The psychologist Dr Russell Barkley describes ADHD like this: it’s not that you don’t know what to do, it’s that you struggle to do what you know. That’s the knowing-doing gap, and it’s worth pausing on because so much advice aimed at academics, researchers and professionals assumes the opposite. It assumes the problem is information.
You know you need to sit down and write. You know the chapter needs work. You could probably list every step in order if someone asked you to. And still the doing doesn’t happen. For people with ADHD, Barkley’s point is that this comes down to differences in executive function, not effort or willingness. It isn’t a character problem.
Why the knowing-doing gap matters beyond ADHD
Even if you don’t have ADHD, the gap between what you know and what you do will be familiar. Most of us are not short on advice. We’re not short on planners, systems, or articles telling us how to write daily. If you already know what to do, another piece of knowledge isn’t going to close the gap. We wrote a bit more about why this gap exists and what actually helps, because it’s rarely about trying harder to remember the advice.
What tends to help instead is looking at what’s actually stopping the doing. Sometimes that’s about breaking the task down until the next step is small enough that you can’t talk yourself out of it, which is something we’ve explored in how to overcome procrastination. Sometimes it’s about the environment, the timing, or the way a task is framed.
If you recognise this gap in your own work, whether or not ADHD is part of the picture, it’s worth exploring what’s actually getting in the way of the doing. We work with people on exactly this, and coaching can help you find where that gap sits for you.
If this sounds familiar at work, our ADHD leadership coaching helps leaders and managers build support around what gets in the way.
