Executive Function Strategies Blog

2020 was a year filled with discovering (or rediscovering) new activities to keep us occupied in a COVID world: the joy of baking banana bread, learning a new instrument, decluttering long-neglected areas of our homes - and, more recently, the mental workout of playing chess. Thanks to the popular Netflix series “The Queen’s Gambit,” chess has enjoyed a resurgence in popularity. And unlike the extra pounds you may be carrying from those kitchen endeavors, it turns out that chess is one of those “good for you” activities - especially when it comes to building Executive Function skills.

Everything these days seems to be going digital. Apps for this, websites for that, Google Home or Alexa taking up residence in our living rooms. It can be helpful for planning and keeping track of our busy lives, but can also a bit overwhelming and distracting. For those of us who prefer paper and pen as opposed to a digital calendar, using a day planner can be one of the keys to success. While pre-printed planners are great for some people (kudos to you who rock your world with one), many of us would benefit from some flexibility and control over the content, design, and set up of each page. Enter the Bullet Journal.

Do you ever run into the grocery store with a short list in your head and leave with only half of what you went in for? Does your son have to memorize the names of the planets in order, numerical operations, science classifications, or the beaches of the Normandy D-Day invasion - and does he always forget one or two? Does your daughter “cram” the night before a vocabulary quiz by repeatedly reading over the list and then forget everything she “learned” the night before, at test time?