Executive Dysfunction: The Medical Reason Why You Can't Finish Tasks

Have you ever found yourself struggling to finish tasks? You’ve used all productivity hacks from psychologists, influencers, or motivational speakers. You know you’re not lazy, you do get things done—eventually. But starting every task feels insurmountable. You’ve utilised online organisation apps like Trello or Notion. You have read (or at least skimmed) self-help manuals like Steven Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, or James Clear’s Atomic Habits. It’s still more difficult for you than most to finish projects, classwork and chores, and you wonder if something is fundamentally wrong with you. But this doesn’t always happen and you ask yourself if it’s your diet, exercise, or mental health. In this instance, it may be. You may be experiencing executive dysfunction.

What is executive dysfunction?

This is a symptom that results in disruption of emotional processing, thinking, or actions. It can occur due to conditions like Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD), brain injury, or depression. It’s known as executive dysfunction because it disrupts executive functions. According to Healthline, these include:

Focusing
Retaining and using new information
Ignoring distractions
Multitasking
Managing emotions

They fall under working memory, cognitive flexibility, and inhibition control. Higher-level executive functions include planning, reasoning, and problem-solving.

Executive dysfunction means you’re unable to focus on work, organise your tasks, complete duties, or regulate your emotions. It means you’re easily distracted, start and stop different tasks, make poor decisions, and have mood swings.

Symptoms of executive dysfunction

This occurs differently for patients. This is because brain function works differently for everyone and the causes of dysfunction differ. However, there are common symptoms you can recognise.

Focusing too much on one thing, and sometimes this isn’t a task that’s a high priority. For example, you focus too much on cleaning your environment instead of finishing a work project that’s due.
Being unable to focus on anything.
Spacing out in the middle of important conversations, when watching movies, or in the middle of meetings, etc.
Struggling to make a plan to finish a task.
Losing your train of thought in the middle of speaking or doing a task.
Lack of impulse control.
Not filtering your thoughts when speaking.
Being overwhelmed when trying to express yourself.
Struggling to start any tasks and you can’t give a rational explanation why, even when you want to start working.
Forgetting appointments and tasks.
Getting emotionally overtaken when you’re frustrated.

Causes

According to the Cleveland Clinic, there isn’t a clinical consensus on the exact cause of executive dysfunction. The most common recorded causes affect brain function. They include:

Alcohol use disorder
ADHD
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
Depression
Obsessive-compulsive disorder
Schizophrenia
Drug use disorder
Injury to the frontal lobe of the brain
Chronic stress
Genetics
Foetal alcohol syndrome
Learning disorders
Neurodegenerative conditions like Alzheimer’s disease
Brain tumours
Epilepsy
Autoimmune conditions like multiple sclerosis (MS)
Carbon monoxide poisoning
Meningitis

Some of these conditions can cause imbalances in neurotransmitters in the brain such as dopamine, serotonin, or noradrenaline. These are the chemical messengers in the brain that are responsible for emotions and memory. Exercises To Boost Your Memory

Treatment

Executive dysfunction isn’t a diagnosable condition but it does manifest as a symptom among the conditions listed above. A psychiatrist or other health professionals would have to narrow down what condition you have to treat it and once it’s isolated, executive dysfunction can be treated. See a doctor if the symptoms are making it impossible for you to work or carry out relationships.

If your executive dysfunction is caused by medical illnesses like meningitis, epilepsy, MS, or Alzheimer’s, your doctor will provide specialised treatment and ways to manage the conditions. Mental health conditions like stress, ADHD, ASD, or depression can be managed with mood stabilisers, cognitive behavioural therapy, antidepressants, stimulants, or antipsychotics.

How can you deal with executive dysfunction at home?

Executive dysfunction isn’t self-diagnosable. It’s important to see a doctor to get treatment for the underlying condition causing it. There are some things you can do to improve your executive functioning skills. These are some of the steps taken in cognitive behavioural therapy. They include:

Addressing unhelpful thoughts and habits
Replacing unhelpful thoughts and behaviours with helpful ones
Finding healthy ways to cope with stress
Establishing easy-to-follow routines to make tasks seem less insurmountable

Lifestyle: The Importance Of Daily Rituals And Routines

Simple behaviour changes

When you’re having unhelpful thoughts about how hard the work you’re doing is, you can try to break it down into smaller tasks and envision how rewarding it will be to finish the task. You can also trick yourself into completing tasks by going for what you most enjoy doing first. For instance, if you’re working on a report and you just can’t start, go around the task. If you’re into creating colourful reports, play around with the features of the app you’re using to make the report more attractive to look at while you’re working on it. Finally, when you send it, you can remove all the decorative features you’d added.

Use sticky notes or a vision board to help you stay focused. Create a habit of self-rewarding. If you use sticky notes, pull off the sticky note when you finish the task. After, reward yourself with candy or a few minutes of scrolling social media every time you pull off the sticky note. 7 Ways To Get The Most Out Of A Vision Board

Meditation can also help with executive dysfunction, even when you’re on other treatments like antidepressants. In addition to helping with remaining present, it also reduces depressive symptoms and improves sleep. Health And Fitness: 7 Positive Effects Of Meditation

Break down tasks into smaller pieces. Don’t think about cleaning the house. Think about cleaning the desk. Then taking out the trash, then doing the dishes. Taking it a smaller task at a time makes it easier to get started and once you’re off, you can continue until it’s break time.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Ask friends, co-workers, and housemates whenever you need assistance to deal with tasks. You can also explain what’s going on in your life to trusted confidants to help ease the stress load you’re carrying.

Can you prevent executive dysfunction?

This is only possible for brain injuries. Mental health conditions occur for too many reasons that you can’t actively prevent. You can only manage them by trying to live in a way that keeps your stress levels low like having regular exercise, a healthy diet, meeting friends, and getting enough sleep.

If you work in a position where brain injuries are possible, always ensure that you wear safety equipment correctly. Don’t ignore ear or eye infections. Get medical treatment immediately when your eyes and ears start showing signs of infection like blurred vision or ear pain. Ensure your home is properly ventilated and install carbon monoxide detectors if you’re at risk of exposure.

Executive dysfunction vs procrastination

You may have noticed that many signs of executive dysfunction are interchangeable with procrastination. For example, being unable to focus on tasks or start them is a hallmark of procrastination. How can you tell the difference?

Do You Struggle With Procrastination Even After Trying Productivity Hacks? Here’s Why

Procrastination is a conscious choice to delay doing a task. Executive dysfunction means your brain isn’t working like it’s supposed to. Planning, memory, and impulse control are disrupted or gone. It’s a lot more serious because procrastination isn’t caused by impaired brain function. When you’re motivated, you can get out of a procrastination cycle. For people with executive dysfunction, self-motivation doesn’t work. It can cause great anxiety in social settings because it feels like your thoughts are too fast or too slow to express yourself. Concentrating is also almost impossible because the slightest noise can make everything seem impossible.

Why You Are Losing Your Motivation And What You Can Do To Regain It

It’s important to remember to get medical attention when you exhibit the symptoms of executive dysfunction because they signify a serious underlying condition. Medical experts are trying to uncover more information about executive dysfunction and hopefully, it won’t be able to disrupt the lives of people with it.