Executive Function Skills

What is Executive Function?

Your Executive Function helps you plan out and follow through on your goals.

Your brain has many basic abilities. As you mature, you learn how to sequence and coordinate these functions to do more complex things.

Executive Function is the ability to coordinate these basic functions into systems of coordinated action. These systems are what allow you to set and achieve goals in time and space.

Although we may often take these skills for granted, none of us are born with them. We learn and strengthen Executive Function skills through practice.

Examples of complex coordinated skills:

  • noticing and utilizing time effectively

  • organizing tasks, materials, and thoughts

  • steering our attention and navigating around obstacles or distractions

  • making realistic plans and being flexible

  • using coping skills and tolerating frustration

  • getting started and persisting on tasks

Common Profiles of Executive Function Struggles

Executive Function weakness can be a consequence of many factors including ADHD, anxiety, learning problems, or life circumstances. 

Here are some common profiles of how Executive Function challenges can manifest. Do any of these challenges sound familiar to you?

The Overwhelmed

Executive Function weakness is most apparent in their emotional reaction to stress and obligations. They often become distressed and quickly doubt themselves.

    • Easily stressed or anxious when faced with assignments, projects, or requests

    • Usually conscientious, well-intentioned, and worried about letting people down

    • May struggle to calm themselves or have a practical planning conversation

    • Tends to avoid multiple drafts because the process is emotionally taxing

    • Strong emotions can interfere with using tools effectively and vice versa

    • May procrastinate due to fear of getting it wrong or not knowing where to start

    • Modeling and practicing distress tolerance and self-regulation in order to persist through challenges

    • Chunking larger demands into less distressing and more realistic tasks

    • Noticing and reframing unhelpful or harsh thoughts that interfere with action

The Demoralized

Consequences from disorganization, negative feedback, and tough emotions can build up and deplete motivation. “I’m overwhelmed” becomes “What’s the point?”

    • Often a later stage of The Overwhelmed; burnt out by intense emotions that build up to a “Why bother?” attitude

    • Pervasive negative self-image about their abilities makes it difficult to get and stay motivated

    • Sense of agency has been replaced by feeling powerlessness to succeed

    • Chronic difficulty with persisting through and recovering from setbacks; may give up quickly

    • Tends to overemphasize memories of past failures or negative feedback while minimizing successes or praise

    • Reestablishing a sense of agency, capability, and remoralization

    • Identifying many opportunities for small successes and celebrating them

    • Processing plenty of genuine, constructive, and positive feedback from a trustworthy source

The Cluttered

Chronic struggles with attention, routines, or prioritizing make it difficult to get and stay organized. Physical, digital, and mental clutter tends to pile up.

    • Tends to be “messy” in some way: personal space, physical or digital materials, time commitments, thinking and planning processes

    • Finds it difficult to create and maintain routines and systems

    • Struggles to sort and/or prioritize effectively

    • May be easily distracted or lose steam when trying to organize

    • Clutter can lead to frustration, a negative self-view, or may interfere with daily functioning in some way

    • Unintentionally neglects obligations or objects due to disorganization

    • Noticing their habits and environments more mindfully

    • Modeling practical problem-solving and individualizing organized structures

    • Rehearsing by maintaining systems and noticing impacts

The Lost in Time

​​Often late or overscheduled, having a slippery sense of time makes it hard to set and keep plans or routines. They know how to tell time but never learned how to use time.

    • Has an underdeveloped or slippery sense of time

    • Does not often stay aware of time or multiple time frames (daily, weekly, monthly, etc)

    • Struggles to accurately estimate how long something will take, or does not make any estimation

    • Tends not to make structured schedules or plans, or struggles to stick them

    • Gains a reputation of always being late or missing obligations; commitments tend to “sneak up”

    • Difficulty with managing attention or impulses leads to time feeling lost

    • Increasing awareness of time on multiple levels using an individualized tracking system

    • Auditing time spent and recognizing time restraints in order to build more sustainable and balanced routines

    • Refining ability to accurately estimate time, realistically prioritize tasks, and adapt plans

The Straggler

Struggles with focus, planning, and motivation add significant obstacles to getting started or finishing goals. They tend to always feel behind in some way.

  • The Struggle to Start

    • Transitions of all sorts are challenging

    • Does not tolerate discomfort or challenge very well so may stick to familiar or more enjoyable tasks

    • Struggles with chronic procrastination and self-motivation

    • May have or be given a solid plan but still can’t seem to get started

    The Struggle to Finish

    • Often excited to start many new projects or tasks, but loses steam easily

    • May quickly give up when faced with obstacles or challenges

    • Does not create realistic goals or plans which can lead to overwhelm or burnout

    • Might not be aware of their work style and has difficulty pacing themselves

    • Tends to underestimate commitments or distractions, and overestimate their ability to multi-task

    • Identifying and problem-solving through common obstacles, both inner and outer

    • Tolerating discomfort and managing impulses effectively

    • Shifting from unrealistic multi-tasking belief (And! And! And!) to clear and achievable planning (Then, Then, Then)

How does Executive Function Coaching work?

Our clients often come to us in a disorganized and demoralized state, having gotten plenty of negative feedback about chronic challenges.

An authentic relationship with an experienced and encouraging coach can make all the difference when it comes to developing more effective skills, habits, and systems.

Our coaching method follows a cycle of Modeling, Rehearsal, and Accountability.

  • Modeling is when someone you trust shows you how it’s done.

    This could include using a planner effectively, handling stress while writing a paper, organizing a workflow, or identifying short and long-term goals.

    Whatever the skill, trust is the key ingredient for impactful demonstration and learning.

  • Then comes Rehearsal, which is just what it sounds like: practicing skills and strategies, over and over.

    Clients learn to make and recover from mistakes and to adapt these skills and strategies to their actual lives so that they can begin to experience competence and agency.

    Rehearsal is all about practicing and problem-solving together so that eventually a client can practice and problem-solve independently.

  • Meaningful accountability is all about honest and encouraging feedback that reminds a client of their goals and development.

    Unfortunately, clients often come to us demoralized and well-trained in focusing on negative feedback.

    So our coaches are skilled at retraining clients to use feedback and setbacks as key opportunities to problem solve and practice important skills with an emphasis on progress and process rather than perfection.

Curious about your own strengths and weaknesses?

Take our Executive Function Skills Survey to better understand your skills profile.