This post is for adults who feel overwhelmed, stuck, or behind because planning, focus, and follow-through feel harder than they should. You’ll learn what executive function skills actually are, why stress, ADHD, and autism make them break down, and how three core skills shape daily life. Most So today, I’m sharing the reflection questions I’ll be using. My hope is that a few of them resonate with you, help you pause, consider your growth, and close out the year thinking of w

Improving executive function skills like working memory, self-monitoring, and goal-directed persistence can’t rely on visual reminders alone.  Our brains are designed to stop noticing things that don’t change. This has nothing to do with intelligence. It’s actually incredibly efficient. So today, I’m sharing the reflection questions I’ll be using. My hope is that a few of them resonate with you, help you pause, consider your growth, and close out the year thinking of won

For many of my adult executive function coaching clients, reflection sounds great in theory, but rarely happens.  So today, I’m sharing the reflection questions I’ll be using. My hope is that a few of them resonate with you, help you pause, consider your growth, and close out the year thinking of wonderful memories.

We are great at collecting information. But for many adults with ADHD, who are autistic, or have other executive function challenges, implementation is the hardest part.

Forgetfulness isn’t a character flaw. For many people, it’s a working memory gap. This article explains how working memory in neurodivergent adults affects focus, follow-through, and daily life. We dive into why offloading information, not “trying harder,” is what actually helps.

Emotional control is a foundational executive function skill. Every decision we make, every action we take, is fueled by our emotional state. Dr. Marc Brackett’s Mood Meter makes emotional awareness simple. In less than 30 seconds, we can check in, name what we feel, and start the day grounded instead of reactive.

According to Dr. Russell Barkley, inhibition is the core executive function skill that every other EF skill depends on. Planning, emotional regulation, task initiation, and self-monitoring can't come online without the ability to pause before acting.

Keep this in mind: You’re not lazy. You're not broken. You don't suck. You haven't found the right systems yet.

But in today’s world, we are asked to do so many things. Doing one thing at a time feels like a waste of time. In reality, trying to multitask only slows us down and makes us more stressed.

Re-entry anxiety is real, especially for neurodivergent adults. Discover how buffer days can protect your executive function and make travel truly restorative.

If you struggle with resistance, it’s not because you’re lazy, broken, or destined for mediocracy. It’s because no one ever taught you how to befriend resistance.

It’s nearly impossible to estimate how long something will take for two reasons. First, we fall victim to the planning fallacy–our tendency to underestimate time, cost, and effort, even when past experiences prove otherwise. Then, we forget to consider unpredictable obstacles like

In reflection, I’ve realized how low my confidence and self-esteem were in high school. A large part of that was because I constantly played a mental game I could never win. Every day, it chipped away at my self-esteem.

A dopamine menu is a list of activities that give you a healthy boost of dopamine (that’s the brain chemical that fuels motivation, energy, and focus). It's something I build with my adult executive function coaching clients.

Task batching means grouping similar tasks together and completing them in a dedicated block of time. Instead of replying to one email, starting a project, then bouncing back to Slack, you batch tasks into categories and handle them all at once.

The reason many neurodivergent adults "come alive" and become productive right before a deadline isn’t about laziness or incompetence. It’s tied to gaps in executive function—specifically, task initiation.

Feedback is about a task, not your worth as a person. If you have ADHD or autism, rejection sensitivity can make it feel unbearable. But when you notice it, use a calming strategy, and untangle the story, feedback becomes an opportunity to grow rather than a trigger to spiral After a few failed attempts, I devised a system that offloads the cognitive load of remembering to follow up using the snooze feature.

If you’re autistic or have ADHD, you probably know how precious your mental energy is. And, trying to remember to follow up on important emails only overloads it.  After a few failed attempts, I devised a system that offloads the cognitive load of remembering to follow up using the snooze feature.

Our brains love to catastrophize boring tasks. I was convinced cleaning my van would take two hours. It only took 31 minutes. The question that got me started is the same one that can break your procrastination cycle.

What if bouncing from one system to another, depending on the day, week, or season of life, was the best strategy to improve executive function skills for adults?