Glossary

Executive function

Executive function is the set of mental skills people use to plan, start, switch and keep track of what they are doing. Psychologists usually describe three core skills: inhibitory control, working memory and cognitive flexibility. Planning and problem solving build on them.

The three core skills

  • Inhibitory control: holding back an automatic response, like not answering a chat message in the middle of a sentence.
  • Working memory: keeping information in mind while you use it, like remembering the second half of an instruction while you carry out the first.
  • Cognitive flexibility: changing course, like moving to a new plan when a meeting is cancelled.

This three-part model comes from a widely cited review, which also describes planning, reasoning and problem solving as higher-order skills that depend on the core three (Diamond).

Other ways of describing it

CHADD, a US nonprofit for people with ADHD, sets out two other models. One groups executive skills around self-regulation. The other names six clusters, including organizing, prioritizing and activating for tasks, and focusing, sustaining and shifting attention. CHADD notes that difficulties with these skills can affect the ability to begin, work on and complete tasks (CHADD).

Taking load off

A common practical approach is to move work out of your head and onto something outside it. A written list does the remembering, a calendar does the timekeeping, and a plan made earlier saves a decision later. None of this changes the skills themselves. It reduces how often a day depends on them.

How Flowo handles this

Flowo is a planning tool. It keeps tasks and notes in one place and places work around your fixed events, meals and sleep with fixed rules, so the same inputs give the same plan and you can check why each block is where it is. Read how the planner works.

Sources