What is Executive Functioning?

What is Executive Functioning?

Executive functioning skills allow us to effectively manage our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors to accomplish our goals. These skills are crucial for success in school, work, and life. However, many students and adults struggle with executive functioning, which results in many challenges. Today we’ll look at what these skills are, why so many people struggle to attain them, and what can be done about executive dysfunction. Spoiler: there are solutions, you just need to know where to look. 

What Are the Key Executive Functioning Skills?

Executive functioning is an umbrella term referring to the cognitive processes that help us:

• Plan, organize, and prioritize
• Initiate work and sustain focus
• Utilize working memory
• Shift between tasks and think flexibly
• Self-monitor and regulate emotions

These higher-order mental skills work together to enable productive decision-making, complex goal-directed behavior, and execution of tasks. Executive functioning is controlled by the prefrontal cortex of the brain, which doesn’t fully develop until the age of 25. Executive Functioning can be broken up into two sets of skills: Decision Making Skills and Behavioral Regulation Skills:

Decision Making:

• Planning and prioritizing: Setting goals and developing steps to achieve them. Breaking long-term goals down into achievable short-term objectives. Determining what is most important to focus on and which tasks are lower priority.
• Sustained attention: Maintaining focus on a task for extended time periods without distractions or mind wandering. Ignoring irrelevant stimuli to stay concentrated.
• Organization: Structuring the physical environment and digital space so items and information have designated places. Keeping materials orderly so they can be easily located and workspaces stay uncluttered.
• Time management: Estimating how much time tasks will take and budgeting time accordingly. Monitoring progress to ensure deadlines are met. Minimizing procrastination and distractions.
• Working memory: Holding information in mind, manipulating it, and applying it to tasks. Processing and relating multiple pieces of data at once.

Behavioral Regulation:

• Task initiation: Taking the first step to begin a task without procrastinating. Fighting inertia and starting assignments in a timely manner.
• Task persistence: Continuing to work on the task at hand without losing focus or getting distracted. 
• Metacognition: Self-monitoring performance and progress. Evaluating effectiveness of strategies. Adjusting approaches as needed based on feedback.
• Task-switching: Transitioning smoothly between tasks or mindsets. Adapting to changing priorities or interrupting stimuli efficiently.
• Cognitive flexibility: Looking at situations from multiple perspectives. Generating alternative ideas or solutions. Adjusting strategies based on changing circumstances.
• Emotional control: Managing frustration, disappointment, anxiety, anger, and other emotions to prevent them from impeding task performance and focus. Resisting habits, temptations, or impulses to speak or act. Pausing before reacting.

These interrelated skills work in concert to support goal-directed action and execution of responsibilities.

Why Don’t Schools Teach Executive Functioning Skills?

EF skills are clearly vital for academic and career success. Yet most educational institutions don’t actively teach students how to improve these mental processes. Why is that?

Several factors contribute to the lack of direct EF instruction in school:

• Assumption of Independent Learning: Executive functioning skills emerge over time as a child’s prefrontal cortex matures. Younger students are still developing some of these higher-order cognitive abilities. Many teachers assume that with age, students will naturally pick up strategies related to studying, planning, organization, and managing emotions.
• Misconceptions About EF Skills: Some incorrectly believe that executive functioning ability is innate and fixed. However, research shows these skills can be strengthened through guided practice. Teaching executive functioning is often sidelined due to misconceptions about its malleability.
• Academic Subject Focus: Schools place priority on teaching content knowledge in areas like math, reading, science, and social studies. Developing broader life skills tend to get less attention in the classroom.
• Lack of Teacher Training: Most teacher education programs do not include training on executive functioning, developmental stages, assessment methods, or instructional strategies. Sadly, most teachers simply do not have the tools to properly teach these valuable skills.
• Full Teaching Plates: With a heavy load of content to cover, teachers must prioritize subjects that are explicitly tested. Finding time to incorporate additional instruction in executive functioning skills presents an added challenge.

Thus, without direct training, students’ executive functioning often remains underdeveloped. Those who struggle continue having difficulties managing time, regulating emotions, sustaining focus, and planning—skills imperative for success. And sadly, these difficulties compound on each other over time: a student who struggles to complete an assignment often develops emotional blockages around doing work in response, leading to further struggling to complete their next assignments.

Why Do So Many Struggle With Executive Functioning?

An estimated 45% of students have weaknesses with executive functioning that make it difficult to thrive in academic settings. With executive functioning challenges so prevalent, what factors contribute to these high rates?

It’s Not Your Fault

First things first: executive dysfunction is not the fault of the person experiencing it. There is a common misconception that if one simply works hard enough or wants it enough, they can achieve anything. For people who struggle with executive functioning, this is simply not true. It is not a matter of willpower – and this misconception, as often propagated by one’s teachers, parents and oneself, only serves to exacerbate one’s challenges and difficulties. 

Overloaded Schedules and Distracting Technology

With jam-packed schedules and constant digital stimulation from smartphones and computers, students must multitask and fight distractions during much of their studying. Too much social media depletes working memory and attention span, increasing vulnerability to interruptions. Switching between studying and entertainment disrupts the sustained focus needed for learning.

Neurodiversity

Many neurodivergent students like those with ADHD, autism spectrum disorder, or learning disabilities have executive functioning challenges due to differences in brain structure and functioning. ADD/ADHD in particular involves deficits with inhibition, working memory, planning, sustained attention, and other executive skills. 

Brain Development and Maturity

The prefrontal cortex, where executive functions originate, is one of the last brain regions to fully develop. This frontal lobe maturation continues into the 20s, and people’s executive skills grow at different rates and at different ages. 

