Understanding Executive Function: What It Is and Why It Matters
The Zoom Out, Zoom In Dance: A Foundation for Better Productivity
After two posts defining executive function, you might be wondering why we're now diving even deeper into the brain instead of describing practical techniques for improving your productivity. The reason is straightforward: understanding the building blocks of executive function (working memory, processing speed, attention systems, and long-term memory integration) gives you a tremendous practical advantage when it comes time to describe those practical techniques. When you know how these cognitive systems actually work, you can design solutions that align with your brain's natural functioning instead of fighting against it.
To illustrate the above point, consider what happens when your car starts making noise. If you don't understand how your car's engine works, you might try random fixes: adding oil, checking the battery, or replacing the air filter. You'll waste time and money without knowing if you're addressing the actual problem. A mechanic with deep knowledge of engines, however, can identify that the specific pitch and timing of the noise points to a worn timing belt, allowing them to fix exactly what needs fixing.
The same principle applies to productivity. When you understand the cognitive systems that drive your executive function, you can pinpoint what's actually causing your productivity breakdowns. Instead of jumping from one productivity app to another hoping something sticks, you'll recognize when your working memory is overwhelmed or when your attention systems need specific support.
If you're itching to get to the practical stuff, I get it. Feel free to skip ahead to the next post where we start building actual systems. But if you stick around, you'll understand why some productivity approaches work brilliantly while others fail spectacularly, despite your best intentions.
The Four Pillars of Executive Function
Think of executive function as a skyscraper. Posts #1 and #2 showed you the penthouse view where the high-level operations like cognitive flexibility and the Zoom Out, Zoom In dance live. Now we're going down to the foundation. These four cognitive systems are the bedrock everything else is built on:
Working Memory - Your mental workspace
Processing Speed - How quickly you can think and respond
Attention Systems - What you notice and what you filter out
Long-Term Memory Integration - Connecting new information with what you already know
Let's explore each one, starting with the workhorse of executive function: Working Memory.
Working Memory: Your Mental Workspace
Working memory is like your brain's RAM; it's where you hold and manipulate information in real-time. Working memory is commonly misunderstood. Far from just being a temporary storage space for phone numbers or shopping lists, it's actually a sophisticated mental workspace actively juggling multiple pieces of information.
Working memory is actually doing three jobs simultaneously:
Holding information active (like keeping track of ingredients while cooking)
Manipulating that information (adjusting the recipe to feed more people)
Resisting interference (not getting distracted by your phone while you're cooking)
The prefrontal cortex is the main hub for working memory, but it's constantly talking to other brain regions. (If you want to dive deeper into these brain regions, Wikipedia has excellent explanations of terms like "prefrontal cortex," "dorsolateral prefrontal cortex," and "anterior cingulate cortex.")
A critical characteristic of working memory is its remarkably limited capacity. Most people can only hold 3-5 chunks of information at once. This isn't a bug, but instead a feature forcing us to be selective about what we pay attention to. The Salience Network (which we explored in previous posts) acts as the gatekeeper, deciding what gets precious working memory space and what gets filtered out.
The Working Memory Bottleneck
Ever wonder why you can follow a conversation perfectly until someone mentions three things you need to remember? That's your working memory hitting its limit. Or why reading a complex paragraph while tired feels like wading through molasses? Your working memory is struggling to hold all the pieces together long enough to make sense of them.
This bottleneck explains why:
Multitasking destroys productivity (you're constantly dumping and reloading working memory)
Stress makes you forgetful (emotional interference crowds out other information)
External memory aids are so powerful (they free up working memory for actual thinking)
Grace, a marketing executive I worked with, described her working memory challenges perfectly: "I'll be in the middle of writing an email when a colleague asks me a question. When I turn back to my screen, I stare blankly. I've completely lost my train of thought!" Grace's experience is normal and not a character flaw. Her panic results from her working memory having reset as her attention shifted to address her colleague's need. We addressed this troubling issue by encouraging Grace to make a quick and simple note to preserve her last thoughts about the email she had been working on before responding to her colleague. Grace's adoption of this external memory support dramatically reduced her frustration and embarrassment.
