Executive function

Executive functions are a set of high-level cognitive skills managed primarily by the brain's prefrontal cortex. They include planning and organization, working memory, inhibitory control (resisting impulses), cognitive flexibility, emotional regulation, task initiation, and self-monitoring.

ADHD is essentially a disorder of executive function — which is why someone can have average or even high intelligence and still struggle enormously with everyday tasks that require organization, planning, and self-control. General intelligence and executive function are relatively independent capacities in the brain.

Understanding ADHD as an executive-function deficit makes it clearer why external supports (checklists, alarms, organizational systems, accountability partners) are so effective: they compensate, in the environment, for what the brain doesn't do automatically.