don't die wondering

Reverse pomodoro, as I described in my earlier post. Fill up your energy/motivation tank with an active, engaging activity, then do your task for five minutes. The ratio is "lots of fun thing to a little bit of task." See the link for more explanation and examples!

Schedule a buddy. The key is to do this before you start feeling bad about your project. This requires some self-knowledge: I'm feeling good right now, but I know that I might get stuck in the future. You can try to schedule a productivity buddy when you feel stuck and motionless, but then it's just another task to have executive dysfunction about. Set up a regular weekly appointment time with a friend or friends (in person or online). This is like "if you can't make your own executive function, borrowing from a friend is fine." The amazing thing is that three people with zero executive function can pool together and suddenly have one (1) executive function between them. It's magic. You get together, you start by discussing what you want to work on, then you spend ~10-20 minutes all working quietly. Then you pause and talk about what you've done in that time, what's frustrating you, etc., and you talk each other through it and give each other encouragement. Then you do another little sprint, then you talk about it, sprint, talk about it, until your time is up. The cool thing about this is that it helps you practice feeling accomplishment for doing small amounts of task. If you wrote one sentence during that twenty minute sprint, that's still something, and your friends can praise and encourage you. Not having to wait for the praise-reward you get at the end of the task can be really helpful. This is also why people recommend the "have a little chocolate every time you finish a paragraph" kind of thing, microdosing your reward system, but praise and encouragement from friends is more lasting and impactful than the little chocolate. That is not to say that I never use the little chocolate system myself.

Secret body doubling. Regular body doubling is intentional, like in (2) above. But you can do body doubling like a weird secret creepster too! When people around you move or change tasks, use their momentum to help you change tasks, too. Your roommate gets up to go to the bathroom? Watch their motion and mirror it: that's the moment when you might be able to get up and get that glass of water you've been craving. Your child gets on the bus to school at 8am? While you're standing up to watch them get on the bus, take advantage of that momentum to flow into doing the dishes. If you're able to get yourself to the library, a coffee shop, or another place where lots of people will be working or moving, that can be very helpful. When I try to work at a coffee shop, I sometimes will still be unable to do the task I want to do. So I people watch a bit, and when the person at the next table gets up for a new drink, or puts away their laptop, or picks up their book, when there's some kind of physical change around you, use that momentum as a physical cue for you to switch tasks as well.

Change modes. So if writing is a thing that overwhelms you, try drawing about the thing you want to write, or try talking it through with a friend, or try recording yourself talking it over (then you can listen and transcribe your ideas, or use speech to text. Doing your own transcription is better, though.). Sometimes even something as small as changing the font in your word processor to comic sans in rainbow colours can make you feel like you're no longer trying to do the thing you've labelled Too Hard in your brain. Switching to handwriting can accomplish this shift too. Make the task not look like the task anymore, essentially. Find activities that you use less often for this task—singing, talking, drawing, dancing, collage, making fun of it to a friend—and access the task via those modes. To give a non-writing example, if your task is practicing your oboe, obviously the only way to do that is to pick up the oboe and start playing. But if picking up the oboe is the thing you can't face, try approaching that task laterally. Freewrite about how the oboe feels in your hands. Describe what playing the oboe feels like to a friend. Sing the song you're supposed to be practicing. Do fingering exercises without the oboe in your hands. You can chip away at the overwhelm this way. Another example is emails: if I have an email that's been hanging over my head that I really should answer, sometimes I change modes and go find the person I need to email in person instead. Or I call them on the phone. Talking to a real person instead of the Email Void is very motivating and energizing for me, whereas sitting at my desk alone is not.

Remove barriers to the task. A good example here is the difference between feeling like you need to write something good and impressive and feeling like you need to just write down words. So if the Big Writing Task is daunting, try freewriting in the most casual, homey language you can access. (Just in general, writing in your natural voice, accent, and dialect is incredibly important—it makes the task easier and usually makes your writing better.) Freewriting is a legitimate technique on its own, where you simply try to write without stopping and without caring what you're saying. Some of my most frustrated freewrites have started with I HATE THIS TASK AND I DON'T WANT TO DO IT AND HERE'S WHY and then gradually as I write I start generating actual ideas, or at least feeling less frustrated. But barriers come in all forms. I have to do all the dishes and clean the entire kitchen. Okay, let's remove that barrier. What if you just cleaned one countertop? I have to study this entire textbook for the test. Okay, if that's not possible, what about just studying the one chapter you were the most confused by? What about committing to looking at the pictures in the textbook without reading anything?

