[silver-and-ivory]

I don’t get what “executive functioning” is.

As far as I can tell, people with poor executive functioning generally:

• find it hard to get up and get water even if they’re really thirsty
  
• get metaphorically tired after doing stuff and have to rest, even if it wasn’t really Objectively Tiring
• have to put lots of effort into continuing to do stuff after they have begun
• have to invest some initial effort into beginning tasks, even if the task itself isn’t that hard and/or they really want to do the task
• find it somewhat metaphorically-wearying to do too many Different things without a break
• and as their energy is used up, it takes more energy to do comparatively easy things, such that things that would’ve taken 10 effort at the beginning now take 100 effort
• but also they can sometimes get really invested in doing a thing after they have begun, at which point it stops taking away energy and takes almost no willpower at all
• the more things they have to do, the more difficult it is to begin, even if all of those things are fairly easy. it is not clear whether it takes more energy to begin, or if it’s just harder to make the Decision

Some of these are things like “bad at transitions” and “getting focused on one thing”. But other things are really weird and I don’t get why they happen.

What is this metaphorical Effort that gets depleted whenever I have to clean the kitchen or do chores, so that I don’t have Effort left to do homework, or, more precisely, so that I have to spend more Effort to do homework? And that somehow trades off against ability to get water? This sounds fake even though I know it’s not?

Is there any kind of neurological explanation for this mysterious quality that causes me to suck at doing stuff?

[mitigatedchaos]

Your body has to expend resources to accomplish tasks, but in the ancestral environment focusing on tasks that weren’t sufficiently rewarding was dangerous as it could mean not eating. So, there is an instinct/mechanism to cut off unrewarding tasks. What happens when that instinct/mechanism is too powerful?

[silver-and-ivory]

Huh, I would assume that too many tasks get cut off?

Do you have any sources for this?

[mitigatedchaos]

Sorry, I should have been more clear but I was answering quickly. As someone with poor executive functioning, this is my speculation / reasoning based on observation for why it would be this way.

If we imagine the hypothetical person with pure focus, able to override all distractions and do their boring work, we have a person that might literally keep working and working on accounting spreadsheets or boring through a tree looking for honey, while they starve to death. The cues to stop come up from within our subconscious. (We can also note people injuring themselves while under the influence of various drugs.)

So as with many things in biology, there may be a range of behaviors and the farther towards the outer edge of that range, above or below, the more dangerous. Poor executive functioning thus being below the optimal level of filtering distractions / internal rewards / stick-to-it-iveness.