Executive Functioning
What is Executive Functioning?
Executive functioning refers to the mental skills that help us plan, focus attention, remember instructions, and manage multiple tasks. These skills are controlled by the brain’s prefrontal cortex and include abilities like inhibition, working memory, and cognitive flexibility. Strong executive function is essential for goal-setting, problem-solving, and adapting to new situations.
The Basic Idea
Imagine you are a marketing manager working on a campaign launch for a client. The day before the deadline for graphic materials, you face an unanticipated challenge—your designer calls in sick and informs you that he will not be able to complete all the content before the deadline.
When confronted with a dilemma like this one, your executive functions kick in to ensure that you are able to successfully address the challenge. Instead of letting panic and anxiety set in, you take a deep breath and make a list of the content that still needs to be created and/or finalized. As you mentally review the list, you hold onto the key items, categorizing which are essential and which can wait. Next, you look through previous campaigns for the client to see if there are any assets that can be adapted or reused, which will allow you to spend time on the assets that must be created from scratch. You maintain your focus on the launch and adjust your plan when new obstacles emerge. By the end of the day, you’ve pulled enough together to satisfy the client and launch the campaign.1,2
In this scenario, you’ve leveraged high-level cognitive skills to address the problem, organizing your brainpower to complete complex tasks effectively, just as an executive would manage operations to lead an organization to success. Executive functioning is required when a task requires conscious thought to manage information, make decisions, and stay focused, all while self-regulating your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors so that the actions you take will contribute to your goals.3
There are three core executive functions:
- Inhibition: The ability to control your thoughts and emotions to stay calm and focused and take appropriate actions.
- Working memory: Transient storage and manipulation of information whilst working to solve a problem (like a mental notepad).
- Cognitive flexibility: The ability to address unanticipated challenges by thinking creatively and multitasking.4
These three core components of executive functioning allow us to reason, problem-solve, and plan, and are essential for success, whether it be in school, work, or everyday life!
Executive functioning is not about knowing things. It’s about using what you know for effective performance in life - for social, occupational, and educational effectiveness.
― Russell Barkley, author of the book Executive Functions: What They Are, How They Work, and Why They Evolved5
About the Author
Emilie Rose Jones
Emilie currently works in Marketing & Communications for a non-profit organization based in Toronto, Ontario. She completed her Masters of English Literature at UBC in 2021, where she focused on Indigenous and Canadian Literature. Emilie has a passion for writing and behavioural psychology and is always looking for opportunities to make knowledge more accessible.
