Executive functioning, in plain English

"Executive functioning" sounds like corporate jargon. It actually means the bundle of skills that let you start a task, keep going, switch when needed, and remember what you were doing.

The eight skills, in plain English

1. Getting started — the gap between knowing what to do and actually doing it.
2. Working memory — holding several things in your head at once.
3. Planning — breaking a goal into steps in the right order.
4. Organisation — keeping track of stuff and information.
5. Time awareness — sensing how long things take and how much time has passed.
6. Emotional regulation — staying steady when things go sideways.
7. Flexible thinking — adjusting when plans change.
8. Self-monitoring — noticing how you're doing while you're doing it.

ADHD turns the volume down on all eight. Not because of laziness — because the brain literally signals these systems less reliably.

Practical tools

• Externalise everything. If it's not written, on a list, or visible, your brain treats it as gone. Notebooks, sticky notes, phone reminders — whatever you'll actually look at.
• Body doubling. Doing a task alongside someone (in person or on a video call) bypasses the "can't start" wall.
• Chunk the start, not the finish. "Open the laptop" beats "do the tax return."
• Visible timers. Time blindness eases when time becomes a shape on a screen.

These aren't crutches. They're prosthetics for a real difference. Use them.