For years I did not understand time. Like sand on a beach, it seemed infinite in its quantity yet always slipping through my fingers. For years I gave away my attention to make-believe events and to a tortured cocktail of rumination and anxiety with zero return on investment. For years I burned through my energy spinning my wheels on efforts that would never go anywhere.

This is not an uncommon experience for my clients when they come to coaching - struggling to make sense of and utilize these three commodities of time, energy and attention (TEA) in a sustainable and strategic way. It was when I started to see these commodities as they truly are - finite resources - did I actually start to make better use of each. Now I am amazed how all people, neurotypical included, will give away their time and attention without a thought of the consequences.

ADHD makes it very challenging in a number of ways to utilize the TEA resources. As I already stated, you can’t appreciate what you can’t see. With our fluid perception of time our challenges with time go well beyond successful ‘time blocking’. But this is the place to start. Start to develop an awareness of how you spend your time even the time spinning and time wasting. You can’t change your relationship with time until you develop more understanding of the current dynamic. Numbing and escape behaviors are a distraction and get in the way getting an accurate assessment here. See how the value of time changes when urgency is in play and when it is not. Finally start changing your relationship with time by not just giving it away to anyone and anything. View it as the resource it is.

I have come to the belief that when it comes down to it the TEA elements are the most important things we have and really the only thing we have. With each we can create agency and connection where we want. We can give it away. We can share it with others. We can horde it. We can use it as we choose but with any resource we need to learn how it is generated in order to effectively distribute and utilize it.

Where would you like to allocate your TEA?