Executive Dysfunction ≠ Laziness
When your brain’s planning systems go offline, willpower alone won’t bring them back
“Just do it” doesn’t work when your executive functions are offline.
I’ve heard countless people say this advice doesn’t work for them. Push through. Stop overthinking. Just start. And for years, many believed their inability to follow it meant something was wrong with them. Turns out, there was something happening in their brains that had nothing to do with laziness or lack of discipline.
Executive functions are the brain systems responsible for planning, decision-making, working memory, and task initiation. They’re housed primarily in the prefrontal cortex, and they act as your brain’s project manager. When they’re working well, you can break down “organize finances” into actionable steps, decide which step to tackle first, hold that plan in mind while you execute it, and actually begin.
When they’re not working well, you stare at your to-do list and feel nothing but static.
When Executive Functions Go Offline
Executive functions are the first cognitive systems to suffer when you’re stressed, tired, anxious, or depressed. Most people don’t realize this.These higher-order functions consume significant mental energy. Your brain prioritizes them when you have capacity and drops them when you’re running low.
Think about the last time you were exhausted after a long day. Could you plan a complex meal? Probably not. You likely ordered takeout or ate cereal. That wasn’t a character flaw. Your prefrontal cortex was running on fumes.
The same thing happens with chronic stress. When your nervous system is in fight or flight mode, your brain diverts resources away from planning and toward immediate survival functions. You can’t think three steps ahead when your system believes you’re in danger right now.
For people with ADHD or executive dysfunction, this resource scarcity is baseline. Their prefrontal cortex requires more effort to engage and depletes faster. Using executive functions feels like running uphill while everyone else is on flat ground.
Starting Tasks Is Neurologically Harder Than Continuing Them
Even when executive functions are intact, using them requires considerable cognitive effort. Initiating a new task is significantly harder than continuing one you’ve already started. This is because of neural inertia. Your brain prefers to maintain its current state rather than shift to a new one.
When you’re already doing something, your neural pathways are activated and running. Starting something new means your brain has to:
Override the current activity (inhibition)
Access and evaluate potential next actions (working memory and decision-making)
Formulate a plan for execution (planning)
Initiate the motor and cognitive processes to begin (task initiation)
All of this happens in the span of seconds, and most people aren’t even aware of it. But when your executive functions are compromised, each of these steps becomes a conscious, exhausting hurdle.
I know this experience intimately from people close to me: sitting on the couch, fully aware you need to respond to an email, knowing exactly what to say, and still unable to make your body stand up and walk to your desk. That’s not laziness. That’s task initiation failure.
So what do we do with this information?
Why This Matters
Understanding that executive dysfunction is neurological, not moral, reframes the entire problem. The solution lies in removing the cognitive prerequisites that make starting feel impossible, rather than demanding more willpower or better habits.
That’s what I’m building Asaura to do.
If you struggle with task initiation or know someone who does, sign up for early access at www.asauraai.com.
Because if “just do it” worked, we’d all be doing it already.
Hodman Murad is the founder of Asaura AI, an AI personal assistant designed for adults with executive dysfunction. She’s currently building in public through her 100 Days of Building series.
Can't seem to switch mine off ... 🤯
Good work you're doing here, @Hodman Murad!
Will actually send this to my ADHD friends to check out.