Dr. Stephanie Sarkis: Time Blindness - January 6, 2026
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What is time blindness and how does it affect punctuality?
Smart, sharp, and slightly unhinged. Late Night's Fresh Perspective. The Last Show with David Cooper.
more annoying than dealing with a friend or coworker who's chronically late. But what if we shouldn't be so quick to judge? What if it's not rudeness and thoughtlessness, but a brain that experiences time differently than you? Enter time blindness. What is it? Well, we're going to discuss that with author and psychotherapist, Dr. Stephanie Sarkis. Dr. Sarkis, welcome to the show.
How can therapists differentiate between time blindness and procrastination?
Thanks for having me.
When someone is always late, what is the first thing you listen for as a therapist? Like, how do you tell whether it's someone's brain, whether they're experiencing time differently or just a behavioral choice?
I think when we think of choice, we have to be kind of careful with that because when we are running late or we are getting in trouble with friends or family because of our time perception issues, is different or in school you're waiting until the last minute to get projects done, sometimes there's a moral thing of, well, if you just tried harder, if you just worked more at what you're doing, if you weren't lazy. So I think that when people run late, they generally do want to be on time. Who doesn't want to please their partner or friends or So we need to look at the fact that this might be related to issues with the brain, particularly executive functions, which are in the frontal lobe.
Fair enough. But for some people, clearly, it must be just procrastination, not them experiencing time differently than everyone else.
What are the common misconceptions about people who are chronically late?
It depends. It depends. Some people have procrastination that has a brain back reason for it. And some people have procrastination that is related to other stuff. So it really depends on what the other things that we're seeing at the same time. So if it's a cluster of things like. Difficulty showing up on time, difficulty estimating how much time it takes to get projects done, difficulty with seeing the timeline of time. So things are either now or not now. When you look at that cluster of things, then we look at possibly timeliness.
Okay, well, let's talk about time blindness because it sounds abstract.
How do individuals with time blindness perceive the passage of time?
How do people who experience it actually feel time passing? Like I'm always glancing at my clock. I think I'm pretty good about estimating like, oh, this drive is going to take 45 minutes. Having a good concept of where I am in that journey, how many minutes have elapsed. I think I have a pretty good handle of that stuff. For someone who's time blind, how would it be different?
When you have time blindness, you will be in a room without a clock, and somebody will ask you, how much time do you think has passed? And you either over or underestimate, and it's by a lot. So it's not just that you're overestimating or underestimating five minutes. We're talking, you know, 15, 20, 30 minutes. You have a schedule. You know that there's traffic. You know you need to leave early, but somehow you still are not able to get out at the right time. Or you think, you know what, this project is going to take me about 10 minutes to do, when in fact it's an hour. It's a large discrepancy between what time should take and what you actually estimate it to be.
And what can someone who experiences time like that do? Is there a way to sort of function like the rest of us to not be chronically late or I suppose chronically early also?
Well, that's the other thing that happens when people are chronically early. That's the part of time blindness that we don't really talk about as much, is that sometimes people will show up super early because they know they tend to run late. And that's also not an efficient use of time, right?
What strategies can help someone with time blindness manage their schedule?
So if you're sitting in a doctor's office for an hour early, there are other things you could do. And you know that if you just go get some coffee and come back, you're still gonna be not arriving on time. So it really hinders how people live their lives. And so one of the things you can do is do adaptations, block schedule your calendar. Also use timers.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is time blindness and how does it affect punctuality?
0:02–0:39
2
How can therapists differentiate between time blindness and procrastination?
0:39–1:46
3
What are the common misconceptions about people who are chronically late?
1:46–2:21
4
How do individuals with time blindness perceive the passage of time?
2:21–3:38
5
What strategies can help someone with time blindness manage their schedule?
3:38–5:02
6
How does time blindness relate to mental health issues like ADHD?
5:02–6:15
7
What emotional impact does time blindness have on relationships?
6:15–8:03
8
What practical steps can someone take to improve their time management skills?
8:03–9:55
Speakers
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