Executive Function Strategies for College Success

What is Executive Functioning?

It is described as the cluster of advanced cognitive skills- including working memory, organization, and emotional control- that acts as our “Command Center” as we navigate all the complicated tasks of daily life. Determining our abilities to stay focused, plan ahead, regulate our emotions, solve problems with flexibility, and resist temptations.

These functions help us to control our behaviors through the process of self-monitoring- to keep track of our behaviors, self-evaluation- to assess our behaviors, and self-reinforcement- to reward ourselves for our behaviors.

The Executive Function processes are integrally related carrying out everything from simple to complex intentional actions where we must make both quick learning decisions and slow, more planful ones.

Students and adults, like myself who have learning disabilities are at a unique disadvantage since the nature of our disability lies in every cognitive process that would allow us to problem solve, compensate, and adjust to all the demands in our everyday lives.

Strengthening Our Executive Functions can improve our lives and especially being prepared for college success.

From the book Brain Hacks- Life-changing Strategies to Improve Executive Functioning, there are 5 core skills.

Focus & Attention
Planning & Organization
Cognitive Flexibility
Emotional Regulation
Impulse Control

Each core skill has helpful tips and strategies or Brain Hacks that Lara Honos-Webbs coined. Learning these skills, strategies, and helpful tips will help prepare anyone for college and especially those who have a learning disability. I am going to go over each core skill and give the top 3 Brain Hacks or what I will be calling as Strategies and Helpful Tips which I think is most important for college success. Let us begin!

1) Focus & Attention

We need to be able to direct and sustain our attention, while discipling our minds to be calm and well-behaved to avoid distractions. Problems with attention come in different forms, depending on person to person.

One impact of impaired attention is that it can cause us to take two or even three times longer to complete a task, because we didn’t absorb the instructions the first time around or because our attention wanders while we’re working. This may result in poor performance reviews in school or at work, because it can appear as though we are not on task, when in fact the underlying problem is that we may need to re-read the instructions of a task multiple times to retain the information.

Strategy #1: Working Memory

It is a type of short-term memory that allows us to recall information we have recently heard or seen and retain whatever information we need to execute the immediate task at hand. Research has shown that memory, focus, and concentration are increased when we manage our stress appropriately. Learning to manage daily stress and put worries in their proper place frees up attention and focus on more immediate concerns.

* Helpful Tip: Manage Stress

Stress-management tools like mindfulness practices and guided meditations have been trending lately… there are plenty of books and apps to enable us to learn these helpful strategies… Calm and Headspace are great apps to try…

Strategy #2: Sustaining Attention

How much sustained attention we have available for something depends significantly on how much the thing interests us, if we’re not very interested in the task that we are doing, we are more likely to become distracted with things we’re interested in like checking our newsfeed on Facebook. One of the best ways to deal with distractions is to give ourselves a head start by eliminating as many of them as we can.

*Helpful Tip: Deal with Distractions

Proactively managing our phones and other electronics to cut down interruptions is a great first step to making our brains distraction-proof… try putting your phone on sleep mode as well as turning off your email and social media notifications when you need to focus on a task.

Strategy #3: Mixing It Up

One way to keep us focused is to mix up our tasks. This can mean giving ourselves breaks, changing tasks so that we stay interested, or working in smaller chunks of time.

* Helpful Tip: Chunks and Breaks

A popular method is working in 25-minute chunks and then taking a 5-minute break. Many people use this strategy, there are hourglasses and timers that support this method, but you should experiment to find your own work-to-break ratio that will work best for you.

2) Planning & Organization

Planning and organization go hand in hand, in the sense that planning is a form of mental organization. It requires foresight and systematic thinking to prepare us to successfully carry out an idea.

Problems with organization create stress at home, school, and work. The more clutter we have with our desks, lockers, bags, purses the longer and more complicated any task will be, which decreases our productivity.

Strategy #1: Having the Right Tools at the Right Time

To execute even the best thought-out-plans, we also need to have command over our physical space at school, work, and home, as well as our virtual space, like our computer. These are centralized locations where we keep items, we need every day to help gain easy access to our daily essentials.

The key factor here is time. We all have limited time, and we cannot advance our goals if most of our time is spent finding tools needed to make progress.

* Helpful Tip: Establish a Command Center

To make a command center, we need to designate an area in our homes where we keep important mail that comes in, our keys, our purse or wallet, a phone charger and any materials needed for high-priority tasks.

Strategy #2: Initiating a Task

For many people, getting started- just taking the first step- can be the hardest part of any task, especially if the task has a negative emotional association fueled by perfectionism, which then leads us to wasting time and procrastination. Part of the solution to this common problem is to develop a different relationship with that feeling of resistance.

* Helpful Tip: Shift Focus to Completion

Whatever our reasons for procrastination, a simple mind shift can help us challenge those limiting beliefs if they exist or take our focus off the drudgery of getting it done… we need to think of something that we have been putting off… then we need to shift our focus by asking questions such as, “How good will I feel when I complete this task?”

