Some days your executive function just doesn’t show up for work. The to-do list exists, your intentions are good, but your brain is running on a completely different framework than the one that handles “focus on task, complete task, move to next task.” Your cognitive resource allocation system is temporarily offline, and trying to force it makes everything worse.

Here’s what to do instead of spiraling into shame about it.

In software there’s a concept called “graceful degredation,” where

Step 1: Triage Your Day (Reality Check Protocol)

When you can’t focus on anything, the first thing to do is practice radical honesty about what’s actually possible today.

Ask yourself: On a scale of 1-10, how much executive function do I actually have right now?

• 7-10: You can probably do real work with the right support systems
• 4-6: You can handle low-stakes tasks but not complex work
• 1-3: Today is a survival day; act accordingly

This is accurately assessing your available resources so you don’t waste energy trying to run programs your system can’t execute. You wouldn’t try to play a high-end video game on a computer with 2% battery. Don’t do it to your brain either.

Step 2: Match Tasks to Available Capacity

Once you know what you’re working with, stop trying to do what you “should” do and do what your current operating system can actually handle.

High Function Days (7-10): Focus Support Systems

If you have some executive function but it’s fragile, use scaffolding:

• Body doubling: Work near someone else (in person or virtual)
• External timers: Let something else track time so you don’t have to
• Sensory anchors: Music, specific location, ritual sequence to trigger focus
• The 5-minute deal: Commit to just 5 minutes, see if momentum builds

Medium Function Days (4-6): Task Substitution

You can’t do complex work, but you can do something. Switch to tasks that don’t require sustained focus or heavy decision-making:

• Organize/clean: Physical tasks with clear completion states
• Respond to easy emails: Low-stakes communication that’s been sitting
• Research/gather: Collect information without having to synthesize it yet
• Template work: Fill in existing structures rather than creating new ones
• Maintenance tasks: The boring stuff that always gets pushed off

You’re strategically deploying limited resources toward tasks matched to your current capacity.

Low Function Days (1-3): Survival Mode

Some days you get nothing done, and that’s the correct amount to get done.

Your only job today:

• Keep yourself alive and minimally functional
• Don’t make things actively worse
• Preserve resources for tomorrow

Practical survival tasks:

• Eat something (doesn’t have to be “good,” just has to be food)
• Drink water
• Take medication if applicable
• Minimal hygiene (if you can, not required)
• Don’t start new fires (don’t send emotional emails, don’t make big decisions)

That’s it. That’s the whole list. Everything else is optional.

Step 3: Reduce Decision Load to Zero

Executive dysfunction often means decision paralysis, where every choice feels impossible. So eliminate choices.

Have a pre-decided survival protocol:

Create your emergency kit now, while you have function, so you don’t have to figure it out mid-crisis:

• 3 go-to easy meals that require zero thought (even if it’s “cereal,” “peanut butter toast,” “rotisserie chicken”)
• 1 non-negotiable comfort activity (specific show, specific game, specific book—not “find something to watch”)
• 1 physical location that feels safe and low-demand (your bed is fine, your couch is fine, your car is fine)
• 1 person you can text “bad brain day” who won’t require explanation or emotional labor

When you can’t decide anything, you just run the protocol. No choices required.

Step 4: Set a Timer and Reassess

Executive dysfunction isn’t always all day. Sometimes it’s just right now.

Set a timer for 2-3 hours. Do whatever survival-mode activity you’ve chosen. When the timer goes off, check in:

“Do I have more function now, or same/worse?”

• More function? Try moving up a tier (survival → medium tasks, medium → high tasks)
• Same or worse? This is a rest day. Accept it and stop fighting.

Your brain’s resource availability can shift based on time of day, blood sugar, stress levels, sleep debt, and factors you can’t always identify. Checking in periodically gives you data without requiring constant self-monitoring.

Step 5: Log Patterns (When You Can)

If you’re having frequent executive dysfunction days, that’s information about your system. When I have the energy to write it down, that also helps me break out of the idea that I’m being lazy or that I’m broken. I’m collecting data, and can be a bit more separated from my feelings about it. (If it’s silly but it works, it’s not silly)

When you have function, track:

• How often this happens (daily? weekly? certain times of month/year?)
• Potential triggers (lack of sleep, stress, overstimulation, hormones, schedule changes)
• What helps (rest? movement? social contact? solitude?)

You’re gathering diagnostic data so you can build better protocols and, ideally, prevent some of these crashes before they happen. But this is for later. Not for today while you’re in it.

The Technomancy Translation

Your brain is hardware with finite processing power and variable resource availability. Some days you’re running on full capacity, and some days you’re in low-power mode and can only handle basic processes.

When executive function is depleted, you can’t just “try harder” any more than you can make a phone with 1% battery run intensive apps through sheer willpower.

Triage is the spell you’re casting: accurately assessing available resources and allocating them strategically.

This Isn’t Every Day

If this is your baseline every day, you’re not dealing with occasional executive dysfunction, you’re dealing with chronic depletion or an under-supported condition. That’s a different problem requiring different infrastructure (therapy, medication, major life restructuring, disability accommodations—real support, not just better willpower).

But for those days when your brain just won’t cooperate and you need to get through without spiraling? Triage, match tasks to capacity, eliminate decisions, reassess periodically, and be willing to call it a survival day if that’s what it is.

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Want more like this? Check out The 10-Minute Weekly Review for People Who Hate Journaling for a diagnostic practice that helps you spot executive dysfunction patterns before they become crises.

Building your emergency kit? Here’s what to include:

• Pre-decided meals (write them down now)
• Comfort activity list (specific, not general)
• Safe person contact info
• Low-function task list you can reference without thinking
• Permission statement: “Some days are survival days, and that’s fine”