Executive Function

Executive Function (EF) is a term for a set of cognitive skills that help you manage your behavior and achieve goals. These skills include things like:

  • Planning and organizing: Making a plan to reach a goal and figuring out the steps you need to take.

  • Working memory: Holding information in your mind while you work with it (like remembering a phone number while you dial it).

  • Flexible thinking: Adjusting to new situations or changing your approach when something isn’t working.

  • Self-control: Managing impulses, emotions, and behaviors so you can stay focused and act appropriately.

Basically, executive function is like the brain’s “management system.” It’s what allows you to think ahead, focus, solve problems, and regulate emotions — all the things that help you get things done efficiently and effectively.

When people have trouble with executive function, they might struggle with things like starting tasks, keeping track of time, remembering what they were supposed to do, or staying calm under pressure.

Productivity Culture Myths:

01: Adding more to a person’s plate of responsibilities teaches them necessary skills to succeed by dealing with stressful situations.

02: Naturally intelligent or highly-trained people don’t struggle with motivation, stress, the minutiae of daily tasks, or procrastination.

03: A person’s productivity level reflects their intelligence, motivation, discipline, and personal character.

04: Emotional responses are a sign of weakness.

Executive Function Facts:

01: Executive function skills can be learned. Under-developed skills are not character flaws.

02: Every person’s needs are different. There is no one right way of managing our responsibilities, making good decisions, being productive, or contributing to a team. We all have different strengths, and executive function skills can help you bring your strengths to the table.

03: Executive function is about more than productivity—it’s about creating sustainable systems that help you be the best version of yourself at work, at school, and life in general. Balance and healthy boundaries are just as important as deep concentration and persisting toward your goals.

Instead of Labeling Ourselves:

  • Procrastinator

  • Scattered

  • Awkward

  • Forgetful

  • Overwhelmed

  • Unmotivated

Let’s Improve:

  • Task Initiation

  • Sustained Attention

  • Communication

  • Working Memory

  • Stress Tolerance

  • Goal-Directed Persistence

Our 13 Most Popular Areas of EF Coaching

Executive Function skills don't come naturally to everyone. We help clients with the "how" for translating natural intelligence and creativity into productive, healthy habits and a high level of achievement.

  • The capacity to maintain attention to a situation or task in spite of distractibility, fatigue, or boredom.

    Productive Behaviors:

    • Minimizing distraction

    • Staying focused

    • Choosing what to focus on

    • Preventing or transitioning out of hyperfocus

    Challenging Behaviors:

    • Constantly distracted

    • Zoning out

    • Jumping between tasks

    • Difficulty preventing or transitioning out of hyperfocus

    • Feeling fidgety or struggling to stay engaged in a long conversation or meeting

  • The ability to express yourself.

    Productive Behaviors:

    • Clearly communicating your ideas

    • Asking questions to get the information you need

    • Advocating for your accommodation needs

    • Navigating difficult conversations, engaging in meetings

    • Reflectively or actively listening,

    • Saying “no”

    • Giving constructive feedback

    • Receiving constructive feedback

    Challenging Behaviors:

    • Difficulty managing relationships with stakeholders and leaders

    • Misunderstanding social cues or group dynamics

    • Engaging in tense conversation or email

    • Appearing not to listen or being disengaged

    • Difficulty saying “no”

    • Providing ineffective feedback

  • The ability to weigh multiple options and choose a course of action.

    Productive Behaviors:

    • Making informed choices that reflect your priorities

    • Making choices in a reasonable amount of time

    • Considering how a choice will impact different aspects of your work, school, or life

    Challenging Behaviors:

    • Struggling to prioritize or weigh options

    • Making decisions without gathering relevant evidence

    • Allowing perfectionism to cloud judgment

    • Ignoring how a choice will impact different aspects of your work, school, or life

    • Experiencing decision freeze, or feeling like you cannot. make a choice

    • Ignoring how a choice will impact different aspects of your work, school, or life

  • The ability to control and organize email.

    Productive Behaviors:

    • Organizing email folders

    • Prioritizing which emails to act on

    • Minimizing email clutter

    • Limiting when you check or get distracted by your email

    • Turning emails into to-do items

    Challenging Behaviors:

    • Spending too much time on low-priority email

    • Getting overwhelmed by the number of emails you receive

    • Constantly checking or getting distracted by new email

    • Reading and forgetting about email

    • Not responding to emails in a timely manner

  • The ability to resist urges, pause and think before saying or doing something.