Strategy #3: Getting Our Priorities Straight

Without setting some priorities, it is easy to lose track of time and fail to leave enough of it to take care of the things that really need to get done in a timely manner. This requires a pause in our busy schedules to figure out the best sequence for handling all tasks demanding our attention.

* Helpful Tip: Learn to Triage

Triage is basically the process of sorting out immediate tasks in order of importance and/or urgency. It can mean deciding which task to tackle first based on a clear deadline.

So with this, have a weekly to-do list and sort out which ones need immediate attention and which ones can wait. This allows us to make smart decisions about which task to tackle first. When you’ve finished your triage, you should have a clear system for ranking the tasks on your to-do list in terms of when they’re due and what’s at stake.

3) Cognitive Flexibility

It is the ability to quickly change the way we are thinking and behaving in response to the changes that happen around us. The transition from high school to college requires different skills and behaviors for success. The same is true for the transition from college to a full-time job.

A great deal of cognitive flexibility is required to make those transitions successfully. These transitions can be incredibly challenging because we apply skills and habits that worked in our old environment to a completely different setting. Many of the old rules will not apply in the new situation.

Strategy #1: Flexible Problem-Solving

It is learning how to switch perspectives and taking a positive outlook on an unpleasant situation, giving positive feelings to a new experience or challenge can create an ability to see a wider range of positive outcomes. This right here is adapting a growth mindset.

Unfortunately, many of us are controlled by our fears of what others will think of us. It may be that the solution to a problem requires us to take actions that others would argue with, disapprove of, or otherwise discourage. If we value other’s approval over our own, we will not be able to discover what we love, what career we want to thrive in, and so on.

* Helpful Tip: Stop Approval Seeking

Start noticing your fears about how things look to others. When you notice them, you have the choice to move beyond them. Then loosen up new viewpoints by shifting from “What do others want me to do?” and “What will others think of what I do?” to “What do I really want to do?” This opens a whole new perspective, creating flexible, adaptable thinking.

Strategy #2: Seeing Ourselves in Different Perspectives

Being able to see ourselves and our lives from different versions of us not only helps us think creatively, but also helps us regulate our emotions. When we start to struggle with a task, we need to ask ourselves this, “What would my 10-year old self say about the life I’m living?” Societal stereotypes and prejudices are part of what builds the boxes around us and sometimes we might build boxes of our own, which leads to inflexible thinking.

* Helpful Tip: Think Beyond “Outside the Box”

Don’t just think “outside the box” … think beyond the box itself…simply thinking outside the box would suggest you are in a box in the first place. So allow yourself to broaden your perspective on who you are and see that there’s a number of possibilities for moving forward. That’s what cognitive flexibility is all about.

Strategy #3: What’s Our Plan B

A cornerstone of cognitive flexibility is to be able to generate alternatives if our plans do not work out and to take risks without undue fear of failure. Creating a plan B is as simple as asking what comes after rejection or failure.

This goes a long way in eliminating fear of failure or rejection, both of which can create inflexible thinking about the different pathways to achieving goals. Accepting failure can give us a sense of freedom by forcing ourselves to try something outside our comfort zone and expertise.

* Helpful Tip: Rejection Collection

Rejection collection is a specific strategy of actively seeking out more rejections in order to expose ourselves to them. When we actively seek out rejection, we realize we can handle it.

The key here is to seek rejection in an area that feels low stakes such as joining a sports league. Starting in an area where we do not feel discouraged or personally hurt will allow us to practice risking rejection and preparing us for the higher-stakes areas.

4) Emotional Regulation

It allows us to put our feelings in context and refrain from emotional outburst. Keeping the intensity of our feelings in check…when we manage our emotions, our other executive functions can work optimally allowing us to reach our full potential.

An inability to regulate powerful emotions is when we are flooded with strong emotions and are not be able to pay attention, plan, or remember things very accurately. This can contribute to serve anxiety, depression, and outburst of anger, because of not allowing those intense feelings subside leading to difficulties with things like transitions and flexibility.

Strategy #1: Identifying Our Emotions

We all need to take some time to identify the emotions surrounding an issue in our lives. Our emotions are messages that can help us solve problems or be more faithful to ourselves and our needs. Anger can mean we need to set boundaries, sadness communicates that someone or something we value has been lost, anxiety means that something we fear might happen or that something we love might cease to be.

* Helpful Tip: Get to Know Your Feelings

Get to know what you’re feelings are telling you. To start this process, we must identify the emotions associated with our top 3 complaints or dissatisfactions in life.

Once we have identified the emotion we are feeling, we must validate the feeling by saying to ourselves, “it’s okay to feel mad/ sad/ fearful”, allowing ourselves to stay with the emotion by anchoring ourselves in taking mindful breaths of slowing inhaling and exhaling.

