Executive function challenges at work
Work asks a lot of us. Deadlines, meetings, emails, competing priorities, difficult colleagues, performance reviews. For most people, it’s manageable most of the time. But for adults with executive function challenges, including those with ADHD, autism, dyslexia, or dyspraxia, the workplace can feel like a place where you are constantly running to stand still.
The frustrating part is that executive function challenges at work are often invisible. You might be highly capable, creative, and full of good ideas, but still struggle enormously with the organising, prioritising, and following through that your job requires. That gap between potential and performance is one of the most common things that brings people to coaching.
This might sound familiar if...
You work best under pressure and close to deadlines, but struggle badly when things are open-ended or self-directed.
You know what needs doing but can't make yourself start it, even when the deadline is approaching.
Your desk, inbox, or filing system is in a state that causes you low-level stress most of the time.
Meetings are exhausting because you're trying so hard to stay focused and keep track of what's being said.
You say things in meetings without thinking them through first, and then wish you hadn't.
Switching between tasks feels jarring and costs you more time and energy than it seems to cost other people.
You forget things your manager or colleagues have told you, even when you were listening and meant to remember.
You've been told you have potential but need to be more organised, more consistent, or better at managing your time.
You leave work feeling drained in a way that feels out of proportion to what you actually did.
Which executive functions are involved
The workplace demands a wide range of executive function skills, often simultaneously. What makes it particularly challenging is that most workplaces are designed around an assumed level of EF that not everyone has, and very few offer any support when those skills are a genuine challenge.
Many people with EF challenges have developed clever ways of coping at work. Those coping strategies can still be exhausting. Exploring what’s actually going on, and building strategies that work with your brain rather than against it, can make a much more sustainable difference.
Many people with EF challenges have developed clever ways of coping at work. Those coping strategies can still be exhausting. Exploring what’s actually going on, and building strategies that work with your brain rather than against it, can make a much more sustainable difference.
Many people with EF challenges have developed clever ways of coping at work. Those coping strategies can still be exhausting. Exploring what’s actually going on, and building strategies that work with your brain rather than against it, can make a much more sustainable difference.
Many people with EF challenges have developed clever ways of coping at work. Those coping strategies can still be exhausting. Exploring what’s actually going on, and building strategies that work with your brain rather than against it, can make a much more sustainable difference.
Many people with EF challenges have developed clever ways of coping at work. Those coping strategies can still be exhausting. Exploring what’s actually going on, and building strategies that work with your brain rather than against it, can make a much more sustainable difference.
Many people with EF challenges have developed clever ways of coping at work. Those coping strategies can still be exhausting. Exploring what’s actually going on, and building strategies that work with your brain rather than against it, can make a much more sustainable difference.
Many people with EF challenges have developed clever ways of coping at work. Those coping strategies can still be exhausting. Exploring what’s actually going on, and building strategies that work with your brain rather than against it, can make a much more sustainable difference.
Many people with EF challenges have developed clever ways of coping at work. Those coping strategies can still be exhausting. Exploring what’s actually going on, and building strategies that work with your brain rather than against it, can make a much more sustainable difference.
Many people with EF challenges have developed clever ways of coping at work. Those coping strategies can still be exhausting. Exploring what’s actually going on, and building strategies that work with your brain rather than against it, can make a much more sustainable difference.
What changes when you understand your executive functions
The goal is not to become a different person or to work like everyone else. It is to understand how you work, build strategies that fit, and stop spending so much energy fighting yourself.
Getting started more easily
Practical strategies for task initiation that do not rely on deadlines or panic.
Clearer priorities
Being able to look at a full workload and figure out what to do first, and why.
A better relationship with time
Understanding time blindness and building approaches that account for how you actually experience time.
Less depletion
When you stop fighting your brain all day, you have a lot more left at the end of it.
What neuroplasticity means for you
For a long time, it was believed that the brain was largely fixed by adulthood. We now know that Neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to form new connections and adapt, continues throughout life.
It does take longer in adults than in children, and it requires consistent, repeated practice rather than a single step. But, it is possible! The strategies we co-create in coaching aren’t just workarounds (although you may choose to make some environmental adaptions) they’re ways of gradually rewiring how your brain approaches the things that have always felt hard.
Understanding your executive functions is where that process begins.
Executive function affects every part of life
In Relationships
How executive function shapes the way you connect, communicate, and show up for others.
Running Your Own Business
Self-direction, motivation, client relationships, and wearing every hat at once.
Ready to explore how EFs affect you at work?
A free discovery call is a good place to start. No commitment, just a conversation about where you are and what might help.
