Executive Skills Hub
Executive Functions – or Executive Skills – are the “brain tools” we use every day; to plan, focus, stay on task, and adapt when things don’t go as expected. For people with ADHD, these skills can show up as real strengths in some situations and genuine challenges in others.
Understanding your own executive skill profile is one of the first steps in working with your brain and not against it. It starts with curiosity, not judgment.
There are many ways of defining and categorizing executive skills. We like to use the 12 skills as Peg Dawson and Richard Guare define them in their series, Smart But Scattered. This gives us a lot of room to dive deep into specific skills and the strategies that work for them.
As you explore the skills below, keep in mind that how we’re feeling matters. On a tough day, even our strongest skills can feel harder to access. On a good day, we might surprise ourselves. Think about your strengths and challenges in general, but also notice how each skill shows up for you across different situations and different days.
Use the FOUR S’s
- You can use your STRENGTHS to get things done and pursue your goals.
- You can use STRATEGIES to continue building up your strengths and your areas of challenge.
- You can set up SCAFFOLDING & STRUCTURES, such as routines and habits, to make things easier and to help you “automate” some of the hard or boring things.
- You can get SUPPORT from others (including a coach)!
Oh wait… I have to DO these things? But ADHDers sometimes have a lot of trouble DOING. If this sounds familiar, talk to a coach about how to personalize those strategies to work with your brain.
Click on each skill below to learn about the strategies, scaffolding, structures and support that work best for each one.
TASK INITIATION
(or Getting Started Without Procrastinating)
EMOTIONAL REGULATION
(or Emotional Management)
SUSTAINED ATTENTION
(or Staying Focused)
FLEXIBILITY
(or Adapting)
GOAL-DIRECTED PERSISTENCE
(or Following Through)
WORKING MEMORY
(or Thinking While Doing Something)
PLANNING /PRIORITIZING
.
TIME MANAGEMENT
.
METACOGNITION
(or Thinking About Your Thinking – Awareness)
STRESS TOLERANCE
(or Stress Management)
Not sure where to start?
Identifying your executive skill profile is something we explore together in coaching.
NOW WHAT?
Now that I know what my strengths and challenges are, how does that help me?
Use the FOUR S’s
- You can use your STRENGTHS to get things done and pursue your goals.
- You can use STRATEGIES to continue building up your strengths and your areas of challenge.
- You can set up SCAFFOLDING & STRUCTURES, such as routines and habits, to make things easier and to help you “automate” some of the hard or boring things.
- You can get SUPPORT from others (including a coach)!
Click on each skill below to learn about the strategies, scaffolding, structures and support that work best for that skill. Then talk to a coach about how to personalize those strategies to work with your brain!