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EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONING A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A COLLEGE STUDENT

Jennifer Smolinski, adapted from Executive Function: Around the Clock, National Center for Learning Disabilities Inc. 2013

7:30 am in the morning and you

are rushing out the door to make

an 8:00 class. Arghhhh!! You’re

sure that you have forgotten to

pack something in your

backpack. Oh, it was actually two

somethings: Your notebook and

calculator! Back inside you go.

Sprinting back out the door and

right by your reminder checklist,

you get halfway to class before

realizing you have now left your

hockey stick behind for this

afternoon’s game! It’s going to

be one of those days again.

EF AREA: ORGANIZATION

9:00 am and you’re finally in

class and settled when the

professor asks the class to relate

last night’s reading to today’s

society. A few hands go up but

the professor calls on you to

answer the question. Your heart

sinks and your stomach flips

thinking about all the steps you

need to go through in order to

come up with a logical sounding

answer.

EF AREA: WORKING MEMORY



11:30 am and you’re finally on

your way to lunch with a few of

your friends. You get to the

dining hall and explode going a

mile a minute telling them about

how you got put on the spot to

answer a question in class. You

are so worked up about it that

you don’t even notice that your

friends aren’t even paying

attention and are actually

making faces.

EF AREA: SELF-MONITORING,

IMPULSE CONTROL

3:00 pm and it’s finally time for

practice. The best part of the

day! A teammate passes you the

puck and you know that in

hockey it is important to take a

shot at the net if you are close to

it. So…you slap the puck as hard

as you can….into your own

team’s net! Anger shows on all

your teammates faces and your

coach is looking at you with

disappointment once again.

EF AREA: FLEXIBILITY, WORKING

MEMORY



7:00 pm. Game’s over and it’s

finally time to eat. There is a

long line in the dining hall but

you only want the food served at

the end of the counter. You

jump in front of all the other

athletes and students to get

there. Your teammates remind

you that you have to wait in line

like all the other hungry people.

How dare they! You’re hungry

and want to get the food as fast

as you can. You played hard at

game time. You not so quietly

remind all the students in line

behind you.

EF AREA: EMOTIONAL CONTROL

8:30 pm. Ok, you’ve eaten and

showered, now time to start the

ridiculous amount of homework

you have. Several projects and

papers are due next week but

you have no idea where to even

begin. What is due when? Is

there anything due tomorrow?

Overwhelmed and exhausted

you lay your head down on all

the books thinking you will just

rest for a few minutes. The next

thing you know it is now after

midnight and nothing has been

accomplished.

EF AREA: TASK INTIATION



12:30 am. Your delays and

procrastination mean that you

now have to burn the midnight

oil to get that paper done that is

due tomorrow. At this point you

can’t wrap your head around

how to structure the paper and

the steps you need to take to get

it done.

EF AREA: PLANNING & SETTING

PRIORITIES

3:00 am. The paper is finally

done! Now you can sleep before

heading off to class once again.

You can’t seem to sleep as your

mind races to remember if you

put everything in the paper the

professor was looking for. Then,

if you sleep at all, when you

wake up you will be faced with a

new problem to start out your

day. Your disorganization has

gotten the best of you once

again and you forgot to put the

paper in your back pack last

night before finally falling asleep.

EF AREA: SELF-MONITORING,

ORGANIZATION



ABOUT EXECUTIVE FUNCTION

Executive function is a set of

mental processes that help us

connect past experiences with

present actions. We use these

skills and processes every day in

all the tasks that we attempt.

Students with learning and

attention issues often struggle

profoundly with many of these

skills.

NATIONAL CENTER FOR

LEARNING DISABILITIES

The National Center for Learning

Disabilities (NCLD) improves the

lives of all people with learning

difficulties and disabilities by

empowering parents, enabling

young adults, transforming

schools, and creating policy and

advocacy impact. They envision

a society in which every

individual possesses the

academic, social and emotional

skills needed to succeed in

school, at work and in life.

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