functions as a way to feel that you have control over your surroundings, helping to manage your anxiety. This eliminates other factors that otherwise might cause additional stress.

 

 

How To Manage Your Waiting Mode

 

Time blocking

If you know you’re going to have something to attend, something that will trigger your waiting mode, then allocate specific time blocks to fill in the gaps before your appointment. A good way to help you start getting going with this is to set the first few or all the blocks to tasks that don’t require much energy (Tiimo). That’ll help you get into the habit of doing this, while also helping you understand that this won’t get in the way of your later appointment.

 

This is one I use a lot, or at least a version of it. If I have an appointment, I’ll often set times around it for stuff like going food shopping or some other task that requires me to go outside. Thus, making it both worth the effort and avoiding my waiting mode at the same time.

 

If you have ADHD, then one way to manage your waiting mode and avoid the dreaded couch lock is to keep tasks simple. Pretty much as I just stated above, but also to factor in selecting tasks that are urgent, novel, interesting, or challenging (InFlow). You can also give tasks a sense of urgency by setting timers.

 

Mindfulness and grounding

According to Tiimo, mindfulness can help manage rumination, helping you to stop worrying while you wait for your appointment. Thus, practising mindfulness and grounding techniques can help you stay present.

 

Journaling

Another way to avoid rumination causing you to enter your waiting mode is to offload your thoughts and anxieties from the internal memory that is your mind to an external memory that is your journal (Tiimo). This frees your mind up for other things.

 

 

Worries

If you often find yourself struggling with your waiting mode, whereby things like worries and anxieties can keep you distracted and unable to do anything while you wait, then making a list of priorities might help you become unstuck. Writing a list of priorities for the day can help you avoid going into your waiting mode, preferably using things you want to get done that day (Lifehacker). There’s also the added benefit of feeling a sense of achievement as you complete these tasks.

 

Physical activity

If you have ADHD or just find that you have too much energy, which makes it difficult to focus when you have an appointment later that day, then engaging in some form of fitness can help burn off that excess energy, helping you to focus.

 

Time management techniques

There are a lot of time management techniques that can be used to make use of your time before an appointment so you can avoid going into waiting mode. Creating a to-do list ready for that day can help. So can adopt the Pomodoro technique (for more on that, click here). Setting hard-to-ignore reminders, such as calendar notifications, is another way that can help you break from going into waiting mode, as is setting realistic goals (Tiimo). I’d be lost without the calendar app on my phone.

 

Schedule/reschedule

When possible, try to schedule things for the same day so you’re not stuck in waiting mode all day. In other words, try to stack your appointments so that they are all on the same day. Another strategy is to reschedule your appointments to a time better suited to avoiding your waiting mode. So if you have an appointment booked for 17.00, but that will mean you’ll be stuck in your waiting mode all day, then try to get it rescheduled to a morning time so it doesn’t waste your whole day (Unconventional Organisation).

 

 

Summary

 

It doesn’t require you to have ADHD to experience the issues of slipping into the waiting mode. As they say, awareness is half the battle, so if the waiting mode is ringing bells for you, then there are several strategies that can be actioned to help avoid your waiting mode wasting your precious time. Even if you use that precious time to do something like gaming.

 

As always, leave your feedback in the comments section below. Also, please share your experiences with the waiting mode in the comments section below as well. Don’t forget, if you want to stay up-to-date with my blog, you can sign up for my newsletter below. Alternatively, click the red bell icon in the bottom right corner to get push notifications for new articles.

 

Lastly, if you’d like to support my blog, then there are PayPal and Ko-fi donation payment options below. You can also become a member of Unwanted Life. For more information, check out the membership options here. Until next time, Unwanted Life readers.