Tips for Executive Functioning
Have you ever felt that, no matter what you do, you can never stay organized? With a new year and a new school semester, we understand how difficult it can be to be and stay motivated. Executive functioning refers to a number of skills, including:
- Paying attention
- Organizing, planning and prioritizing
- Starting tasks and staying focused on them to completion
- Understanding different points of view
- Regulating emotions
- Self-monitoring (keeping track of what you’re doing)
Here are some tips and tricks from our executive functioning tutors on how to start the new year off right!
Tips for Students
- Plan out your assignments
- Break things up into manageable pieces
- Estimate timing before beginning
- How long will it take to complete each task?
- Write out the time estimates and track your actual timing
- Prioritize by deadline, length of assignment and comfort with subject
- Use stars or other labels to indicate priority level
- Understand that starting with something easy/ comfortable may work best for some students while doing the hardest thing first may be better for others
- Make things specific
- What resources do you have? What resources do you need?
- What will doing this task actually involve?
- Celebrate small successes and place them in a larger context
- Use checklists
Items to help you Organize
- Planner
- Google calendar
- Timeline
- Color coding
- Spreadsheet/ grid
- Reminders apps
If you think your student needs more guidance, Aspire has great executive functioning trained tutors.