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Re: I'm only usually late by 5 minutes…what's the big deal?

Re: I'm only usually late by 5 minutes…what's the big deal?2011-03-16T17:21:18+00:00

The Forums Forums The Workplace Struggling I'm only usually late by 5 minutes…what's the big deal? Re: I'm only usually late by 5 minutes…what's the big deal?

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Anonymous
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Thank you all for posting. I’m 43 and just coming to terms with the fact that I have a severe bit of ADD. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always known that I was “off.” Procrastinate-yep. Get interested in tangents and follow them far off course-yep. Lot’s of other things too. Here’s the flash for me: this unawareness of time is ADD too? Wow.

I’ve always been the weirdest person I know with respect to time. I recently told a new colleague on a startup, “You should probably know that I am always going to be late, and I am always going to be surprised by that.”

I can sleep too little or too much. I prefer to wake up latter and stay up later. I always feel jet lagged when trying to keep a normal schedule. I have no sense for the passage of time. I find it easier than most people I know to stay up all night focused on something and still be 10 minutes late to the presentation. Like other posters here, I have tended to jobs with more flexible hours, but I can say with absolute certainty that I would have been better served in corporate jobs by coming in 30 minutes early and staying 30 minutes late. Instead, I come in 30 minutes later than others and stay for 2-3 hours in the evening. I am happier with that schedule, but wherever their are perceptions or interfaces with the schedules of others there is no doubt it has impacted my earning ability.

I’ve employed lots of tricks over the years, some of them a bit humorous. In the city, I had a small apartment where I rigged halogen floodlight (construction grade) and hard rock music (obscure….Toadies “Possum Kingdom”) set to a timer outlet. I had out of town guests and we went out for late night dinner and drinks. I let the couple stay in my room, but I forgot to dismantle the rig. She had not been to New York before. The 5 a.m. floodlights and full volume guitar rip woke them but good. My friend’s wife still has post traumatic stress! :)

Has anyone else hidden alarms or even counted on an alarm to wake a roommate so that they wake you?

Unfortunately, there have also been plenty of failures and plenty of costs. I don’t have a particular view on the world is supposed to react to me, and really I just feel like I’m getting new information on an old problem. My children have it too, and so I am seeing my experiences with fresh eyes and a renewed interest in coping and management. Good luck and thank you for your posts.

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