Channeling Chaos - Understanding the "Dark Triad of ADHD"

ADHD brains struggle with Executive Functions, three of them are the most problematic when it comes to productivity.

I mentioned the three most troublesome executive dysfunctions common to ADHD on Monday, with a tease that I’d dig into it further today. Well… it’s today!

Everyone, well, almost everyone, sometimes struggles with being productive or getting things done. I know this because the self-help industry is a billion-dollar business.

If you care about ‘productivity’ then you already know most of the tools, they’re repeated ad nauseam by authors, gurus, trainers, managers and influencers. Eat the Frog, Eisenhower Matrix, Get Things Done, The PARA Method, Priority Matrices, Kanban, Bullet Journaling, Atomic Habits…. The list goes on and on. Unfortunately, most of these tools are focused on a ‘neurotypical brain’ or rather, they don’t allow for the ways that someone with ADHD may struggle.

Let’s talk about “The Dark Triad” and why some people with ADHD struggle to “Get Things Done.”

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Executive Functions Don’t always Function Properly

Depending on who you read, there are different “Executive Functions” but they tend to all link to each other and there is overlap between what everyone says. The two biggest names to have created their list are Dr. Russel Barkley and Dr. Thomas Brown, (the links go to their page talking about executive function.)

Without doing a comparative analysis of their definitions, I (a non-professional) am focusing on three areas that directly affect each other and one’s ability to wake up and be productive.

Getting up and getting things done has 3 main components:

• Decision-Making - This is impeded by impulse control and problems with prioritization. If the topic isn’t engaging, we struggle to care enough to make a decision. If our priorities aren’t clear, we will devalue the effort put into making a decision as well.

• Cognitive Flexibility - Sometimes this is called hyper-focus, sometimes it’s time-blindness. What it really amounts to is getting locked onto a topic and being unable to release it. When we try to change gears, we keep getting pulled back.

• Short Term Memory - We forget we made coffee, we forget what we were just talking about, we lose track of thoughts and get distracted by tangents. Short term memory makes it hard to “pick back up where we left off.”

Between these three major dysfunctions, it’s to get started on a project, hard to stay focused on a “boring” project and to return to something we’ve been working on.

We lock ourselves into seclusion, put on sounds to block out the world and try to remove every potential for distraction to stand a chance at success. Ironically, one of the tools to help with all of this is body doubling, by having someone nearby we have an implied accountability for our actions and are more likely to stay focused.

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How Did ADHD Brains Thrive in “Ye Olden Tymes”

Older people with ADHD, or people that don’t have it at all, will often suggest it’s over-diagnosed today and that we used to be able to work successfully. That’s all a big mess of ignorance, though.

The issues that people with ADHD struggle with now are exacerbated by the availability of information, distraction and dopamine, but it doesn’t mean more people have it than they used to.

The biggest reason it seems more prevalent is that knowledge workers and those enmeshed in the knowledge industry are the ones who post and share their thoughts, they’re also the ones most likely to be impeded by their different ADHD brain.

I’ve always struggled with staving off boredom at a desk job. Whether it was last week or 30 years ago, sitting still and doing the same thing for the foreseeable future is a death sentence to me. This was true when there wasn’t an internet, and it was true when I didn’t have a diagnosis.

There are several things that have changed, besides the availability of diagnosis and excessive stimulation.

There were fewer people sitting at a desk all day in the past, even today many people with ADHD find better success in ‘active’ jobs, whether it’s in the trade industry or doing things that require the ability to be creative and adapt on a regular basis.

Decision-making, when you have many things to get done, is much easier. When there are tangible results, it’s easier to prioritize what to work on and there is motivation to see it through to completion.

Cognitive flexibility or task switching was similarly less problematic when you weren’t the entirety of your day wasn’t switching from one browser tab to another.

The different cognitive functions of a person with ADHD thrive in an active, changing environment. They only become dysfunctions in the more locked down model of work that is commonplace for knowledge workers.

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The Difference Between Gen-X ADHD and Gen Z ADHD

While ADHD has been around for as long as humans, we didn’t start calling it ADHD until the 80s, first it was ADD, then ADHD got solidified in the early 90s.

There was no awareness, there were no accommodations, there was barely even an acknowledgement that you were anything other than lazy.

A Gen X person with ADHD, now in their 50s, learned to mask parts of their life to fit in. They also created systems and habits to stave off the minor symptoms. The world moved slower back then, so it was also easier to ‘fake it’ when dealing with deadlines. (I would literally do my homework for school in the hall before class, and graduated with an A in all courses other than writing… because that still took time that I didn’t allow for.)

A Gen Z person with ADHD, now working their way through their 20s, has always had too much stimulation. There have always been answers at their fingertips. They have also grown up in a time when we recognize that their brain is different and there are accommodations to help them… except when there aren’t.

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How Do We Fix This?

The solution is a balance between how Gen X dealt with ADHD and how it’s handled by Gen Z now. Awareness, both of self and society, is essential so that those with different brain function can tackle things they’re better suited for. There is also a need to create systems that work for our unique needs.

While “Try Harder” will never work for a person with ADHD, “Work Smarter” will.

Comparing our behavior and results to others is always going to cause problems, because we’re not like others.

Each person with ADHD, at whatever level, with their own strengths and weaknesses, will need to be able to identify what they need help with on each day. They then need to have systems in place to manage their energy levels, both cognitive and physical, based on how they feel.

The solution is a bespoke set of rules and routines for each person. It also means looking at jobs and professions with a realistic sense of what works for them. Instead of a blanket “become an engineer” recommendation, sometimes the answer might be “work in theater.”

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What about me? What about you?

I spend each day trying to understand my energy level and my level of distraction. I try to adjust my activities so that they happen in an order that leaves me able to contribute to the world and not just locked up in a room sorting Pokémon cards by type. Most days I’m great, some days I’m not.

You may be in the same boat, you may have figured out a system that works and become frustrated that sometimes it doesn’t. Even worse, you might have had a system in the past that doesn’t even “kind of” work anymore. You may be starting school, or just graduating. You may have a new job or be freshly laid off. You might be starting a relationship or just had your first child. All the variables change regularly, so you want to learn the tools to let you adapt.

It starts with self-awareness, then planning and system building, and finally with accountability. With all of those in place, anyone with ADHD can thrive.

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