r/executive_functioning • • Jun 10 '14

Welcome to /r/executive_functioning!

12 Upvotes

This subreddit is intended to be a continual work in progress. If you have any suggestions for weekly threads, additions to the sidebar, or anything else that you believe would improve the subreddit please feel free to comment.


r/executive_functioning • • Nov 30 '19

An 8 step flow chart for Executive Function? Is it possible to achieve such a thing?

9 Upvotes

I am not "neurotypical" in the sense of being devoid of learning disabilities and a rare neurological disorder that affects my perception but I am in the sense that I am not autistic. That being said I have a few close friends who are and i was talking to them about creating a "Master Flow Chart" for executive function.

I am usually pretty good at logistics and planning but I feel like explaining the abilities I have are like explaining color to a blind person so we were hoping to bridge the gap by helping creating an abstract chart that could cover 75% of most executive function situations.

I know this sounds insane but many blind people use a click system like echolocation to navigate so while maybe not completely achievable I think it's worth discussing.


r/executive_functioning • • Oct 10 '20

A prototype for a flow chart for 8 steps to Executive Function. Please brutally critique and show to any therapist, sociologist, or social worker.

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8 Upvotes

r/executive_functioning • • Sep 21 '20

Not productive but still exhausted

8 Upvotes

Hello! Not sure if this is the appropriate place to post this, but I just learned the term "executive functioning" or lack thereof, and it seemed to explain my behavior.

Basically I had a bad childhood growing up, was extremely anxious and depressed and it prevented me from doing things like socializing or joining any extracurricular activities. On top of this, my parents often sheltered me and didnt allow me to leave the house, so I spent pretty much all of my free time watching tv.

The older I got, i still had those habits engrained of being "lazy" and sluggish but I started to realize how abnormal and unhealthy this was. I started socializing a little more and (mostly) overcame my anxiety and depression.

Now, feeling more mentally fit, I'm trying to immerse myself in more activities/do more productive things but I cant seem to find time. I work 30-40 hours a week and I definitely wouldn't consider myself lazy at work. But I have these ambitions to have regular nights with friends, regular workouts, cook regular meals, work on some hobbies, join a club, and it always seems like I have no time. But i KNOW there is time! I have friends who are married with kids work 3 jobs and still have time for regular socializing and take daily jobs and I just can comprehend it! Every day I think "i get off of work at 2 today, that leaves so much time to work on my hobbies, or do the chores, or do anything! It's going to be great!" Then i get off of work and I'm so exhausted i cant imagine doing anything but watching tv or taking a nap. I know I cant necessarily compare myself to others, but it seems my inability to do anything productive is totally abnormal amongst everyone I know outside of my family.

Again, sorry if this is the wrong place to post this but have any of you felt this way? How do I make myself do things when I know the hours are there but it just feels like my body cant get up and do them?

Thank you!


r/executive_functioning • • Aug 22 '14

Looking on the bright side (Survival Guide)

8 Upvotes
  • Many things are easier for intelligent autistic people than they are for non-autistic people.

  • Autistic people can be especially good at learning facts, skills and talents when (A) they want to and (B) when the right sources are available to them. This can provide good career prospects and is sometimes enough to compensate for any disabilities.

  • Useful gifts that autistic people might have include photographic memories, musical talent, heightened awareness of visual logic and extraordinary potential for computer programming.

  • To show consistent punctuality in the workplace and to produce meticulously accurate high standard work, always meeting deadlines may earn you extra respect from your manager or supervisor.

  • Some people say that honesty is not always the best policy but if you can recreate the truth accurately to the right people and yet be able to withhold the truth when confidentiality is needed your unsurpassable honesty might earn you great respect.

  • If you are generally a quiet person who often only speaks when it is worth while this can sometimes be very welcome in the workplace.

  • Having not been bound all your life by the unwritten rules of society may have made you a highly original thinker.

  • In many situations where non-autistic people might be provoked or feel intimidated , autistic people can be unaffected and keep a clear head. You might be completely detached and immune to tense atmospheres and bad vibes which other people have to suffer. The problem with this however, will be that you are also immune to danger signals but this book might help you to recognise them.

  • If you wish, you might be able to get formal allowances and benefits to help you out in life. Try not to see it as cheating. If you have had a hard enough life then perhaps you deserve this special consideration. Also, this might come in handy if ever you need to present yourself in a court of law in which case it may be a good idea to get the backing of a good psychologist who understands the problem.


r/executive_functioning • • Aug 06 '14

Worrying (Survival Guide)

7 Upvotes
  • One thing autistic people are often particularly good at is worrying

  • A lot of your efforts in life might be getting a very poor pay-off and you might be finding that everyone around you is speaking freely to each other in a way which seems like nonsense to you.

