Time Isn’t Linear, Anyways: Managing Time Blindness Through Indigenous Perspectives

What Indigenous Time-Keeping Can Teach Us About Navigating Time Blindness

Photo by Roberto Carlos Román Don on Unsplash

Time Isn’t Linear, Anyways

As an Afro-Chicana who grew up in a Mexican household in California, I was connected to my roots in some ways but far removed in others. I call myself Chicana because my lived experience aligns more with that of a Mexican girl born and raised in California—chola life, lowrider and oldies jams (mixed in with some NB Ridaz), hoop earrings and overlined lipliner. My connection to being Mexican often came through finding ways to reclaim identities that had been stripped away. It wasn’t about maintaining traditions passed down uninterrupted but creating new ways of being from what remained. Like many of us, my Indigenous roots felt distant—something I didn’t fully recognize until later in life.

Navigating ADHD as an adult added another layer to this journey. For years, I tried to fit into systems that weren’t designed for me—measuring my worth through productivity and constantly battling the grind of deadlines and to-do lists. It wasn’t just exhausting; it left me feeling like I was failing to meet expectations that didn’t reflect my lived experience. On top of that, I was attempting to adopt structures and models rooted in capitalism and colonialism—the very systems that stripped me and my ancestors of our identities.

Reconnecting with Indigenous practices has been an important part of reclaiming both my heritage and my relationship with myself. The Aztec understanding of time as cyclical, rather than linear, has transformed how I think about ADHD and productivity. It’s helped me move away from rigid capitalist ideals and toward systems and rituals that align with my natural rhythms.

This shift has been about more than just navigating executive functioning—it’s about decolonizing my relationship with time and creating space to show up authentically. It’s about finding meaning not in perfection but in the process itself.

The Tonalpohualli and the Xiuhpohualli

For many Indigenous traditions, including the Aztec worldview, time was not seen as a straight line stretching endlessly forward. Instead, it was cyclical—woven into the rhythms of nature, the cosmos, and the human experience. This cyclical view of time invites us to think about commitments not as rigid, one-time objectives, but as recurring opportunities to show care and build trust.

The Aztec calendar, for example, was divided into two interlocking cycles: the Tonalpohualli (260-day ritual calendar) and the Xiuhpohualli (365-day solar calendar). Together, these cycles represented the balance of the spiritual and material worlds, reinforcing the idea that life moves in patterns and phases. Time was not a march toward an endpoint but a flow of interconnected cycles where each moment builds upon the next.

Viewing time as cyclical reshapes how we approach commitments. In the Western, linear perspective, a missed deadline or rescheduled plan often feels like failure—a single moment to get it “right” or “wrong.” But a cyclical understanding reminds us that each interaction is part of an ongoing rhythm. Commitments are not about perfection but about recalibrating, reconnecting, and recommitting as the cycle continues.

The Aztec practice of nemontemi, the five "empty" days at the end of their solar calendar, were an invitation for a sacred pause—a period to reflect, prepare, and reset for the new cycle. Rather than pushing forward with urgency, these days invited people to slow down, acknowledge the transition, and realign with their purpose.

For those of us with ADHD, this perspective aligns with the concept of situational variability. Just as the Aztecs recognized that not every moment is for action, we can honor that our energy and capacity fluctuate. Nemontemi can remind us to build intentional pauses into our commitments, allowing for reflection and recovery so we can show up more fully when the cycle begins again.

Nemontemi and the Sacred Pause for ADHD

For neurodivergent folks, situational variability often means that a day packed with back-to-back commitments can drain us more than expected, leading to burnout or a spiral of avoidance. Just as the Aztecs created space to reflect and reset during nemontemi, we can give ourselves permission to honor these sacred pauses: