Executive functioning skills are essentially all the skills you need to get things done. There is overlap in these skills. That’s why it may be easier to think of someone’s executive functioning as an orchestra with many instruments being played at the same time in order to get the desired result. Below is a list of some of the skills that comprise executive functioning:
- Initiative/Motivation: The ability to get yourself going on a task, even if it is unappealing, without prompting. The ability to start projects well before a deadline (e.g. not procrastinate).
- Self-Understanding: Knowing yourself:what motivates you, how you work best, what your triggers are, etc.
- Organization Skills:The ability to create order and keep track of things.
- Working Memory (The Brain’s RAM):The ability to hold information in mind as you remember what just happened, relate it to long term memories & think ahead to the future.
- Sense of Time:The ability to estimate how much time things will take, manage your time and use scheduling skills.
- Remembering to Remember (Prospective Memory):The ability to return to tasks after an interruption and set up good reminder systems & routines.
- Flexibility:The ability to adjust your behavior when needed and roll with changes to your schedule or tasks.
- Attention:The ability to focus, even when you are not interested, especially when there are distractions.
- Emotional Self-Control:The ability to tolerate frustration & anger, control impulsive tendencies.
- Behavioral Self-Control:The ability to stop yourself from doing things that aren’t helpful, the ability to think before you speak or act.
- Persistence: The ability to stick with a task.