Processing Speed: The Pace of Thought
Processing speed isn't about being "smart" or "slow"; it's about how quickly your brain can process and respond to information. Processing speed largely depends on myelin, a fatty substance that wraps around your nerve fibers. Myelin works just like the insulation around electrical wires: it helps signals travel faster and more efficiently along your neural pathways.
When your neurons have more of this myelin insulation, they can send signals much faster. This explains why processing speed varies between individuals: people with more extensively myelinated neural networks process information faster, while those with less myelin insulation process information more slowly.
The good news is that your processing speed naturally ebbs and flows throughout the day, creating windows of opportunity you can leverage. By learning your unique patterns, you can schedule demanding tasks during your peak periods and lighter work when your processing naturally slows. This rhythm-based approach allows you to accomplish more work with less frustration because you're working in harmony with your brain's natural cycles rather than fighting against them. Your processing speed fluctuates based on:
Energy levels (are you well-rested or running on fumes?)
Arousal state (are you alert or drowsy?)
Stress levels (moderate stress can speed you up, too much slows you down)
Time of day (most people are at their processing speed peak in late morning)
Processing Speed in Action
When your processing speed is optimal, you can:
Keep up with fast-paced conversations
Quickly scan and extract key information from documents
Make decisions without excessive deliberation
Switch between tasks with minimal lag time
When processing speed is compromised, everything feels harder. It's not that you've suddenly become less capable; your neurons are literally firing more slowly. This is why that complex article is easier to read and understand at 10 AM than 10 PM.
The Salience Network plays a crucial role here too. It helps allocate your limited processing resources to what matters most, which is why you can think quickly in areas of expertise but feel sluggish when tackling unfamiliar problems.
Individual Differences and Neurodiversity
These cognitive foundations can and do vary significantly across individuals. The existence of neurodiversity (the natural variation in human brain function) means that some people have stronger working memory capabilities, or process sensory information more quickly than others. People with ADHD often find themselves challenged with regard to certain attention processes and working memory but may excel at making creative connections. People with autism often experience sensory processing challenges and difficulty with processing social information but may have exceptional memory and attention within areas of special interest.
These variations are better thought of as differences rather than deficits; alternative configurations of how different brains process information, each with unique strengths and challenges. From this perspective it is less important to compare your foundational cognitive abilities to someone else's performance, and more important that you learn to understand and appreciate how your unique brain functions so that you can design executive function support systems that are custom fitted for your brain. This is to say, a productivity approach that works brilliantly for a colleague might fail spectacularly for you, not because you've done something wrong, but because your cognitive architectures are different.
Throughout this series, I'll help you explore how to personalize your productivity systems for your unique cognitive profile so that you are best prepared to succeed.
Attention Systems: Your Mental Spotlight
Attention isn't one thing; it's at least three interconnected systems:
Alerting: Maintaining readiness to respond
Orienting: Directing attention to specific information
Executive Attention: Resolving conflicts between competing inputs
These attention subsystems work together like a film crew. Alerting is like the general lighting that keeps the set visible. Orienting is the spotlight operator highlighting specific actors or props. Executive attention is the director, deciding which spotlight to follow when multiple things demand attention.
The Salience Network: Your Attention's GPS
Remember the Salience Network? It's essentially your attention's GPS, constantly calculating the most important destination for your mental resources. The anterior insula and anterior cingulate cortex work together to:
Detect important changes in your environment
Flag internal states that need attention (like hunger or anxiety)
Switch between internal reflection and external focus
Coordinate other brain networks based on current priorities
This is why you can be deeply focused on work and suddenly notice you're hungry, or why a subtle change in someone's tone of voice can capture your attention even in a noisy room.
Long-Term Memory Integration: Connecting the Dots
Here's something rarely discussed in productivity circles: your ability to use executive function effectively depends heavily on how well you can access and integrate relevant knowledge from long-term memory.
The hippocampus and surrounding medial temporal lobe structures don't just store memories; they also create associative networks that make information accessible when needed. This is why experts in a field can process information faster and hold more in working memory: they're not really holding more chunks of information at a time so much as each chunk of information they are accessing from long-term memory is larger and more complicated.
