ADHD glossary · Family perspectives
Dependency: what a task is waiting for
In planning, we use dependency to mean something that needs to happen or become available before another piece of work can proceed as intended. It might be a decision, information, a material, or another task. This page is about task dependencies, not medical dependence or a label for a relationship.
General education and practical perspectives. Editorial standards.
The useful question is “What is this waiting for?” It differs from “Who has not done enough?” A person can own a task while still needing information that someone else controls.
Worked example: printing invitations
In this invented example, a teen offers to print invitations for a family gathering. The location has not been confirmed. A relative asks why the invitations are still unfinished, but the teen cannot finish the address line yet.
They separate the work into what can proceed and what cannot. The teen can draft the general layout now. Final printing depends on a confirmed address and the host's check of the details. The host agrees to send that confirmation. A parent agrees to check whether there is enough paper, without taking over the teen's design.
Their note says “layout drafted; printing waiting for address confirmation.” It does not say “printing complete” or “teen unmotivated.” If the address will arrive too late, the people involved need to choose a different plan; the note itself cannot resolve the missing decision.
Write the dependency explicitly
Task we want to do:
What must be known or available first:
Who can provide or confirm it:
Has that person accepted the request?
What can proceed without it:
When we will check the status:
What decision is needed if it remains unavailable:
Be precise about the relationship. “Waiting for the host to confirm the address” is different from “waiting for everyone.” If no one knows who can confirm it, record that as the unresolved question.
Dependencies are not all the same
Some are part of the task itself: a caption needs to exist before it can be proofread. Others come from the arrangement people chose: a group may want everyone to approve a design before printing. In our example, that approval step can be discussed; it is not a universal rule for invitations.
A dependency is also different from a preference. Wanting a particular pen does not necessarily mean writing cannot begin with another pen. The person doing the work and the people affected can clarify which constraint actually matters.
Family perspectives
For the task owner, name the missing input and any part already finished. For a partner, parent, or grandparent providing an input, give a clear update instead of assuming silence means it is ready. For a child or sibling, do not accept adult coordination duties merely because your contribution is next in the sequence.
Our diagram-free note is an ordinary planning example. It does not explain the cause of an individual's difficulties or promise that a waiting task will become easy.
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