Do Aspies have problems with time???

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Time can be a hard thing for me and often it can cause problems.

yes apparently I can say I do with some certainty now.

I personally have a couple of very difefrent problems with time.

First of all, time often goes too slow. It sometimes goes to fast, but when I'm having a not-so-much-ASD moment, I'm too fast for the world... or the world's just too slow for me.

The second and realer (I feel it is more related to the topic of time) is that while I am aware of the meaning of the terms

present
past
future

I cannot plan like that. I am aware that someday I will have arrived in what is now my future, but to me, it's really just someday, something and not the present. The present feels ultimately real, but the future does not and neither

It often happens that when I tell something, I am talking of something that happened ages ago. So totally not affecting me that it is of the furthest past. Or in case of the future; I often speak of one day, think it does not concern me what happens already next week.

Similarly, something can have happened more than 14 years ago... and I feel it's totally a part of the present and use the present tense (until I notice!) to describe it. Or I speak in a way that moves this event from 14 years in the past to... only a few months ago.

I have like, a normal intellectual understanding of tenses and such, but no intuitive understanding.

I constantly have problems with time. There never seems to be enough of it in a day.
When I'm doing my work, it seems to take forever. But then when I finally stop being distracted and settle down the time flies and I haven't finished, stranded in my mountain of coursework again.

Then in the mornings when I get ready for school, I talk to an Aspie friend of mine over breakfast. Before I know it more often than not, I've missed the bus.

I sometimes feel like the whole world is a wagon, driving away from me. And sometimes I can keep up and sometimes I get knocked into the mud, and I just can't.

i deffinately have problems with time

I have no sense of time. I make plans, and miss them only to remember weeks later. In taking a minute to do something, I can be distracted for hours. Other times, I get things done in absurdly short amounts of time that make others baffled. I have trouble fitting into others' schedules. My memory is a particular problem, as it keeps everything that has happened over thirty years in the present, so that something that happened long ago feels like it just happened, or vice versa.


M.

Not afraid of clocks, but I've never know what day or month is, and sometimes I mistake the year too.. around 1995 and 2009... crazy huh!?
The time past so fast and I never have enough to do what I should, I wake up and soon I need to go to work, and then I am waking up again, and a week is gone...

I am always late, and I hate to be late.

Most of the above for me too. I've reached the point where I really don't care what time, day, month or year it is, it all seems so irrelevant.

I think the entire Australian Aboriginal race is the same (no, I'm not one of them).

But I do like the words in a song sung by Nana Mouskouri:

"... Love can make the summer fly, or a night seem like a lifetime ..."

Nice, I like this one by Lamartine (I assume most of you will not understand french, so here is a translation I googled)

"The Lake
And so, driven on ceaselessly toward
new shores, carried beyond return into eternal
darkness, shall we never cast anchor for a
single day in the ocean of time?
O lake! the year has scarce run its course,
and by the cherished waves that she was meant
to see again, see now! I come alone to sit upon
this stone where you saw her sit!
One evening, do you remember? we
were sailing in silence, hearing over the waters
and beneath the heavens only the distant rhythmic
beat of oarsmen on your harmonious waves.
Suddenly, a voice, its strains unknown on
earth, struck echoes from the enchanted shore;
the waters listened, and the voice which is
precious to me spoke these words:
O time, suspend your flight! and you, fortunate hours,
stay your journey!
Let us savour the fleeting delights of the finest of our days.
Let us love, then, let us love! be quick to enjoy the fleeting hour!
Mankind has no harbour, time has no shore; it flows, and we pass on!
O lake! wordless rocks! caves! dark forest!
You who are untouched or made young
again by time, cherish, fair nature, cherish at
least the memory of that night.
Let the moaning wind, the sighing reed,
the gentle scents of your fragrant air, let all that
is heard, seen or breathed, let all say: They have
loved!"

The only problem I have with time seeming to move too fast or slow is based upon how interesting that activity is. As they say, "Time flies when you're having fun." However, I do have difficulty understanding the change in time that occurs when one travlels from time zone to time zone. Anyone else?

It took me at least two years in grade school to finally learn how to read a clock but I do not perceive of time at all like oridinary people do. I quickly realized however that it was important to others so I established a way of dealing with it all. For instance if I have an appointment at say 10 in the morning or even 3 in the afternoon I get ready first thing when I wake up and then just wait around until it's time to leave which for me is at least an hour before a meeting even if it only takes 5 minutes to get there. I very seldon look at calendars, almost never at clocks unless for appointments. 25 years to me seems about as significant as 25 minutes. I could go on but it would be boring to you.

Not bored ... interested. Thanks for sharing your story. I didn't have trouble learning about clocks and time, but the rest of your story is much like me. I use technology to remind me of appointments. I even have my workplace computer remind me each day when it's time for lunch ... left to my own devices, I wouldn't bother till I got hungry, which might be as late as midnight.

strangely enough, I'm in an industry where everything I do is timed. I have clocks around the office, on my pager, in the van, etc... I can do like the others, and generally estimate the amount of elapsed time given a quick reference earlier.

I, too, have difficulty with time.

I cannot estimate periods of time at all. If someone tells me to do something in five minutes, I have to look at a clock or I won't know when five minutes has passed. If someone asks me how long ago something occurred, I don't know unless I happened to look at a clock.

I also cannot estimate how long a particular activity will take. This really annoys supervisors.

I have had to learn to constantly check the time. I have clocks in every room, carry a watch, and I use alarm clocks and Outlook to keep myself on schedule.

Sometimes I know I have to leave in a few minutes in order to make it in time for an appointment/class, but I still get distracted with something until it's about ten minutes too late and then I have to get dressed quickly and run like crazy to end up being only several minutes late.

I usually remember the approximate date, but that doesn't prevent me from thinking "I have to do this assignment by tomorrow" and then remember I haven't done it about a month later.

I'm not 100% convinced this is an Aspie issue, although by the looks of this thread it seems likely.

I'm quite good at judging the passing of time, also. I haven't worn a wrist-watch for several years now, but I'm often able to judge the time with dead-reckoning to within 5 or less minutes, even after not having seen the actual time for several hours.

What I'm not very good at is associating that time with a schedule. I'll have the nagging feeling I'm supposed to be doing something, but all too often, I won't make the connection. This has been a constant source of trouble for me.

I don't however, feel that my perception of the speed time flows is distorted, I'm 99% certain that 30 mins of time feels like 30 mins of time to someone else, and the old adage, "time flies when you're having fun" applies equally to pretty much everyone.