Here’s how you can be more productive by mastering executive function

What is executive function? In simple terms, a person’s executive function could be described as being their organizational skills; their ability to manage time and complete tasks.

But having weak executive function means much more than needing to take a bit more care to make sure you’re organized. It can be an enormous disadvantage to those affected, and particularly to those in higher education, such as college students, because this is the stage of life at which executive function develops.

RedOrbit spoke to Carolyn Carpeneti, author of Taking Flight: Mastering Executive Function – How a Mother and Son Transformed Academic Struggles into Collegiate Success, to find out more about the issue.

Mastering Executive Function

“Weak executive function has nothing to do with intelligence,” Carpeneti explains. “It’s a set of skills that allow you to show your true intelligence ”

This is why, like herself, parents of very bright children can be surprised and frustrated when their kids suddenly seem lazy, uninterested, or under achieve during the later stages of their education.

“A student could have a conversation around the dinner table at home and have intelligent and articulate insights into world peace or other sophisticated topics, yet they can’t seem to remember to pull their homework out of the printer and bring it to the classroom,” Carpeneti says.

Such a discrepancy could be seen as being due to laziness, until more people become aware of the issue of weak executive function, just as other causes of supposed ‘laziness’, ‘stupidity’ and ‘bad behavior’ have slowly been discovered, the unenlightened blanks having been filled in by better understanding of conditions such as ADD and autism spectrum disorders.

Carpeneti’s advice to parents is to take an interest in the sort of ambiguous behavior described above, rather than being annoyed by or critical of it.

But parents aren’t the only people who need to sit up and take notice.

A problem with ego and technology

Carpeneti also founded CoPilot Systems, a web and mobile app that helps students with weak executive function. The CoPilot website states that 1 in 4 college freshman don’t make it through their first year, and issues with executive function play a meaningful role in this worrying statistic.

And yet, Carpeneti explains, “many educators and institutions are failing to address the gaps where students are really failing.

“For example, intuitions use a Learning Management System (LMS), that ideally lays out the structure of each course including tests, homework and due dates. The problem is some professors use it, and others refuse.  Among those who use it, there is no consistency in how they use it, and, as a result, students are left confused because each professor uses the same system in different and hard to understand ways.

“And then there are those professors, usually tenured, who refuse to use the system. Lastly, there is the group that refuses to use their institution’s LMS altogether and uses another third-party tool.  Just getting your homework is like going on an Easter Egg hunt.”

It would also help if professors and the institution’s IT department “left their egos at the door”, she adds, since adaptability is not a strong point for many.

Awareness of the issue of weak executive function is increasing – slowly.

“As educators, parents and students move forward, better understanding is a key component to ensure a student’s success,” Carpeneti concludes. “People with weak executive function are often brilliantly creative. When you can support the development of these skills, these students can achieve greatness.”

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Image credit: Thinkstock

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Source: http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1113413754/executive-function-mastery-042216/