The Integration Dance
When you encounter new information, your brain immediately starts searching for connections:
What do I already know about this?
How does this relate to other concepts?
What patterns am I recognizing?
What predictions can I make?
This integration process is what transforms isolated facts into usable knowledge. It's why teaching others improves your own understanding; you're forced to make these connections explicit.
Putting It All Together: The Cognitive Symphony
These four systems don't operate in isolation. They're constantly interacting:
Working memory relies on attention to maintain focus
Processing speed affects how quickly working memory can operate
Long-term memory integration reduces working memory load
Attention systems determine what gets processed and remembered
When all systems are functioning well, you experience that state of effortless productivity where complex tasks feel manageable. When one system struggles, the others have to compensate, leading to mental fatigue and reduced performance.
These cognitive processes aren't just contained in your brain. Instead, they're fully embodied experiences, meaning you can literally feel them in your body. For instance, when your working memory is overtaxed, you might feel tension creeping up your neck or notice your breathing becoming shallow. You might perceive processing speed slowdowns as heaviness in your limbs or a foggy feeling behind your eyes.
Understanding how these physical sensations can be connected to your cognitive functioning gives you valuable feedback about your cognitive state. If you notice your shoulders climbing toward your ears during a task, that's not just stress; it's your body telling you that your executive function systems are straining. These bodily signals can serve as early warning systems, prompting you to adjust your approach before cognitive breakdown occurs.
Practical Implications
Now that you know these cognitive foundations, you are better equipped to design productivity approaches that actually work:
Design for Working Memory Limits: Your working memory can only hold 3-5 chunks of information. Design your productivity system accordingly; break complex tasks into smaller chunks, use external memory aids liberally, and minimize your context switching.
Respect Processing Speed Variations: Schedule your most demanding tasks for when your processing speed peaks (usually late morning). Build buffer time into your schedule for when you're running slower.
Work with Your Attention Systems: Create environments that support the type of attention you need. Use your Salience Network's power by making important tasks more salient (visually, emotionally, or by associating those tasks with meaning, for instance by connecting them to your valued life goals).
Leverage Your Long-Term Memory: Invest time in building your knowledge within your areas of focus. Create retrieval cues that help you access relevant information when you need it. The more you can pull from your long-term memory, the less you burden your working memory.
Understanding these foundational cognitive systems can improve how you manage your executive function. When you know why certain productivity strategies work (or don't), you can:
Troubleshoot and fix problems more effectively
Customize systems to best suit your unique cognitive strengths and weaknesses
Be more compassionate with yourself when things aren't working as well as you'd like
Make informed decisions about which productivity advice to follow
Key Takeaways: Your Cognitive Foundations
As I move into discussing practical productivity methods in upcoming posts, keep these core insights in mind:
Your working memory is limited: You can only hold 3-5 chunks of information at once. Trying to hold more leads to overwhelm and forgotten details.
Your processing speed fluctuates: Your processing speed is not fixed and instead varies based on energy, stress and time of day. It is usually best if you schedule your most demanding work to occur during your peak energy periods.
Your attention is guided by salience: Your brain's Salience Network determines what deserves your attentional focus. Accordingly, you can help your brain know which tasks you think are most important by making them more salient through visual cues, how you assign meaning to your tasks, and how you emotionally connect to your tasks.
Your long-term memory is a resource: The more you can pull from what you already know (stored in your long-term memory), the less you will need to burden your working memory. Accordingly, it is wise to invest in building up your knowledge within your areas of focus.
Your body gives feedback: Physical sensations like tension, fatigue, or energy provide valuable information about your cognitive state. Learn to read these signals.
These foundations interact constantly, creating your unique cognitive profile. Working with your unique cognitive profile, rather than against it, is the secret to sustainable productivity.
In my next post, I'll start applying this understanding to one of the most fundamental executive function skills: task analysis. Now that you understand the cognitive machinery, you'll see why breaking down tasks isn't just about making to-do lists; it's about working with your brain's natural processing systems.