ADHD question
What is the "point of performance" in ADHD?
The short answer
The point of performance is the exact place and moment where a task needs to be done. Psychologist Russell Barkley uses the term to explain why ADHD help works best when it is physically present at that moment: a reminder on the screen you are working in, a timer you can see, a note on the thing itself. Help that lives somewhere else tends to fail, because ADHD is a problem of doing, not of knowing.
Where the idea comes from
Barkley describes ADHD as a disorder of self-regulation and executive function. In his words, it is not a problem of knowing what to do. It is a problem of doing what you know, at the time and place it counts.1 2
If that is right, teaching more skills in a quiet office is not enough. The help has to show up in the real setting, at the real moment. CHADD, a national US nonprofit for people with ADHD, has published the same guidance.3
What follows from it
- Externalize information. Do not hold it in your head. Put it where you will see it: lists, cues, notes on the object.
- Externalize time. Use clocks and timers you can see, because the inner sense of time is unreliable.
- Externalize motivation. Bring the reward or consequence close to the action.
- Break long tasks into short ones, so the distance between effort and payoff is small.
Everyday examples
Away from the point of performance: a to-do app on your phone, in a drawer, while you work on a laptop.
At the point of performance: your current task shown on the page you are looking at.
Away: knowing the meeting is at 2:00.
At: an alert at 1:50 that says "wrap up", on the screen you are in.
Away: a goal to "be less distracted online".
At: a pause that appears at the moment you open the distracting site.
How to use it
For any task you keep missing, ask two questions: where am I when this needs to happen, and what would I need to see there? Then put that cue in that place. It is a simple test, and it explains why many well-meant systems fail. They are good systems, kept in the wrong place.
Where NoRush fits
This idea is the starting point for NoRush. Your one task is on every new tab and in a floating bubble on every website, because that is where desk work happens. The timer is visible there too. The pause for distracting sites appears at the moment you open one. Meeting Mode uses the same idea in reverse and asks at the moment a call starts.
Questions people ask
Who is Russell Barkley?
A clinical psychologist and one of the most cited researchers on ADHD. His 1997 paper in Psychological Bulletin set out an influential theory of ADHD as a problem of self-regulation.
Is the point of performance a proven theory?
It is a clinical principle that follows from a well-supported view of ADHD as an executive function difficulty. It is widely used by clinicians and coaches. It is a way of designing help, not a single tested treatment.
Sources
- Barkley RA. The important role of executive functioning and self-regulation in ADHD (fact sheet). russellbarkley.org.
- Barkley RA (1997). Behavioral inhibition, sustained attention, and executive functions: constructing a unifying theory of ADHD. Psychological Bulletin, 121(1).
- CHADD (Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) (2013). Interventions at the point of performance. Attention magazine.