Improving executive dysfunction with Claude Code

For those who don't know, ExeDys is a particularly non-superhero bullshit common trait in ADHD brains. It literally stops you doing anything.

According to wiki-p it's a "neurological impairment that affects the brain's prefrontal cortex".

At its worst, it feels like a forcefield holding you down, even though the rattling inner voice is berating you to get going.

It sucks. So I decided to see if I could fix it - with code.

Enter Maud.

Maud is an evolving piece that tries to guide me up and out of an ExeDys episode and into a task. It (she?) uses basic psychology to get me moving without triggering any of the other tricky stroppy ADHD pieces like demand avoidance. She also gives specific instructions on a task to keep you out of hyperfocus distraction holes: "Wipe the sink so it looks wiped. Don't deep clean it. Don't re-organise the plumbing. Don't go online to buy new taps."

She is a sneaky toad.

She uses humour, albeit LLM style, and has a strange unthreatening familiarity about her, like a funny aunt.

Maud might start off with getting the user to wiggle a toe or something equally odd. Sometimes this one action, when given to you by a non judgemental "personality" is enough to get the ball rolling.

Half the time, that's enough. But if not, she breaks out tasks into steps without trying to be a domain expert or project manager. Her goal is to simply get you moving. Once the brain is engaged, momentum kicks in and the dopamine hits.

The feeling of being body-doubled by an AI is strange. Part of you asks what a sad flan you have become needing a machine to tell you what you already know. But another part is secretly relieved / elated that some"one" has just given you permission to do a tiny thing.

Agent code is annotated below, grab the download on Github if you want the latest version to play with. Here she is a sub-agent, but easy to double up as a skill if you prefer her not to speak through claude.