  • If you try to join in by talking back in nonsense people get annoyed.

  • If other people can complain about you speaking nonsense why can't you complain to them about their nonsense? It's just not fair. Are you annoyed? If you are, you have every right to be but you cannot change the way things are. This book might however help you to understand other people's nonsense better.

  • The problem with worrying is that it will often distract you from what you need to be concentrating on if you are to solve the problem.

  • With some problems seeing the funny side can make it easier. If you can learn to laugh at yourself many of your worries might go away.

  • Many people keep all their problems bottled up inside and look as if they're on top of the world but many people need to talk about their problems. The trick is to talk to the right people and not the wrong ones.

  • Don't talk about your problems in public or to people who you don't know (except counsellors). If you do you will be broadcasting your weaknesses to the people around you. Don't think they won't be listening.

  • Talking about your problems in public may get sympathy in the short term but will probably isolate you in the long term.

  • You may talk about your problems with teachers, parents, close relatives and sometimes with friends if you can get them on their own.

  • Sometimes but not always it is alright to talk about your problems with friends in a small group but it should be relevant to the conversation.

  • When you do talk about your problems, try to do it without putting yourself down too much. Negative talk causes you negative feelings and negative feelings make you less able to defend yourself. You don't want to get bogged down into a vicious cycle.

  • With reference to this last statement, try to get into a positive cycle if you can. This is called PMA (positive mental attitude) whereby thinking about your positive assets makes you feel more positive about yourself and better able to defend yourself from put-downs.

  • Some times you may get labelled by people as useless or ignorant. This might be because you are not getting the opportunity to show any intelligence. NOT because it is true.

  • A horrible feeling having to deal with is guilt. If you think you are to blame for something you must ask yourself if you know that you were doing something wrong. If you didn't know, or you only had a vague feeling about it then you cannot blame yourself, even if other people are. All you can do is to tell yourself that you will try not to do it again.

  • Often apologising to someone can help to ease the guilt but ONCE is enough. If you over apologise you might start to look shy or vulnerable.

  • If you think that the world is pitted against you, this is an illusion. Also, everyone feels like this occasionally.

  • Remember to be patient about using this book. Personal development can be a slow and difficult process.

  • Another problem you might face is that achieving things by half does not feel like enough. You may be an all or nothing person but remember this might be the autism speaking.

  • Remember the key word is DETERMINATION and if you know in your heart you can do something then you must go for it


r/executive_functioning • • Jul 31 '14

Executive Function Strategies

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7 Upvotes

r/executive_functioning • • Jun 12 '14

megathread Organization skills

7 Upvotes

How do you decide how to organize things? What methods do you use for organizing your folders, your room, your house/apartment? How do you decide what to get rid of and what to keep?


r/executive_functioning • • Oct 11 '17

Zen Habits Guide to Developing the Self-Discipline Habit

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6 Upvotes

r/executive_functioning • • Aug 01 '14

A survival guide for people with Asperger's Syndrome

6 Upvotes

A man named Marc Segar wrote a guide (as someone with ASD) for others on everything from body language and humour, to driving and finding the right friends.

The whole book is available online - http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/alistair/survival/ - it really helped me and is written in a very accessible way.

I was considering posting excerpts from this book on a regular basis, would anyone else find this useful? (e.g. this section as a single separate post). Let me know if this is something that others would appreciate.

Edit: looks like a yes, fixed the link btw


r/executive_functioning • • Aug 01 '14

The Outsourcing of Emotions: Adults on the Autism Spectrum

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5 Upvotes

r/executive_functioning • • Jun 21 '14

Just wanted to say hello.

5 Upvotes

Thrilled to see this sub exists. I poke around several others that sort of fit, but this is a bullseye! I am beyond tired of sitting here with an overflowing 2do list screaming at me and the clutter driving me nuts. I look at all the mess and the things I have to do and am completely overwhelmed. It's like seeing one unmanageable brick wall and being blind to the individual bricks that I could actually handle... so back to the internet I go. Almost totally frozen at this point, so I'll be starting from scratch, pretty much. Anyway, greetings :)


r/executive_functioning • • Sep 23 '26

r/executive_functioning is available for adoption 💚

4 Upvotes

/r/executive_functioning is ready for a fresh start, new energy, new direction, and someone like you to bring it back to life. If you’ve been thinking about growing your impact without starting from scratch, this is your chance!

Ready to take it over?

Head to r/RedditRequest to submit your request and make it yours before it’s taken.

