Most of us take activities of daily living (ADL) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) completely for granted. Activities of daily living includes fundamental skills typically needed to manage our basic physical needs. To list few things like roaming personal hygiene, dressing, toileting, transferring, ambulating and eating. We do those every day without putting much thought into what we are actually doing.

IADLs on the other hand there are a little more complex than ADLs and involve functions such as paying bills, preparing food, communicating, housework, scheduling and keeping appointments. Those involved planning. We perform these tasks on a daily basis without much difficulty whatsoever but what if our cognitive abilities started to decline. What if we become forgetful due to some disease process like Alzheimer's disease or Parkinson’s? Poor cognitive functioning is associated with a significant decline in the ability to perform either ADLs or IADs.