How to Manage Problems With Executive Function

I hold my planner like a life book. It's dazzled with color-coded words, stickers, notes, symbols, and doodles. One might think it's all for fun. In truth, it's all quite necessary. It's my executive assistant.

Executive Functioning

Executive functioning is a fancy term for the array of tasks it takes to plan and implement a task. This includes drawing out what is necessary, gathering tools, getting started, troubleshooting difficulties, staying at it, and following up. Organizing time and space are also important components. Working memory, processing speed, and frustration tolerance are related pieces. It's a lot!

For some, executive functioning comes easily and in a predictable manner. For others, any number of these details can be treacherous pulling one into a swamp of frustration and confusion. This is particularly the case when a person is neurodivergent, often meaning that the organization strategies that work well for the majority of people might not be as effective.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Executive Functioning

Of all conditions, ADHD is perhaps the one most associated with executive functioning difficulties. Unsurprisingly, executive functioning difficulties are associated with academic problems in children with ADHD (Tamm and colleagues, 2021) and emotional troubles in adults with the condition (Zhang and colleagues, 2021). It can be incredibly discouraging when the relatively small pieces interrupt one's ability to complete their goals.

For individuals with ADHD, executive functioning problems are often complex but are often tangled in with distractibility and working memory alterations. Apps to assist with planning and tracking progress along with strategies such as breaking a task into smaller pieces with mini-rewards can help. Similarly, some report it to be easier to stay on task when doing something alongside another person. For this reason, body doubling, a practice of pairing with another person when going to work on something has become a popular strategy among people with ADHD.

Executive Functioning Challenges Outside ADHD

A research study of undergraduate students found that depressed mood and anxiety were both associated with executive functioning deficits. Depression was associated with difficulties maintaining a goal. While anxiety was also correlated with cognitive inflexibility.

Checklists can provide some structure for individuals living with anxiety and assist with the cognitive inflexibility that can accompany anxiety. Seeing a complex task broken into manageable pieces is reassuring. Similarly, motivational assistance might be particularly important in managing executive functioning difficulties in depression. This might mean checking in with another person regularly when working toward a goal, or pairing the task with another enjoyable task.

In autism, executive functioning difficulties have also been identified in the domains of planning and flexibility (Xie and colleagues, 2020). What works to improve executive functioning might vary widely from person to person. Still, with consideration of the identified visual strengths and assistance through visual cues (Anger and colleagues, 2019), autistic individuals may benefit from the use of visual aids such as color coding or writing and drawing in a physical planner.

Executive functioning deficits are also common in mental health conditions such as bipolar disorder (Cotrena and colleagues, 2020) and Schizophrenia (Parola and colleagues, 2020).

Looking further, stress can be a powerful trigger for executive dysfunction. Anyone is likely to struggle with organizing ideas, tasks, space, and time when feeling overwhelmed. For this reason, it is helpful for all of us to consider what works to decrease stress and bolster our ability to complete tasks as well as to be kind to ourselves when things just don't seem to be coming together. For those struggling, psychotherapy with a focus on executive functioning can assist.