How you work

How you're wired

Maybe you've wondered why you can lose hours to the thing that interests you and barely start the thing that doesn't. Why a day full of people can leave you with nothing left, when it seems to fill everyone else up. Why you can see the whole plan at once and still not answer the email.

This might just mean your mind runs on different settings than the workday assumes. This is a short reflection on how yours tends to work, grounded in research. No score, no label, no diagnosis.

About six minutes. Nothing is saved or sent.

First

When does the good work happen?

It doesn't show up on command. It tends to arrive under some conditions and go quiet under others. Pick the ones that fit you, then add a little in your own words. We'll come back to these at the end.

Your sharpest work tends to show up…

In your words (optional)

Then

Mark what sounds like you.

Not what you wish were true, and not what you think you should say. Just the ones that make you go, quietly, yes. Some are strengths and some are costs, because both come from the same wiring. There's no wrong number to pick.

Last set

A few more.

Same idea. Mark the ones that land, skip the rest. You're nearly through.

Where this comes from +

This reading sits on work by people who've studied how minds vary, in the lab and in the field. If you want to read further:

Elaine Aron · research on sensory processing sensitivity: depth of processing, getting overstimulated, feeling strongly, sensing the subtle.

Russell Barkley · research on attention and motivation, including why interest and urgency move us more reliably than importance alone.

Melody Wilding · work on the sensitive striver, the high achiever who feels deeply and thinks hard, and the phrase honor roll hangover.

Peter Gollwitzer · research on implementation intentions, the if-then plans that turn good intentions into action.

Amy Wrzesniewski, Jane Dutton, Maria Tims and Arnold Bakker · the research on job crafting: reshaping a role around how you work instead of bending yourself to fit it.

Nancy Doyle · work on neurodiversity at work and the spiky profile, the idea that ability is uneven by design rather than evenly average.

Kroll and colleagues (2024), Frontiers in Psychology · found that affirming how a mind is wired is linked to better wellbeing, with or without a formal diagnosis.

A note on what this is. This is a coaching reflection: a way to understand your own patterns and work with them. It isn't an assessment, a diagnosis, or treatment, and it isn't a substitute for any of those. Some of what surfaces here overlaps with what a clinician is trained to look at. If something resonates and you want to understand it properly, that's a conversation worth having with a licensed professional. And if you're struggling in a way that needs real support, please start there.