Player Stats: The 8 Executive Functions

Your brain's command center! These are the 8 core skills that help you navigate the game of life.

• Impulse Control: Resisting the urge to act on a whim. The pause button!
• Emotional Control: Managing feelings to achieve goals. Not letting rage-quitting take over.
• Flexible Thinking: Adapting to the unexpected. Pivoting when the game plan fails.
• Working Memory: Holding information in your mind to use it. Your brain's RAM.
• Self-Monitoring: Observing and evaluating your own performance. Watching the replay to see what went wrong.
• Planning & Prioritizing: Creating a roadmap for the future. Deciding which quests to tackle first.
• Task Initiation: Starting a task without procrastination. Pressing 'Start' on the level.
• Organization: Keeping track of information and materials. Managing your inventory.

ADHD Debuff: Common Challenges

This isn't just a "work" problem. Executive function challenges affect every part of life. Neurodivergent people might experience several of these difficulties day-to-day.

• Forgetting to text/call friends or pay bills.
• Double booking or missing appointments.
• Difficulty starting tasks or finishing projects.
• Losing items or misplacing important documents.
• Struggling with time tracking or underestimating how long tasks will take ("Time Blindness").
• Interrupting others or saying things without thinking.

Boss Battle: The Wall of Awful

When a task feels impossible, it's often because it has one of these debuffs. Identify the enemy to defeat it! Is the task...

• Boring? (Painful, frustrating, or under-stimulating)
• Insufficient? (Not enough resources, info, or energy)
• New or Numberless? (Unfamiliar, or has no clear deadline)
• Confusing? (Unclear instructions, too many steps)
• Huge? (Overwhelmingly large or complex)

Identifying the problem is the first step to finding the right power-up!

Power-Up: The Dopamine Menu (P.I.N.C.H.)

An ADHD brain is an interest-based brain, not an importance-based one. To do boring things, we need to add a source of stimulation (dopamine). Try adding one of these to a task:

• Passion & Play: How can you connect this to something you love? Can you make it a game?
• Interest: Find one tiny part of the task that is genuinely interesting and focus on that.
• Novelty: Do the task in a new place. Use different tools. Listen to a new playlist.
• Cooperation & Competition: Race a friend (or the clock)! Work alongside someone else (body doubling).
• Hurry & Urgency: Use a timer (like the Pomodoro Technique) to create a low-stakes deadline.

Memory Tricks

Working memory for ADHDers can often hold fewer pieces of information. These tricks can help us hold more in mind. [cite: image 8]

• Chunking: Grouping items together (like a phone number).
• Memory Palace: Placing items to remember in a familiar mental location.
• Mnemonics & Acronyms: Creating phrases or words to remember a sequence (e.g., ROY G. BIV).
• Associations & Storytelling: Linking new information to what you already know or creating a story around it.
• Visualization & Mind Mapping: Creating a mental image or a visual diagram of information.

Organization Hacks

Accommodations aren't about being lazy; they are a form of self-care and an essential part of managing ADHD. The goal is to reduce friction by automating tasks or building in support.

• Build in Accommodations: Use Bluetooth tags (Tile, AirTag) for keys, medication timer caps, automatic pet feeders, or buy duplicates of essential items (like chargers or reading glasses) to keep in different places. [cite: image 6]
• Macro-Organization (DOOM Buckets): DOOM stands for "Don't Organize, Only Move." Instead of detailed organizing, group items into broad, non-specific categories in baskets or bins (e.g., "Dental," "Skincare," "Entryway Stuff"). This makes cleanup fast and manageable. [cite: image 4]

Interactive Zone: Apply The Concepts

Use these fields to think through your own experiences. Your text is not saved.