Loading practices
Loading practices
Areas › Focus, starting, and ADHD › Your sense of time
The value is in it being fixed. An intention to monitor yourself is far too vague to survive a busy afternoon, whereas a set phrase can be triggered by a chime, a doorway, the kettle boiling. Answer it honestly and move on. Half the time the answer is yes and you carry on with a bit more confidence.
Let every soul consider carefully what it sends ahead for tomorrow (Quran 59:18). Considering carefully is described as a deliberate act, which is what a set question makes room for.
الحشر
يَٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُواْ ٱتَّقُواْ ٱللَّهَ وَلۡتَنظُرۡ نَفۡسࣱ مَّا قَدَّمَتۡ لِغَدࣲۖ وَٱتَّقُواْ ٱللَّهَۚ إِنَّ ٱللَّهَ خَبِيرُۢ بِمَا تَعۡمَلُونَ
You who believe! Be mindful of God, and let every soul consider carefully what it sends ahead for tomorrow; be mindful of God, for God is well aware of everything you do
Qur’an 59:18read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
Two randomised trials, with 383 and 221 participants, tested a self regulation exercise that pairs imagining the goal and the obstacle with a specific plan for what to do when the obstacle turns up. Those trials were about delaying bedtime, so the setting is narrow. What carries over is the shape: a fixed plan decided in advance does better than a general resolve.
Valshtein TJ, Oettingen G, Gollwitzer PM. (2020). Using mental contrasting with implementation intentions to reduce bedtime procrastination: two randomised trials.. Psychology & health doi
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
A rehearsed phrase comes back to you when a general good intention would not.
Nobody works five hours straight. If your estimate assumes you will, then the shortfall gets read as you being slow rather than as the estimate being wrong.
Rushing out of the door is the most reliable way to leave something behind. The hurry uses up the very attention that would have checked for the keys.
If reading has always been slow and effortful, that is worth looking at in its own right. Dyslexia and ADHD turn up together far more often than chance would give, and they need different help.