There's an executive functioning skills list you utilize every single day, often without thinking of it. These skills include a variety of memory, flexible thinking, and self-control functions that help you work, function, and just generally live your life. Although we call upon many of these skills unconsciously, there are ways to further cultivate these skills to reap their benefits to a greater extent and achieve peak performance.
In today's post, we're going to cover everything you need to know about cultivating an impressive executive functioning skills list, as well as the basics of executive functions, and much more.
What are Executive Functions?
Before we talk about strategies for cultivating these skills, let's begin by covering the basics of executive functions and get to the root of what this term means.
To do so, we'll turn to Understood.org for a helpful definition:
"Some people describe executive function as “the management system of the brain.” That’s because the skills involved let us set goals, plan, and get things done. When people struggle with executive function, it impacts them at home, in school, and in life.
There are three main areas of executive function. They are:
It's pretty easy to see why these skills are so important and the impact they have on our lives. To highlight exactly how they help us on a day to day basis, let's now look at a list of executive function skills.
List of Executive Functions
There are a number of skills you use every single day that are possible thanks to executive function.
They include:
Cultivating Executive Planning Skills List for Peak Performance
Right off the bat, you might notice you're better at some of the items on the executive functioning skills list than others. Perhaps your organizational skills are superior, but your task initiation has room for improvement.
So, your next question is: is your executive functioning ability set in stone? Can these skills be further developed and improved?
The good news is, the answer is yes!
Youcan cultivate executive functioning skills, so let's talk about how to do that next.
Fostering Your Executive Functions
After reading the executive functioning skills list, you can probably imagine the difference it would make in your life if you foster these skills even further. And that doesn't just mean how you live your day to day life, but it also refers to achieving peak performance.
We have a whole post about peak performance right here. In it, we explain what peak performance means: essentially, performing to your maximum ability. So, if you can perform executive functioning skills to the maximum of your ability, this results in peak performance.
Developing executive function skills
There are different ways to foster your executive function skills, depending on the skill itself.
Let's go over some of the skills we mentioned in our list, along with different methods for cultivating these skills.
Flexible thinking
For this skill, we mentioned how it involves resilience. There are all kinds of ways to develop your resilience and become better at responding to life's changes and challenges.
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Self-monitoring and metacognition
For cultivating this skill, it's helpful to ask yourself how you can work on becoming more self-aware. The good news is, if you're asking this question, you're already well on your way! Beyond that, here are some tips for cultivating your metacognitive skills:
Stress tolerance
No one is completely immune to the effects of stress. Nor should we be! In fact, the stress response is an important (and useful) part of human existence. Stress can be motivating, and the stress hormone also helps our body perform important functions when we face a threat.
Of course, when stress becomes ongoing or chronic, it ceases to become a good thing. That's when it's important to cultivate your stress tolerance abilities so you can check them off your executive functioning skills list.
In this post, we list a number of ways to manage your stress levels. In it, we discuss the benefits of vagus nerve stimulation for stress relief and management techniques.
Vagus Nerve Stimulation and Cultivating Your Executive Functioning Skills List
We've included two examples of how vagus nerve stimulating headphones can be a useful tool when you're working on cultivating your executive functioning skills. The pursuit of strengthening these skills is an admirable one, with effects that can range anywhere from increased productivity to achieving your peak performance.
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