In the biography Pelosi, author Molly Ball relates the American Democratic politician Nancy Pelosi’s response to Republican’s attacks on the Affordable Care Act:

At first glance, her task appeared nearly impossible: during the Obama administration, the House Republicans had passed more than sixty bills repealing all or part of Obamacare. […] Pelosi didn’t waste a minute. Within a few weeks of the election, she convened a conference call with a coalition of health care advocates to begin planning grassroots actions in support of the law. Don’t agonize, organize. They planned mass health care demonstrations across the country the weekend before Trump’s inauguration. Pelosi attended the inauguration wearing a blue “Protect Our Care” button.

The phrase “don’t agonise, organise” is mentioned a few times in the book as one of Pelosi’s catchy personal slogans. (Another is the five P’s: “proper preparation prevents poor performance”.)

Since I read that biography in 2023, I’ve been coming back to that phrase. There’s something really powerful in it — in the depths of a discouraging or overwhelming situation, rather than succumbing to despair, I am choosing to exercise my power of executive function.

The role of executive function has also been mentioned in another favourite book of mine: Alex Korb’s 2015 book The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time.

Korb identifies a collection of tools, each of which can, gradually and over time, help to improve one’s mental state and soften the grasp of depression. Korb talks about executive function in a section called “Set Goals, Make Decisions”:

Making decisions includes creating intentions and setting goals—all three are part of the same neural circuitry and engage the prefrontal cortex in a positive way, reducing worry and anxiety. Making decisions also helps overcome striatum activity, which usually pulls you toward negative impulses and routines. Finally, making decisions changes your perception of the world—finding solutions to your problems and calming your limbic system.

In short, plan something. Make a decision about something. Exercise your executive function. The thing you’re planning, or making a decision about, is almost beside the point — the purpose is simply to find a way to exercise your executive function.

Korb cites an abundance of neuroscientific research in support of this tool, as well as the other tools that Korb discusses, like exercise, socialising, therapy, and the like. But I’ve also found from my personal experience that Korb’s recommendation has indeed helped me crawl out of that dark hole of depression.

Exercising executive function is also, often, a more achievable facet of Korb’s upward spiral. When I’m depressed, it can be really, really hard to haul my ass into my garage for a workout or to invite a friend for coffee. I often exercise my executive function as the first entry into that upward spiral — after which those more involved facets, like exercise and socialising, feel within reach.

I suspect this might be why, at my job, I find operations and administration such enjoyable tasks — organising things simply makes the brain feel good.

I also find echoes of this concept in Lewis Richmond’s book Aging as a Spiritual Practice: A Contemplative Guide to Growing Older and Wiser. Richmond explores “the way we lose old pieces of our identity as we age, and the opportunity to create new identities to replace what we have lost” and describes how the people who age well tend to be the people who adapt with flexibility, seeking out new activities and connections and cultivating a curiosity and enthusiasm for what is happening around them as they age.

As I’ve alluded to above, executive function has repeatedly proven itself as a powerful tool in my own toolbox while navigating mental illness. During November 2025, I experienced my darkest period yet — I was briefly hospitalized for my own safety, and I was facing a significant upheaval of my personal life. This was truly a week from hell, the very depths of despair.

I can recall the precise time when this despair gave way to a sober and modest form of hope — I didn’t feel better by any means, and my personal life and material situation was still facing upheaval, but I began to see a path foward.

One of the things that got me there (apart from the love and support of pretty much every friend and close family member in my life) was, strangely, planning what my life was going to look like after this period. I was suffering deeply, but I could ask my sister to help me shop for a used car (which I was going to need), and I could make a plan to attend the upcoming pre-season kickaround with my new football team, and I could ask to join my dear friends to play some card game — in short, taking agency and exercising my executive function.