Executive Dysfunction

For those who don’t know what ExDys is, a rough summary would be, “Doing stuf is hard.” Think you’re a lazy person, and wish you weren’t? It’s probably this. Executive Functioning is every part of your mental process that is involved in doing a task, from time management, prioritizing, and planning, to starting it, and focusing on it. Executive Dysfunction is when that’s buggered up a little bit or a lot. It’s extremely common in ASD and ADHD, as well as depression and anxiety disorders, and degenerative disorders like Parkinson’s and MS, and a whole bunch more. It’s very commonly (and dangerously) mistaken for laziness.

So, I have seen a lot of posts on Executive Dysfunction and they’ve been very helpful. However, the tips are often mixed in with people’s stories and personal accounts. It can sometimes be difficult to find the important information, so I decided to collect and summarize a bunch of tips.

Not everything is helpful for everyone, and none of these are specifically study/homework/college/uni/work tips. Some of these might be over-simplified, feel free to google a specific tip to get more detail on it or whatever. Do what works, and feel free to add to this list!.

H.A.L.T.: Are you:

Hungry? Eat something.

Angry? Redirect your focus.

Lonely? Talk to someone.

Tired? Have a nap.

Use a planner or app. Get used to checking it regularly.

In the morning or better still, the night before, write a list of what you need to do that day / the next day.

Write your list in the order you intend to do your task

Break down tasks into steps as much as you need to..

Every third or fourth or fifth line on your list (or wherever it fits best) leave a line free. This breaks up your list, makes it look less overwhelming, and you can focus on getting through one group at a time.

Is there something, anything in this task you’re averse to? ELIMINATE IT. If that’s not possible, minimize the thing/s as much as you can.

Don’t like doing stuff where people might look at you? Find a way to do it when / where people aren’t around.

Are there sensory issues? eg. you don’t like the feel of touching food while washing dishes? Wear rubber gloves.

Alternate between tasks you enjoy and tasks you don’t.

Play fun music! Or an audiobook, or a podcast. Something to make the task more enjoyable.

Do the task for just five minutes. Doesn’t matter if you stop after those five and do something else, just as long as you get started on it.

Use the timer method. Time somewhere between 15-30 minutes (The Pomodoro technique puts it at 25 minutes) for you to do work. When the timer goes off, set the timer for 5-10 minutes, so you can take an active break.

Active break ideas include:

Taking a walk around the block

Talking to someone

Making yourself a snack

Passive breaks include reading a book, or playing on your phone. Don’t do those. It won’t work, you’ll stay on your break forever.

Don’t like the sudden ring of chimers? Make a playlist (off shuffle) with 15-30 minutes of non-lyrical music (like classical or video game soundtracks) for your work. Follow this with 5-10 minutes of white noise, for your breaks.

Too keep track of time’s existence, search the play or apple store for an hourly chimer app. Many of these can have the chimer regularity changed (eg hourly, or every 30 min, or 15 min)

If you’re getting restless, do some exercise.

Walk around the block

Do some squats, pressups, starjumps, whatever works.

If Tumblr’s a distraction, refresh the page often, and soon you’ll run out of new posts to read.

Or get an app / extension that blocks other apps / websites. Like StayFocused.

Instead of saying, “I should do this” or “I need to get up now”, ask yourself “When will I do this?” or “When will I be ready to get up?”

Count down from 10 (or 15, or 20) and on zero, get up and do the thing.

Don’t put the thing down, put it away.

Meal prep two times a week. This can save you money as well.

Plan / lay out your outfit the night before.