    Productive Behaviors:

    • Pausing and thinking before you say or do something, make a choice, or make a purchase

    Challenging Behaviors:

    • Inappropriate communication

    • Making choices that lead to unwanted consequences

    • Making decisions too quickly

    • Struggling to emotionally regulate

    • Lashing out in frustration or anger

    • Spending beyond your budget

  • The ability to maintain your personal and household priorities.

    Productive Behaviors:

    • Consistent morning/evening routines

    • Managing and dividing daily/weekly tasks, chores, and home projects.

    Challenging Behaviors:

    • Feeling overwhelmed with or putting off home chores

    • Lacking household routines

    • Having a messy or disorganized home environment

    • Struggling with daily routines (breakfast, showering, exercise etc.)

    • Missing/not scheduling personal appointments or forgetting bills

  • The ability to store and remember information.

    Productive Behaviors:

    • Remembering new information

    • Remembering deadlines

    • Remembering where things are

    Challenging Behaviors:

    • Forgetting things you have learned

    • Losing things

    • Struggling to prepare for a certification exam or test

    • Learning new skills

    • Remembering new information

  • The ability to create and maintain systems to keep track of information or materials.

    Productive Behaviors:

    Keeping your physical space functional and efficient

    Keeping technology functional and efficient

    Being able to find things

    Knowing where items belong

    Having a routine to maintain organizational systems regularly

    Challenging Behaviors:

    • Feeling overwhelmed in space

    • Misplacing things

    • Cluttering spaces

    • Struggling to maintain technological systems of organization

    • Lacking systems for keeping track of important dates or meetings

  • The ability to thrive in stressful situations and to cope with uncertainty, change, and performance demands.

    Productive Behaviors:

    • Taking care of your needs

    • Setting boundaries

    • Following provider recommendations

    • Getting exercise and practicing mindfulness.

    Challenging Behaviors:

    • Feeling overwhelmed from too many things to do

    • Not dedicating enough time to your needs

    • Engaging in negative self-talk

    • Lacking routines to de-stress

    • Not getting enough sleep

  • The ability to read or write efficiently enough for work and life.

    Productive Behaviors:

    • Comprehending what you read

    • Effectively annotating texts and emails when needed

    • Organizing claims and evidence in a logical sequence

    • Writing without major grammatical errors

    • Using technology to support proficient writing (spellcheck, speech to text, etc.)

    Challenging Behaviors:

    • Misunderstanding or not identifying central ideas within a text

    • Making grammatical or spelling errors

    • Struggling to organize claims and evidence in a logical sequence

    • Immediately forgetting what you read or having to reread the same paragraph repeatedly

    • Writing in a stream of consciousness

  • The ability to begin projects without undue procrastination in an efficient or timely fashion.

    Productive Behaviors:

    -Being able to choose when you want to start a task

    -Starting tasks on time without delay or distraction

    Challenging Behaviors:

    -Procrastinating

    -Trying to start something but not getting anywhere

    -Feeling overwhelmed by a task

    -Feeling “stuck,” bored

    -Trying to do anything other than starting the task that needs to get done

  • The capacity to estimate how much time one has, how to allocate it, and how to stay within time limits and deadlines.

    Productive Behaviors:

    • Being on time

    • Making realistic time estimates

    • Being aware of how time is passing

    Challenging Behaviors:

    • Being late

    • Rushing or going too slowly

    • Not being aware of how long things take

    • Thinking less time has passed than actually has

    • Miscalculating parts of a task and how much time they take

  • The ability to operate efficiently for work purposes.

    Productive Behaviors:

    • Identifying priorities

    • Planning how to use your time

    • Breaking down and managing tasks

    • Capturing and tracking to-do items

    • Meeting deadlines

    • Making realistic commitments

    • Setting work boundaries

    Challenging Behaviors:

    • Constantly putting out fires

    • Jumping between tasks

    • Struggling to make sense of ambiguous tasks

    • Lacking structure at work

    • Not accomplishing what you want within work time

    • Missing deadlines

    • Being overcommitted

    • Feeling like things just sneak up on you

Whether you're a student focused on academic success, an adult managing personal and professional demands, or a people manager in a competitive work environment, we can help you develop strong executive function skills to help you unlock your potential.