Task initiation

Task initiation is the executive function responsible for actually beginning — converting “I should do this” into the first physical action. It’s the starter motor between intention and motion, and it’s among the most commonly impaired functions in ADHD.

Weak task initiation looks like: sitting at the desk wanting to start and not starting; needing deadline panic as the only reliable ignition; tasks that stay untouched for weeks despite taking twenty minutes once begun (“it wasn’t hard, I just couldn’t start it”).

Because initiation fires most easily when the first step is small, concrete, and pre-decided, the effective supports are structural: shrink the entry point (“open the doc and write one ugly sentence”), use when-then plans that hand the start decision to a situation rather than to willpower, lower the stakes of the first attempt, and choose first tasks by startability rather than importance.