Executive Functioning:
From Surface Strategies to Real-World Functioning
Executive functioning is not just organization or time management. It is the coordination of cognition, emotion, and environment under load - shaping whether someone can begin tasks, manage frustration, adapt strategies, and follow through in real life.
How Executive Functioning Actually Works
Executive functioning is often described as a list of discrete skills. working memory, impulse control, planning, organization, flexibility, and self-monitoring. In practice, performance depends on how systems coordinate under demand.
But in real life, these processes do not operate in isolation.
They function as an integrated system.
Executive functioning is what allows someone to:
• begin when something feels effortful
• manage frustration without shutting down
• adjust when a plan changes
• hold multiple steps in mind
• persist when a task becomes complex
• navigate social expectations while managing internal states
It is not simply about productivity.
It is about regulation under demand.
When executive systems are strained - by ADHD, anxiety, autism, learning differences, or stress - performance becomes inconsistent.
Not because someone lacks intelligence.
But because the coordination system is overloaded.
Executive Functioning Integration Model
A system-based view of regulation under demand
