Guidance for: I'm late to almost everything

Plan backwards from the door

Lateness usually isn't the main event running long — it's the invisible steps around it. Shoes, keys, charging, the last small thing you decided you had time for.

Then, if you have room for it

• Start at the door and work backwards.
• Count the invisible steps: finding things, transitions, the bathroom, the goodbye.
• Set the alarm at leave-by minus fifteen and treat that as the real time.
• Reduce transitions in advance — bag packed the night before, one home for keys.

Watch

• How to (actually) get out the door on timeHow to ADHD · 9 minSpecifically about the invisible steps that make you late, not time management generally.(opens in a new tab)
• How to master time management: ADHD skills part 1Dr. Tracey Marks, psychiatrist · 12 minExternalising time — clocks, timers, and estimating how long things take.(opens in a new tab)

Read

• Punctuality and time blindness: help being on timeADDitudeStrategies from 1,859 surveyed adults on actually arriving when you said you would.(opens in a new tab)
• Running late again: time blindness and my ADHD brainADDitudeReaders on stacked alarms at 15, 10 and 5 minutes before leaving.(opens in a new tab)