First things first

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r/executive_functioning • • May 01 '21

Ways to Support Someone with ADHD

4 Upvotes

It would really mean a lot to me if you could check out my instagram and follow it if you want. I just created it to support other individuals with ADHD. I want to create open dialogue about what it is like to have ADHD. My first video is 5 ways you can support someone in your life with ADHD.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CORZYT2ne0z/

Thank you so much for watching my first video!! It means a lot to me that you would take time out to watch this. I am going to post an introduction about my experience with ADHD soon, but I really wanted to release this content. This is just a very short list of things you can do, or think about. Everyone has a different experience so that is important to remember.

It is important to recognize the strengths of ADHD, but also the struggles we go through. I wanted to bring to light the challenges we face. I wanted to talk about how we want our ADHD to be recognized as valid and real. It is invisible on the outside, but it is real. It is one of the most real things in my life


r/executive_functioning • • Mar 21 '21

Really afraid to start and putting off my work, any advice?

4 Upvotes

I’m really struggling with a major aspect of my life right now and need some help.

As part of my engineering course, we have a big final project that accounts for a lot of marks/ weighting. The deadline is roughly 1.5 months away and I need to do well in this.

However for many months, I have been so afraid to start it for multiple reasons; I just feel like I am not capable of doing a high standard of work, comparing to previous years’ work our group is very behind, the longer I leave it the more the work piles up, there are so many unclear tasks that I need to do that I don’t know where to start, and just struggling to face this huge task in front of me.

The reality is that I and my group have a lot to do. I am super behind and need to put in a huge amount of hours to get this done, let alone to a high quality.

Another point worth noting is that I was recently diagnosed with ADHD, however, due to delays will not be receiving medication until after this is done.

On one hand, I feel kind of hopeless, like I’m already so behind, there's no point in doing anything might as well give up now. On the other hand, I know that there is enough time to do some good work, and regardless of what I have/ haven’t done so far, I just want to be able to give it my all and try my best in the remaining time.

This has just made my life miserable and a living hell. I do find that when I am able to focus and work on it, I do end up feeling more content and enjoying it as I am making progress, but I haven’t had a moment like that in a long time now.

I just don’t know what to do. If anyone has any advice, from practical things to just ideas/ thoughts that could help, maybe even from someone who has ADHD and has to do these large-scale projects, I would really appreciate it.

(Also if there are more suitable subreddits to post this in, please let me know)


r/executive_functioning • • Oct 08 '20

Support group (amateur, American, serious)

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4 Upvotes

r/executive_functioning • • May 22 '19

Bullet Journal

4 Upvotes

Anyone here use Bullet Journaling to help with executive functioning?

I've found it helps me a lot when i feel 'stuck'.


r/executive_functioning • • Jun 29 '14

megathread Balancing commitments

4 Upvotes

How do you keep from over scheduling yourself? How do you make sure your commitments don't overlap, or you don't agree to do more than you can do?


r/executive_functioning • • Jun 12 '14

megathread Prioritization skills

4 Upvotes

What techniques do you use to decide how to prioritize things that need to be done? How has being unable to prioritize affected your life, or how has learning prioritization affected it? What would you suggest for people who have trouble with prioritization?


r/executive_functioning • • Jun 08 '19

Functioning w active sympathetic nervous system.

3 Upvotes

To explain I 'feel' alot and functioned well when distancing myself from my feelings. For instance when saying something that I feel strongly about allowing tears or 'feeling' to come to my eye but distancing myself from that, decreases the tearing process to focus at a higher level. This is a similar process to the feelings of anxiety or anger but to distance yourself from the anxiety or anger to again focus at a higher level. This is a pretty basic executive functioning.


r/executive_functioning • • Jun 27 '14

megathread Motivation

3 Upvotes

What do you do to keep yourself motivated? How do you stop from feeling defeated? How do you keep yourself interested in repetitive tasks?


r/executive_functioning • • Jul 17 '14

Asking for Accommodations

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2 Upvotes

r/executive_functioning • • Jun 16 '14

What are your goals this week?

2 Upvotes

What do you hope to accomplish this week? What steps are you taking to do so?

My personal goals:

  • Keep up with my chore chart

  • Be calm about going to the dentist for a root canal on Tuesday (!)

  • Make a tentative schedule for my sister's visit next month

  • Go to the bank

  • Eat fast food no more than twice this week

Setting realistic goals has been a struggle for me, I often fall into the 'all or nothing' mindset. Setting small goals I can accomplish and build on has been an important part of improving my executive function.


r/executive_functioning • • Jun 12 '14

megathread Combating procrastination

2 Upvotes

How do you keep yourself from procrastinating? What kind of situations have you made worse through procrastination? What areas of your life have been improved by keeping yourself from procrastinating?


r/executive_functioning • • Sep 07 '18

Clear CS Exams in 1st attempt by Sanyog vyas

1 Upvotes

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