Flunking The Function

Executive function skills is a blanket terms for specific mental processes that help people reach their goals by organizing when things get done.

I don't have consistent executive function skills.

That's one of the biggest issues I have with my life. I'm still working on getting my life into order and unfortunately things don't ever fit into a 'normal' schedule. I wish I had been able to do a blog entry a day for Autism Awareness month, but my life got in the way. Or mainly, I got in my own way.

Executive function skills can affect a person's ability to

• manage time or attention
• switch their focus between tasks
• plan and organize
• remember details
• As well as other important organizational skills.

With an added traumatic brain injury, things get even more complicated for me. Sometimes things don't always make their way from my short-term memory to the long term memory. I also will end up in the middle of 4 different projects with nothing fully completed. My brain switches between different projects the same way it would switch between daytime soap operas. In fact, as I've been writing this I've been watching TV, talking to friends, checking out some fire props, picking up a work shift for tomorrow and starting on laundry.

My EF skills always fail when I have a mountain of things to accomplish with a real world disruption looming. If I just were to live in a cabin in the woods for a month I'd have books written and pretend to have more of my life in order. However, the world does not work like this so I am constantly trying to work on my EF skills.

I can't do a blog every day YET, but some day soon I hope to do it.
Maybe some day soon.
For now, I'm going to try to get lots of work done before I start other random projects.