I would like to demystify what Executive Functioning is for women with ADHD. After you are done reading my series on EF, I want you to walk about thinking “Wow, I now have a pretty good grasp of Executive Functions, I have a better understanding of why you have difficulty organizing, planning and creating timelines to complete task, and most importantly you will learn strategies on how overcome EF challenges. So you may be asking yourself Coach Jenna what is Executive Functioning.
Executive functioning are the brain skills that a women with ADHD uses these skills every day to learn, work, and manage daily life. Trouble with executive function can make it hard to focus, follow directions, and handle emotions, among other things. Some individuals in the ADHD community have described executive function as the management system of the brain. The reason being these are the skills that let women with ADHD set goals, plan, organize, problem solve and manage thoughts and actions. When a women with ADHD struggle with executive function, it impacts them at home, work and life in general. There are 8 different areas of executive functioning. They are
Planning- This is the ability to figure out how to accomplish your goals, which includes analyze what you need to do and what steps you will need to take to undertake and complete a task.
Organization- Organizing is the ability to develop and maintain a system to keep materials and plans in an orderly fashion.
Time Management- This is being able to have an accurate understanding of how long tasks will take and being able to use time wisely and effectively to accomplish tasks which includes learning to pace yourself and to meet deadlines.
Task Initiation- This is the ability to independently start a task when needed and it is the process that allows you to just begin something even when you dont want to
Working Memory- This is the brains mental processes that lets women with ADHD to hold information in our minds while working with it. It is important to remember information, & following directions
Self-Control- This is the ability to regulate your thoughts, actions and emotions.
Attention- This is the ability to focus on person or task for a period of time without being distracted and to shift your focus when needed.
The difficulty with executive functioning is it can affect women with ADHD in different ways and it can often look like the signs of ADHD. That is due to ADHD is a problem with executive function. With that being said, in this series of Demystify Executive Functioning & How It Impacts Women with ADHD I will be going through each of the EF that I mentioned above in greater detail and some strategies on how to manage it.