Executive dysfunction is when you *know* what to do, *want* to do it, and still can't make your body start. It's not laziness. It's not a willpower failure. It's a known feature of ADHD, autism, depression, long COVID, post-concussion recovery, and burnout — and the fix isn't a motivational quote. It's a toolkit of tiny mechanical strategies you can reach for in the moment.
This toolkit is a curated set of those strategies, grouped by the specific failure mode you're hitting *right now*. You don't need to read it all. You need to find the one item that gets you off the couch this minute, then use a different one tomorrow.
Grouped by failure mode
- Can't start — task initiation strategies: body doubling, 2-minute rule, lowering the bar
- Can't switch — transition strategies: hard stops, sensory cues, parking-lot lists
- Can't finish — completion strategies: artificial deadlines, public commitment, "good enough" thresholds
- Recovery — what to do *after* a bad day so it doesn't compound into a bad week
Why this beats generic productivity advice
Standard productivity advice ("just start", "eat the frog", "use a timer") assumes a brain whose execution circuit works the same way every day. ADHD brains, autistic brains, and burned-out brains don't have that consistency. What worked on Tuesday won't work on Thursday. A *toolkit* — many small interventions, picked situationally — outperforms any single technique.
How to use it
Bookmark this page. When you're stuck, scan the section that matches your stuck-ness, pick *one* strategy, do it for 5 minutes. Tick the box. Done. If it didn't work, pick a different one tomorrow. Over weeks you'll learn which strategies your brain responds to and which don't — that personal data is more useful than any productivity book.
Pair with the ADHD task planner for the daily structure, the dopamine menu for the reward side, and the task paralysis helper when you're fully frozen.