What the EF? How to Support Planning & Prioritization
When someone struggles with planning and prioritization, it's easy to assume they just aren't trying hard enough, don't care, or need to be more organized. But for many people with ADHD, these skills rely on executive functioning processes that simply don't happen automatically.
Planning and prioritization require us to hold multiple pieces of information in mind, estimate time, anticipate future needs, organize tasks into a logical sequence, determine what matters most, and decide where to begin. That's a tremendous amount of mental work happening behind the scenes. Those who seem to “just know” how to do this, may not even realize how many mental processes they have running at one time. But, for those of us who struggle with executive functioning, these invisible steps feel like huge roadblocks, whether we can even fully identify and understand what exactly the barrier is.
The good news is that planning and prioritization can be supported. The goal isn't to do everything for someone else, but rather to reduce unnecessary cognitive load while helping them strengthen their skills in these areas.
What the EF? Understanding Planning & Prioritization
Planning and prioritization are two executive functioning skills that play a central role in helping us initiate and complete tasks. They are also intertwined with so many other executive functioning skills. You might be able to think about what needs to happen, but turning that into a clear sequence of steps or deciding what matters most in the moment can feel like you’ve got one big tangled ball of yarn in your brain.
What may look like "laziness" from the outside could actually be someone getting stuck trying to identify and decide which steps to start with. So, planning and prioritization are cognitive skills that help us be able to initiate tasks. These are skills that individuals with ADHD often find challenging.
What the EF? How to Support Time Management
When someone consistently struggles with time management, the outside world often interprets it as laziness, irresponsibility, lack of effort, or “not caring enough.” If perceived in this way, it leads to frustration, disappointment, and hurt for others and shame for the ADHDer. In reality, many of these challenges stem from ADHD-related differences in executive functioning, including time awareness, time estimation, attention regulation, task initiation, working memory, and energy management.
Support becomes much more effective when we stop assuming that the issue is a lack of planning ahead, and we actually break down and consider what cognitive skills and information is necessary to effectively time manage.
Let’s talk about what actually helps.
What the EF: Understanding Time Management
When most people hear “time management,” they think of planners, calendars, and color-coded schedules. But that’s only the surface. At its core, “good” time management requires being able to accurately estimate how long each task will take, and for many ADHDers, that’s where things start to get complicated.
Time isn’t something we can see or hold. It’s abstract. And when your brain already has difficulty regulating attention, motivation, and emotion, time can feel slippery and elusive.
Let’s break it down.
What the EF? How to Support Working Memory
If you’re a parent, partner, relative, friend, colleague, or professional supporting an ADHDer with working memory challenges, you’ve likely felt frustrated at times.
You might notice things like:
Important items getting lost
Needed items being forgotten when leaving the house
Tasks not being completed
Bills not being paid on time
Birthdays or anniversaries being ignored
Commitments not followed through on
Conversations not being remembered later
What the EF? Understanding Working Memory
Working memory…what does that even mean? For many ADHDers it feels like our memory is certainly not working! The term “working memory” refers to the cognitive skill of being able to temporarily store and manipulate information. Working memory is considered one of the executive functioning skills.
What Working Memory Actually Is
Think of working memory like a post it note in your brain. It tends to hold information temporarily until it’s needed.
What the EF? Understanding Executive Functioning Skills and ADHD
When people talk about ADHD, the conversation often centers on focus, attention, and impulsivity. As an ADHDer, a parent of ADHD children, and a professional who supports many ADHDers, I see executive functioning skills as the area where challenges show up most. These are the cognitive processes that help us “execute” tasks. Think of them like the executive of a business for your brain: they support goal setting, monitoring progress, following through, analyzing, and adjusting.
For search clarity: you may also see these challenges called “executive dysfunction” online. I use more affirming language here.
This article is an introduction to executive functioning and the eight core skills. It also kicks off a series where I will take a closer look at each skill and share strategies for people who experience challenges in that area.
Sign up for the “Muchness Matters” newsletter from Embrace the Muchness to receive a free ADHD/Neurodiversity Glossary & Acronym Resource!
Newsletter is sent 1-2x each month and includes ADHD education, resources, and updates on service offerings. You’ll also be notified every time the resource list is updated.