An Interview with :: Dr. Ashley Weintraub, PhD

HOW DO YOU HELP A PERSON WITH ADHD WHO STRUGGLES WITH TIME MANAGEMENT?

Well, specifically with ADHD, the concept of time blindness. So kind of not recognizing if I have like an assignment due in three weeks, the sense of three weeks doesn’t really make sense to me. Not until like the night before. ’cause people with a ADHD typically aren’t motivated by much other than like urgency, interest, and novelty. So if something’s not novel, if it’s not interesting, and if it’s not urgent, I’m not really thinking about it and I’m not motivated to initiate that task. Part of the skill is kind of creating either urgency or interest or novelty.

HOW DO YOU CREATE URGENCY, INTEREST AND NOVELTY FOR AN ADHD PERSON?

So if I’m like, I’m a student and I have a report to write and it’s in two weeks, like, how do I kind of give a sense of urgency? And so sometimes with, with clients, I like to kind of be their accountability partner… where it’s like, okay, you know, message me when you’ve completed this part of the task. So we’ll maybe break down a task into smaller components, and using our therapy sessions, or even using messaging… to keep them accountable and help make time more tangible.