Are you Always Running Late? You Might Have a Medical Condition Linked to ADHD

If you're always running late, you might have a medical condition linked to ADHD. It's okay to tilt your head and say huh, that seems kind of strange. Here's the scoop...

There are obvious problems with constantly running late, from potentially losing your job to missing out on certain things.

Many adults with ADD/ADHD arrive late every time, even if they tell themselves that they will be on time next time and they conscientiously work on it. Some people will over compensate by always being early or setting their clocks back, etc.

Each category of tardiness explains a little bit about your situation. Identifying your tardiness and why you are constantly late may help.

POSSIBLE REASONS FOR YOUR CHRONIC TARDINESS

• Lack of interest at work:  adult with ADHD do best in high stimulating jobs, but sometimes you have to take a job that is repetitive and mundane. Increasing your personal goals and motivation may help you get back on the time track. Lack of interest is a big one that involves more than just your job. If you have life events and appointments that don't really interest you, you will find yourself late, even if you think you are interested, you may not be.
• Distorted sense of time: when you are in the middle of doing something time can move slowly for you making you feel like you have plenty of time to finish your task and meet your obligation of being somewhere on time. Often times you might think that your current task will only take 10 minutes and in reality it takes up to 30 minutes. It may sound silly, but a way to help you stay on task and be on time more often is by setting a kitchen timer. Set the timer for say 20 minutes, even if you think it will only take 10 minutes.
• Poor time management skills: It's not that you can't manage your time completely, you just have trouble with planning and following through. You may find yourself not leaving enough time for a task and getting distracted with something completely different. A task, that in itself may be too much to handle, that may help is to track what you do for one week with realistic time stamps for each task. This way as you go forward you will have a better grasp of your time and commitment to a project.

To summarize the possible problems associated with your chronic tardiness each situation needs to be looked at more closely, how you approach your tardiness and the importance of it all in your life.

If you are always late by varied time increments, five minutes, 15 minutes or half an hour, you may have an issue with time management. Going back again to the unrealistic idea of how long tasks will take. And those tasks can be as 'simple' as driving or taking your morning shower.

If you are always late by say ten minutes, you could be intentionally making yourself late. You are, in essence, arriving exactly when you want to. You may not want to do what others expect of you. Another reason might be to create your own little crisis, you may thrive on the risk of being late, it just may be an adrenaline rush for you, the kind of rush you need to actually get yourself moving.

Some people might just have anxiety about where they are going while others push the envelope to help avoid any down time.

At the end of the day it's about timing yourself, realizing why you're late and taking small steps to control your behavior.