Executive Functioning Terms

These executive functions are a set of processes that all have to do with managing oneself and one's resources to achieve a goal.

• Executive Functioning Skills

• Organization

• Planning

• Task Initiation

How much time, how to allocate it, and how to stay within any time limits and deadlines. It also involves a  sense of time that is important

• Organization

• Planning

• Time Management

• Metacognition

The ability to create a roadmap to reach a goal or to complete a task. It also involves being able to make a decision about what's important to focus on and what's not important.

• Organization

• Task Initiation

• Flexibility

• Planning/Prioritization

The ability to create and maintain a system to keep track of information or materials.

• Organization

• Planning

• Task Initiation

• Working Memory

The ability to hold information in memory while performing a complex task.

• Sustained Attention

• Working Memory

• Response Inhibition

• Task Initiation

The ability to revise plans in the face of obstacles, setbacks, new information, or mistakes. It relates to adaptability to change in conditions.

• Organization

• Sustained Attention

• Planning

• Flexibility

The capacity to keep paying attention to a task or situation in spite of distractibility, fatigue, or boredom

• Sustained Attention

• Working Memory

• Flexibility

• Metacognition

The ability to manage emotions to achieve goals, complete tasks, or control and direct behavior.

• Flexibility

• Sustained Attention

• Emotional Control

• Response Inhibition

The capacity to have a goal, follow through to completion of that goal, and not be put off by or be distracted by competing interests.

• Task Initiation

• Emotional Control

• Planning

• Goal-directed Persistence

The ability to stand back and take a bird's-eye view of yourself in a situation, to observe how much you problem-solve. It also includes self-monitoring and self-evaluation skills. You think about your own “thinking”

• Flexibility

• Metacognition

• Working Memory

• Response Inhibition