You had arranged to meet at eight. At half past seven you thought you had time to shower, answer an email and water the plants. At quarter past eight you text "be there in five minutes", knowing it is not true. And it is not the first time: it happens at work, with friends and even at the doctor's, however often you promise yourself that next time will be different.

If you keep asking yourself why am I always late, the answer is rarely a lack of interest. Misjudging time is very human, and for some people it is part of something broader, such as ADHD. A phrase has caught on online to describe it: time blindness. This guide explains why we run late, how much truth there is in time blindness, when it may point to ADHD, which test can guide you and what actually helps.

Why am I always late? What happens to almost everyone

The first explanation applies to nearly everyone: we misjudge how long things will take. Psychology calls it the planning fallacy, and Roy, Christenfeld and McKenzie devoted a review in Psychological Bulletin to it, starting from a simple fact: people frequently underestimate how long it will take them to complete a task. Their explanation is an interesting one. We base our predictions on what we remember of previous times, but those memories already fall short; we underestimate how long things will take because we underestimate how long they took.

A second detail helps explain why the plan falls apart. In three experiments by Forsyth and Burt, people allocated less time to a task when they estimated it as a whole than when they added up the separate steps that made it up. "Get ready and leave" looks like a twenty-minute block; "shower, get dressed, find the keys and go downstairs" adds up to a good deal more.

That already explains plenty of one-off delays. What it does not explain is lateness that happens every time, in every area of your life and for years, however hard you try.

What is time blindness?

Time blindness is not a diagnosis. It is a popular way of describing difficulty in sensing time passing, estimating how long something will take and keeping what is coming up in mind. Research uses other terms, but it has found real differences in ADHD.

A meta-analysis by Marx and colleagues, covering 55 studies, found that people with ADHD had more difficulty discriminating very brief durations, more variability when estimating intervals of several seconds and errors when estimating and producing durations consistent with an "accelerated internal clock". It is worth reading carefully what was measured: these are laboratory tasks lasting from milliseconds to a few seconds, not the time of an appointment, so on their own they do not explain why you are late. In children and teenagers, another meta-analysis, by Zheng and colleagues covering 27 studies, found that they perceived time less accurately and less precisely and tended to overestimate it.

In adults, Carelli and Wiberg compared 30 people with ADHD with 60 without and found differences in how they oriented themselves towards the past, the present and the future; the scale that best separated the two groups was the one for a positive view of the future. The study suggests that these biases contribute to the problems with planning and time management that often come with ADHD. And the NHS lists finding it hard to organise your time among the signs of inattention in adults with ADHD.

When you lose track of time

There is one situation many people with ADHD recognise: getting absorbed in something interesting and watching the hours disappear. If that happens to you, we explain it in Hyperfocus: what it is, why it happens in ADHD and when it becomes a problem.

Is always being late a symptom of ADHD?

Not on its own. Lateness has many possible causes and is not a diagnostic criterion. ADHD is something else: a pattern of inattention, hyperactivity or impulsivity whose symptoms, according to the NHS, usually start before the age of 12, and which affects several areas of life. In adults, the NHS describes signs such as being easily distracted or forgetful, finding it hard to organise your time, follow instructions or finish tasks, often losing things like your wallet, mobile or keys, having a lot of energy or feeling restless, being very talkative or interrupting conversations and making quick decisions without thinking about what might happen as a result.

Some signs that your lateness may be part of something more:

  • You misjudge time almost always, even for things you do every day.
  • You forget appointments, payments or commitments even when they matter to you.
  • You start lots of things and find it hard to finish them.
  • You leave anything that needs concentration until the last minute, as we explain in Procrastination: why it is not laziness and what sits underneath.
  • It has happened since you were a child, in calm periods as well as stressful ones.
  • It affects your work, your studies or your relationships.

The NHS advises making an appointment with a GP if your symptoms are affecting your studies, work or relationships, and points out that anxiety and depression can make ADHD symptoms worse.

Is there a test to see if your lateness is down to ADHD?

Yes. The ADHD Test from MyPsicoTest covers exactly what lies behind a lot of lateness. One of its statements is "I find it difficult to get organised: planning, prioritising and estimating how long something will take", and another is "I forget appointments, commitments, payment deadlines or everyday chores". It also asks, for example, whether you start tasks with enthusiasm and find it hard to finish them, or whether you put off tasks that require sustained mental effort.

There are 18 statements about the last six months, answered in about five minutes, each from "Never" to "Very often". The score runs from 0 to 72, with four guidance levels (few indicators, some traits consistent with ADHD, moderate indicators and high indicators), and is broken down into two areas: inattention and hyperactivity and impulsivity. The four statements quoted above belong to the first, so if your main problem is managing time, that area will usually weigh more. The result is calculated on your device and your answers are not stored.

Other tests that may help

Because anxiety and low mood also disorganise your day and can make ADHD worse, the Anxiety Test and the Depression Test, both about the last two weeks, complete the picture. All the questionnaires, free and anonymous, are in the psychological tests catalogue.

What helps if you are always late

Hand holding a phone with a stopwatch running, a way to measure how long things really take and counter time blindness
  1. Time how long things really take. If the problem is that you misremember how long things last, as Roy and colleagues propose, the most direct fix is to measure it: how long you take to shower, to get to the office or to leave the house from the moment you say "I'm off".
  2. Estimate in parts. Split leaving the house into steps and add each one up, instead of estimating a single block; in Forsyth and Burt's experiments, this led people to allocate more time.
  3. Keep time in sight. Set the alarm for when you need to leave, not when you need to arrive, and keep a clock where you can see it in the places where time slips away from you, such as the bathroom or the kitchen.
  4. Give your keys, wallet and phone a fixed spot. It saves you looking for them when you should already be out of the door.
  5. Ask for help with planning. Among the reasonable adjustments the NHS suggests at work or in education for ADHD is having help from another person to plan and structure your tasks.
  6. If it is ADHD, treat it. In a trial by Safren and colleagues published in JAMA, 12 sessions of cognitive behavioural therapy improved symptoms more than relaxation with educational support in adults with ADHD who were already taking medication, and the improvement held at one year. A Japanese pilot trial by Nakashima and colleagues, using group therapy focused on time management, also reduced symptoms. What therapy works on and when it helps is explained in ADHD therapy for adults: what a psychologist works on and when it helps.

At the end of the test you will find our recommendation of a licensed psychologist who works with ADHD and anxiety, online too.

If your result worries you or you want a professional assessment, you can talk to Xènia Capel Salcedo, a licensed psychologist (COPC reg. 14982), who offers a free first consultation call and online therapy from anywhere.

MyPsicoTest team · Updated: