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.
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.