Lack of Guided Skill Building

Mastering executive functioning skills requires one-on-one teaching, individualized feedback, and ample practice – more than schools typically provide. Students need guided opportunities to try skills, self-evaluate performance, and adapt approaches across different contexts. Solo practice is often insufficient for developing proficient EF skills.

As students advance in school, expanding curriculum, heavier workloads, elevated expectations, and increased responsibilities make honed executive functioning skills more critical. Students who progress without building these skills inevitably hit bigger and bigger walls.

Many Adults Also Have Executive Functioning Challenges

It’s not just students who frequently struggle with executive functioning. Many adults face difficulties as well.

Some adults made it through schooling by compensating for weaknesses through brute effort. But as demands increase, compensatory strategies cease working, causing executive deficits to surface.

Others develop executive functioning difficulties later in life due to:

• Extreme stress depleting cognitive resources
• Significant life changes or trauma
• Burnout at work

Regardless of age, untreated executive dysfunction negatively impacts people’s ability to live their lives in accordance with their goals and dreams.

However, executive functioning skills can be improved at any point through strategic training. Adults, like children, need to overcome the misconception that they simply lack natural aptitude. Building skills takes effort but produces real change.

You Can Learn Executive Functioning Skills at Any Age

The myth that executive functioning is an innate capability that you either have or you don’t simply isn’t true. Like any set of skills, EF can be learned and improved at any age through training.

Sure, some individuals will have natural strengths in certain cognitive skills. But research confirms that with strategic instruction and guided practice, anyone can strengthen their executive functioning and experience benefits.

Think about physical fitness. Some may be born with superior speed or coordination. But anyone can become significantly fitter through evidence-based training regimens and dedicated effort at any point in their life. Strengthening mental fitness works similarly.

Various methods can teach executive functioning skills:

• School/workplace interventions: Programs that directly teach organization, time management, emotional regulation, planning, prioritizing and other skills. They provide individualized coaching and practice opportunities.
• Clinical training: Working with psychologists, social workers, executive functioning coaches, and other specialists in developing customized strategies and self-monitoring.
• Books and online training: Self-guided learning from validated resources like books, videos, courses, and apps focused on building executive skills.
• Mindfulness practices: Meditation, yoga, martial arts, and other mindfulness-based practices boost awareness and emotional control to support executive functioning.
• Lifestyle adjustments: Ensuring adequate sleep, physical activity, nutrition, social connection, and stress management bolsters cognitive health.

The most impactful training engages motivation and interest, meets individuals’ needs, and provides ongoing support. With the right approach, transformative growth is possible.

Working with an Executive Functioning Coach

One of the most effective ways to improve executive functioning is by partnering with a coach. Coaches offer personalized training in building essential strategies along with hands-on practice.

Here’s how executive functioning coaching typically works:

• The coach conducts an assessment to identify the client’s executive functioning strengths as well as pain points. They gather information on circumstances when the skills breakdown.
• The coach and client collaborate to develop customized goals, like reducing procrastination, getting organized, or managing emotions.
• Over a series of sessions, the coach introduces strategies designed specifically to target the client’s goals.
• Clients practice using the strategies during sessions for real-life academic, professional, or household tasks while the coach observes, helps, and provides immediate feedback. This builds competence through experiential learning.
• Coaches help clients problem-solve when faced with challenges and unexpected obstacles. Troubleshooting difficulties is critical for cementing new habits.
• Clients reflect on progress and empower them to continue strengthening their EF muscles independently long term.  

The personalized nature of coaching coupled with active skill building helps engrain new executive functioning habits. Plus, coaches provide accountability to stay committed to change.

My Coaching Approach

As an executive functioning coach in Los Angeles but working online with clients worldwide, I take a holistic approach that goes beyond stand-alone skills training.

My personalized coaching incorporates:

• Teaching essential executive functioning strategies like organization systems, planning techniques, emotional regulation skills and more. We focus on skills tailored to each client’s goals.
• Working through emotional and psychological blocks like negative self-talk, anxiety, low motivation, or perfectionism that may be sabotaging executive functioning. 
• Fostering self-understanding so the client can begin working in cooperation with themselves as opposed to being in a constant state of resistance and self-sabotage.
• I offer a six week Executive Functioning Action Plan that goes through these steps and guarantees to get clients moving. You can read more about the “Get Moving” plan here.

I understand the shame, guilt, and anxiety of coping with executive functioning challenges from my own struggles with ADHD and anxiety. For years, executive dysfunction disrupted my schoolwork, health, and relationships. After much trial-and-error combined with support, I finally found answers and developed systems that allow me to work and live with ease. 

My mission is to collaborate with clients to create customized plans that work for their unique needs. By integrating EF skills training with mindset shifts and self-care, I empower individuals to pursue their goals and experience lasting wellbeing.

Learn more about my coaching services here.

Take Control of Your Executive Functioning

Think of your brain as a muscle. Without regular exercise, muscles atrophy. Likewise, underused cognitive skills weaken. But targeted training stimulates neural growth and new skill development, at any age.

Don’t assume you simply lack natural executive functioning abilities. Investing consistent effort into building these learnable skills creates life-changing rewards.

Prioritizing executive functioning training sets you or your child up for success at school, work, and life. If you’re struggling, don’t just muddle through. Seek support from a coach or professional specializing in cognitive skill building. If you’re not sure where to begin, feel free to book a free 20 minute call with me. I can help lead you in the right direction, whether that’s with me or elsewhere.

When equipped with executive functioning strategies and the emotional intelligence to understand your behavior patterns, you’ll feel empowered to reduce stress, accomplish goals, and live to your fullest potential. Reaching your “best self” begins with actively choosing to do the work to get there.

The future you will thank the present you for making executive functioning training a priority starting today.