Strategy #2: Building Emotional Resilience

Resilience is the ability to keep going after we have had a setback. The more we bounce back, the more likely we are to get better at life and turn our goal setting into goal getting.

Once we are firmly rooted in the painful, emotional impact of an event, bouncing back requires us to find some positive element in the disappointing situation Lessons learned will build our confidence so we bounce back, taking a step forward.

* Helpful Tip: The Resilience “3 Step”

Step 1: Recognize the feeling- Turn up the volume of the feeling by surfing the wave, allowing it to get more intense, and then like a wave, let it subside. Turning up the emotion allows to understand that we can control the intensity of the feeling.

Step 2: Identify the positives- We need to ask ourselves what went well, whatever situation, we should always be able to identify something went well or better than expected.

Step 3: Create an action step- What is one action step we can take to move forward?

Strategy #3: Managing Negative Emotions

Difficult emotions arise from not getting our needs met. We might be thought of as selfish if we focus on our needs, and that’s unfair. What’s more we are often pressured into thinking we need to always be in control, so not feeling like we’re in control can bring up all sorts of distressing emotions.

An important step in improving our emotional regulation is building our tolerance for the uncertainty we all face in daily life.

* Helpful Tip: Build Uncertainty Tolerance

The human drive for control or certainty is one of the many causes of distressing emotions. When our minds pipes up demanding certainty, the simple strategy is to answer, “I don’t know.”

This usually isn’t easy for any of us to admit, but the reality is that we usually don’t know what’s going to happen to us in a given situation. When you tell yourself “I don’t know” … give it a minute and see what emerges… we might need to repeat this a few times. Each time the question arises, pause, take a deep breath, and say, “I don’t know” focusing on your breath.

5) Impulse Control

It is the ability to not do something as soon as we feel we want to- in other words, to pause before taking action. Impulsivity is action unmediated by thought, it is an automatic response or indication of mindlessness.

While there are many everyday examples of moving forward on an urge without considering the consequences. However these urges can lead to dangerous behaviors. Impulsivity can damage relationships due to blurting out hurtful comments or alienating friends and family with a pattern of unpredictable, risky behaviors.

Strategy #1: Deciding What Not to Do

Much of the time, managing impulsiveness is about stopping us from doing something that feels good in the moment, or to fulfill an immediate urge. Impulsivity can often manifest as multitasking. Research shows that multitasking decreases productivity making more mistakes, and over a long period of time it can diminish our working memory.

* Helpful Tip: Say No to Multitasking

Try to keep your internet browser closed on your computer. Or try to repeat “one thing at a time” to yourself or even write it on a sticky note so you can hear or see this reminder throughout the day

Also notice how your body reacts when multitasking. Are you clenching your jaw, holding your breath, is your stomach jumping, are your shoulders tight? Paying attention to our bodies negative impact when multitasking can motivate us to reduce this habit.

Strategy #2: Pause/ Plan

It is great to pause when we feel an urge, because this gives us the space. We may need to turn our attention to something else and bypass the impulsive behavior. An additional step and thought are to have an action plan in place when the urge occurs.

Survival-training programs often advise people when they find themselves in a dangerous situation to follow the acronym STOP… Stop, Think, Observe, and Plan.

* Helpful Tip: Learn to S. T. O. P.

If you think of an impulsive behavior as a potentially dangerous situation, which sometimes is, steer yourself into survival mode and remind yourself to STOP as soon as you feel the urge. Observe your thoughts in this moment, and follow through with your plan.

Strategy #3: Becoming Aware of Our Thought Process

Or the psychology term “metacognition”- which is the ability to take a broader perspective on how we think and whether our thoughts are helpful or hurtful. It enables us to observe our thought process through a critical perspective leading us to better decision making.

Many of our impulsive decisions are mindlessness and are the result of feeling threatened by criticism or uncertain about where we stand. Whereas when we think critically before making a final decision, we are choosing mindfulness… strengthening our ability to think about and evaluate our thought process.

* Helpful Tip: Know Your Strengths

The key here is to become clear about your strengths. This way we are better able to respond rationally to criticism.

The more we know our strengths not only makes us feel less threatened when we get feedback, but it also reveals where we need to improve in, helping us advocate for ourselves and get the support we need. This allows us to communicate from a perspective of problem-solving rather than defensiveness, hurt, or anger.

Here are the Simple Takeaways

We have the ability to direct our attention to start a task, set a goal, create a plan to work toward it, and organize ourselves to achieve it… while flexible problem-solving, regulating our moods, managing our time, and controlling our impulses… leading us to…

The Road to College Success

With this there were two major themes to a fulfilled life… the power of goal setting… and the power of choosing our thoughts.

We need to constantly revisit our goals to pursue our fullest potential… it is a continuous journey. And choosing our thoughts allows us to overcome one of the biggest obstacles to achieving our goals… our self-doubt. Once we realize we control our emotions and that our emotions do not control us… we open our world to the endless opportunities to succeed.