Adult Add: "hey, Doc... Sorry I Didn't Make It.--add."

Are you someone whose whole existence is rushing from one thing to the next thing, constantly apologizing, “I’m so sorry I’m late. What did I miss?" Or do you run from meeting to meeting or miss appointments with the dentist? (Or ignore them, because you know you won't make the appointment anyway.)

Do have ADD, and is that your life? Do you feel incompetent? Stuff like that can wreak havoc on your self-worth, especially if you have ADD. You begin to feel that the image you're putting out is that you're an idiot, because you can’t do things on time. But you're far from that. ADD people are generally very intelligent. But their ADD takes them in many directions at once.

People with ADD also have a tendency to over-promise: “Yes, of course we can do these 72,000 things in the next half hour. No problem!”

If you have ADD, you may wonder how you can stop these behavior patterns.

People that don't have ADD go from one thing to the next, to the next, to the next, to the next. You need to get yourself to that place. Use your ADD ability to hyperfocus to do it. When you do, your life will be extremely well managed, but it’s not necessarily something that you do on your own behalf. You may have to ask for help, as in delegating tasks that can be done by someone else.

And you have to recognize that there are different kinds of time. One strategy that you can use is managing your time by blocks, by types of activities, so that you can have flexibility in your calendar and easily move from one thing to the next. Consider three types of time in your life, that’s it. With ADD, if your scheduling isn't simple, it just gets too confusing.

One type of time is "Focus" time. That means no distractions. That means nobody gets to walk in and ask you a question. Nobody gets to have an appointment with you. Nothing. Literally put that on your calendar: "8 a.m. to 11 a.m.: Focus Time. NO interruptions."

If you’re focused on a project, work on it then, and allow everything else to just move away. Train the people in your house, the house cleaner, your neighbors, etc. Let them know that you don't want to be bothered during that time.

Then have some "Flex" time. Flex time is when you really want to get something done, but you realize that there probably will be interruptions. The phone might ring, somebody might come to the door; you might have to go to a client appointment, whatever. In Flex time, you expect interruptions.

Instead of working on intense projects during this time, do something that's fairly easy and can be done around interruptions, so that your ADD doesn't. This might be a good time to clean your house, put away groceries, or to run errands.

Then there’s "Free" time. Free time doesn't include "have-to’s." During this time, there should be no demands placed upon you. You get to do whatever you feel like in that block of time.

If you have a book you want to read, a television show you want to watch, or a video game you want to play--all "free" time activities.

Perhaps you want to schedule some of this "free" time in the middle of your day, as well as at the end of it. That way, your ADD brain keeps from being bored and may find sticking to the schedule easier.

With ADD, it's easy to become muddled if there are a thousand things to do. But if you order the kinds of time you have--focus time, flex time, and free time--and plan for them daily, you'll no longer have to worry about missed appointments and not getting things done on time.

You won't have to think of yourself in negative terms anymore, either. You won't over-book because you know you won't have time for it. Having ADD, you'll need to write your schedule down every. If you follow it, you'll not only have controlled your ADD, you'll be a less frustrated person.