Do the tiniest, most low-effort part of the task first. This is related to (5). When I say tiniest, I mean it. For writing, the tiniest part of the task might be today I am going to open my word document. Not write anything, just literally open the doc. For strength training, the tiniest part of the task might be I am going to move my weights from the closet to the area near my bed so that they're easier for me to access tomorrow. For household cleaning, the tiniest part of the task might be I am going to empty the vacuum so that it's easier to start vacuuming another day. Sometimes very small barriers like these pile up in our heads. Chipping away at the preparation for the task can make the task way more approachable, even if the chipping away only takes two minutes. This is also about recognizing that you might not be able to do the task today, but that you can give yourself a better chance of doing it tomorrow. It's amazing how much better I feel about myself and how much less depressed and anxious I feel when I've done some five minute thing that isn't even the task, but is related to the task. It makes me feel like I'm not ignoring or being overwhelmed by the task anymore. These little things keep your mind engaged with the idea of the task, so that it doesn't become an enormous monster in your mind. In writing, I VERY strongly recommend rereading as a tool for this. If you can't face writing, researching, or editing, just open your document with your existing notes or whatever and reread. Rereading your writing project once a day is much, much better than not interacting with it at all, even if you don't add any new words. It keeps the task in your mind, so your mind can keep thinking about it in the background.

Annotation. This one is very writing-focused, but the theory is basically: if your thoughts or ideas are absent or disorganized, borrow someone else's. So if you're writing an essay, start by reading your research and writing notes in the margins (I think printing stuff out and literally annotating by hand is very valuable here, but there are a million programs you can use for annotation if you'd rather do it digitally). If you're not experienced with this, start by using punctuation and emoticons in the margins - ??? or !!! or . . . or :D or >:( next to the words you're reading. Work your way up to asking questions, drawing arrows to connect concepts, articulating your confusion, or explaining your disagreement. Those annotations can then become notes in your own document. This can work for other tasks as well. For example, if what you're trying to do is draw something, rather than looking at a blank page, go look at drawings by people whose art you love, and write down what you like about it. Print out your favourite drawings and doodle in the margins, replicating or changing the art style. Or write in the margins about what you like/don't like, or expand on someone else's drawing with your own art.

Don't use LLMs. All of these techniques are designed to build skills like focus, confidence, creativity, and critical thought. It may seem like asking an LLM for a summary of something will help to reduce the barrier you're feeling, or like getting an LLM to make you an outline will make your writing easier. But the increasing scientific consensus is that using LLMs for writing/reading tasks, even "small" ones, actively reduces your cognitive skills, disengages you from the project at hand, and reduces the rewards you feel for finishing. You'll lose what you already have, you'll feel more alienated from your work, and it'll only get harder next time. No LLM can substitute for the actual secret sauce here, which is other people to talk with. So, the last and most important tip:

Ask for help!!! Executive dysfunction is a really rough feeling, and it's hard to swim out of it when it feels like you're drowning. Therapy can help sometimes, medication can help sometimes, and friends and family can help sometimes. Other people are one of the most important resources. Professionals are great (like therapists, tutors, or coaches) but literally any human person who is not a jerk can help you. Invite them over to keep you company while you clean. Talk through your idea with them. For creative projects, the best is actually to talk through your idea with them and take notes yourself while also asking them to take notes to give to you. Often executive dysfunction makes me feel isolated, like I'm stuck but also unable to talk about how I'm stuck. Just talking about that feeling helps with the feeling. Getting unstuck sometimes also means becoming less isolated. Other people care about you and if you ask them, they will help you. I swear.

Lastly, to be specific about my job for a second: all the things above involving other people? Co-productivity, body doubling, taking notes together, talking things through? If you are actually a student in college, these are things your professors are likely willing to do with you. I body double with my students all the time, where I grade while they write or research. Sometimes I do it with students who are working on stuff that isn't even for my class. Professors' office hours are intended for this purpose. Your professor is there for you as a resource. Of course some professors fucking suck, but usually you can tell which professors will be kind and helpful. Ask for help ask for help ask for help.