Working Memory is Burning You Out (And What to Do About It)

ADHD in 5-Minutes: From Frustration to Understanding [#008]

Picture this: your brain has an internal workspace where you process information and file it away for later. When you need that information, you pull it out and put it on a work table surrounded by tools for cutting, labeling, and combining information into new ideas, tools, and plans…basically everything you need to solve problems and overcome obstacles.

This "workspace" is what we call working memory.

Working Memory: What Is It?

Let's get some help from Dr. Russell Barkley, the legendary ADHD researcher:

Working memory is simply remembering what to do. It's a special form of active, effortful memory that holds information in mind to guide behavior over time toward goals.

Or, in his more famous words about ADHD:

ADHD is not a disorder of knowing what to do, it's a disorder of doing what you know.

And most of the reasons "doing what you know" is so hard for ADHDers has to do with dysfunction of the working memory. If you have ADHD, your working memory very likely causes you grief every single day.

The ADHD internal workspace looks like this: a wobbly, slippery table in the center of the room, surrounded by filing cabinets with no clear labels, tools sticking out of half-open drawers, flickering overhead lights, and some of the closets are actually…hallways to other rooms?

If this metaphor resonates then understanding your working memory will be a crucial part of living well with ADHD.

Teasing Apart "You" from the "Workspace"

The brain areas that manage your workspace—especially the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (responsible for planning and execution)—work differently in ADHD brains compared to neurotypical ones. Plus, the basal ganglia (which is the 'quality control department' for any information moving through this workspace) only catches problems some of the time.

Why does this matter?

Because understanding what you can and can't control is crucial.

When you don't know exactly how your brain works differently, then you're more likely to attribute poor outcomes as moral failure, making the notion of "trying harder" more appealing.

Unfortunately, "trying harder" when you don't really understand why something isn’t working can be incredibly destructive.

No doubt you have plenty of experiences whereby you pushed harder and ended up breaking something. Maybe that something was an object, or a relationship, or your own health…

The point being: effort without understanding leads to significant energy loss.

For most people, understanding working memory isn't all that necessary because their internal workspace is "good enough" for most challenges. For them, sometimes they can just keep pushing until something works or is "good enough."

But for ADHDers, pushing harder rarely fixes the problem. Because the real issue is a lack of understanding, not effort.

We have a term for consistent effort without expected results; we call that burnout.

Without a clear understanding? Pushing yourself harder leads to burnout.
With a clear understanding? Regularly using your energy where it actually helps you.

So let’s figure out how to use your energy where it matters.

The Functions of Working Memory

Your brain's working memory has three essential functions:

Encoding
Taking in new information, labeling then storing it for later retrieval

Retrieving
Finding stored information when it is needed or relevant to your goals

Manipulating
Using multiple bits of information to overcome obstacles and reach goals

Every time one (or all) of these functions fails, it can be a significant loss of energy.

The invisible exhaustion so many ADHDers experience, even when they feel like they "haven't done anything" is in part due to an inefficient working memory (and all the downstream effects of it).

Here's some examples of how each function breaks down:

Encoding failures look like: reading a paragraph with no idea what you just read, or getting directions and losing half the steps before you can write them down.

Retrieval failures show up as: forgetting appointments you definitely wrote down, knowing you need to do something important but drawing a blank, or remembering crucial information five minutes too late.

Manipulation breakdowns feel like: struggling with complex instructions, getting overwhelmed by long-term plans, or feeling frozen when one small thing changes on your schedule.

Cascading Effects: When One Problem Creates Two More

Unfortunately, these three functions don't break down separately—they're truly interconnected. When one misfires then it significantly impacts the others.

Can't encode information properly? You won't have that information to retrieve later.

Can't retrieve what you need? If information can't be found, then solutions can't be made.

Can't manipulate multiple pieces of information? Good luck encoding complex ideas or making complicated decisions.

Research shows that ADHD brains experience massive performance drops as tasks get more complex. And that same research notes it isn't about general cognitive ability–it's about working memory.

There's a threshold where things suddenly become impossible because your workspace light is flickering, you can't find the information or tools you want to work with, and when you do find some, those things keep sliding off the table!

Please, take this to heart: you cannot try-harder your way out of a chaotic internal workspace.

Build Around Your Brain (Instead of Fighting It)

Here's the hard truth: for some ADHDers, age may bring mild relief from certain symptoms. But for most of us, our ADHD symptoms will remain stable across our lifetime.

Your internal workspace will always be somewhat chaotic. You cannot expect it to fundamentally change.

What you can do is focus on designing your external workspaces to be stable, well-organized, and set up specifically to support your working memory. These changes to your environment are called point-of-performance interventions, and they work by bypassing your working memory.

Instead of forcing your brain to hold information in that flickering, chaotic internal workspace, you move important information into your visual space where it's stable and reliable. This taps into your visual-spatial processing networks which work perfectly fine in ADHD brains.

When you externalize crucial information, you suddenly have reliable access to what you need without overwhelming your working memory. Your brain can actually focus on the work instead of constantly struggling to remember what the work is.

This leads us to the best ADHD advice you will ever receive:

EXTERNALIZE EVERYTHING.

Important information must be externalized.

Anything you consider important must exist in your visual space—easily seen, accessed, or regularly encountered without needing to remember it.

If you have ADHD and you rely on memory alone to store important information, you're unintentionally treating that information as if it is unimportant.

I know that's not your intention, but here's the reality: if information is truly important to you, then prioritize it in your external environment by making it visual and easy to see.

Reducing the Load on Working Memory

Creating externalized support for working memory is one of the most effective ways to improve your life. Here's how:

To externalize encoding: Don't trust your brain to hold onto information long enough to process it. Get it out immediately through voice memos, whiteboards, sticky notes, photos, or automated reminders.

To externalize retrieval: Write it down, set it up, make it visible. If you need to remember it, your environment should remind you. Use alarms, calendar notifications, strategic sticky notes, and visual reminders. If it's important, it needs to live in your environment, not your head.

To externalize manipulation: Make your thinking visible. Use large notepads, lists, mind maps, flowcharts, or talk out loud. Complex mental operations become manageable when you can see your thought process.

Stop trying to fix the wobbly table and flickering lights in your head.

Start building stable, well-lit external workspaces that let you have important information at hand.

This will then let you reallocate mental energy into the things that actually matter—creativity, connection, problem-solving, and living your life.

Your externalization supports and systems are, in essence, cognitive prosthetics that afford you opportunities that would otherwise be unavailable or unlikely to work out.

The goal is not, and never will be, to fix your working memory.

The goal is to make your working memory limitations less taxing.

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Thanks for sticking with me through this deep dive into working memory. If you found this helpful, please consider subscribing!

Also, I’m working on a guide that I will end up selling at some point, which I intend to send in the first week of August. But you will get it free, if you are a subscriber when it launches! So…hit da button…

Until next week, sending good vibes your way.

Cheers,
Michael