ADHD Freelance Writers; Master Your Executive Dysfunction

And unleash your creativity

Photo by Marina Vitale on Unsplash

This year I learned something important about myself — I have ADHD. I managed to fly under the radar for a whole 42 years, but my Executive Dysfunction made it impossible for me to keep working in freelance copywriting.

Executive Dysfunction means I struggle to order things or make a schedule. And as someone who works for myself and has to balance different clients all day long, that’s a huge problem. But, the moment I learned what ED was and how it works, I felt a massive weight lift off my shoulders. Finally, I got why I felt so exhausted and stressed all the time. I wasn’t hopeless or scatterbrained; I had a real issue that I needed to face and manage STAT.

An article in ADDittude Magazine by Larry Silver M.D. breaks down this problem in terms of how students manage, or don’t manage, long-term assignments like book reports. According to Silver, a neurotypical kid can get a book report assigned to her by a teacher, estimate how long she needs to read and write a report, then break down a homework schedule and get to it. He finishes by writing, “If the student has good executive function skills, the work will get done on time. If she (sic) has EFD, it won’t.”