The alarm goes off at 5:45 am and you jump out of bed, knock out 5 miles on the treadmill, catch the train, and are at your desk for 7:30. You create your agenda for your first meeting at 8:00 and the rest of the day is filled with reports to write, e-mails and instant messages that require a fast response, a situation with a challenging client to resolve and a hard stop to the day to make sure you leave on time to be home to see your child throw the first pitch tonight. All the while managing the day-to-day unexpected but typical tasks that appear throughout a typical workday. For an adult who isn’t challenged by an Executive Functioning Deficit, this day is manageable, but for many, this is a typical day where people find themselves falling further behind. Executive Functioning Skills develop from childhood through our early twenties. As you can imagine, there is variability in brain development, and because the frontal lobe is responsible for Executive Functioning Skills, injuries such as falls and car accidents often negatively impact these skills. Executive Functioning Difficulties are also common for people with ADD. There has been a lot of attention given to children with Executive Functioning Difficulties, but what do they look like in adulthood?
Executive Functions include: planning and prioritizing, organization, cognitive flexibility, working memory, initiation, self-monitoring, emotional control and impulse control. Executive Functions are often referred to as the “conductor,” because these skills allow us to move efficiently throughout our day, completing tasks as assigned and problem-solving when obstacles are encountered. If you struggled keeping your room clean as a child and remembering to bring your homework to school, you may relate to some or all of these as an adult.
1. Planning and prioritizing-The ability to recognize what tasks need to be completed first and developing an effective plan for completion. This includes the ability to identify how much time is required for completion so that deadlines can be met. Difficulty in this area often results in tasks not being completed in a timely manner, completion of tasks which aren’t identified as priority, and difficulty creating daily/weekly schedules.
2. Organization-The ability to keep information and items in order. Difficulty in this area often leads to “missing” information-it’s here somewhere but I can’t get my hands on it, a messy looking desk/office, and limited sense of what needs to be done by when.
3. Cognitive flexibility-The ability to shift thinking and adjust to change. Difficulty in this area can negatively impact both problem-solving abilities as well as interpersonal relationships. The expression “my way or the highway” was probably spoken by someone with limited cognitive flexibility.
4. Working memory-The ability to hold information in your head while you do something with it. For example, when someone asks you to shift your meeting time, visualizing in your mind what the rest of your schedule looks like and then determining if you can accommodate the request. Difficulty in this area often results in information that gets lost or retrieved incorrectly either in conversation or while taking notes in a meeting.
5. Initiation-The ability to get started. Difficulty in this area often presents as procrastination and can significantly interfere with task completion meeting deadlines.
There is obvious overlap with Executive Functions and one challenge can intensify another. You can imagine how decreased planning abilities can lead to difficult conversations because of missed deadlines. If that same person has reduced cognitive flexibility and decreased impulse control, difficulty recognizing the perspective of the person waiting on the late project will be seen as well as responses that are not well thought out. Tumbling rocks turn into avalanches quickly.
If you recognize yourself in any of the examples discussed and would like to set up a call to discuss your plan for change, contact me at 732-977-7381 or email me at doreen@thecognitivecoach.net
