Where does the time go?

We all know that "time flies," but when an average person says that, they're talking about the years. They're talking about time not spent with loved ones, or time wasted on a job you hate - the things you take for granted. Today I want to talk about the hours. The minutes.   I'm sure everyone has had an experience where they sit down to the TV (or read a book, or browse Facebook….oh Facebook you are a time thief) when suddenly it's 3 hours later and you didn't even notice. For me, this happens with almost everything I do. Every activity takes me twice as long as I expect it should, which means that if I sleep eight hours a day, I only have eight hours left over to plan my day. I've adapted for scheduled, required things like doctor appointments, allowing myself 2-3 times as long as I think it should take for me to get ready and arrive on time, but in my daily life, it is crippling.   My daughter is in preschool for three hours these days. I've been struggling to make effective use of this time since she started in August, but since I started the elimination diet, I've found that those three hours are entirely taken up between travel time and then preparing and eating lunch - even if I just throw a salad together. I may have time to do one chore, but I certainly can't do a load of dishes, a load of laundry, wipe down the kitchen, and pick up toys and run the vacuum in the living room - just a very basic list of things that need to be done every day in order to keep things functional. (If you don't understand why the vacuum must be run every day, then you don't have a toddler, and that's fine. I was the same way once.) I certainly can't find time for things like writing short stories, or fitting in a blog post.   Earlier in the year, I used my bullet journal with pretty decent results, to help gain me some control over time, but as I got mired in all of my mental health fog in the middle of the year, I fell out of the habit, and I'm finding it very, very hard to dig myself out and return to healthy habits. What I'm experiencing is not at all uncommon for people with anxiety. A lot of what causes me to take extra time on things is that my mind never stops moving. So when I'm in the middle of making my salad, my mind will wander onto all the other things I need to do. Then I'm stuck with either a) doing the new thing right then b) postpone the thing but continue thinking about it, worried I'll forget, and making it much more difficult to finish the task at hand in a timely manner or c) take a note to get to the other thing later, which also takes up time, and can add up if it happens ten times while you're just trying to make some lunch.   I heard once that anything that takes two minutes or less to do, should always be done immediately. I suspect the guy that made up that rule is neurotypical and doesn't have two-minute activities coming to him every 60-90 seconds all day long.   Television and/or video games can be an easy way to self-medicate. If I can get into something else, I can sometimes numb my mind from its mile-a-minute pace and just slow down for a minute. Meditation or something mindful to focus on the moment might be more healthy, but it's a lot more work and not nearly as fun. Do you lose control of time, too? Does anyone have any tips or tricks for time management for people with anxiety, depression, or AD(H)D? Let me hear them, and I'll also come back with some of my own tips that have been effective in the past, if I can ever find the time.