What if improving your executive functioning can start with taking better care of yourself?
Executive functioning skills such as cognitive flexibility, self-monitoring, and planning are important for starting and maintaining healthy habits. Daily routines that include sleep, nutrition, mindfulness, movement, and social support can strengthen cognitive functioning, emotional regulation, and goal-directed behavior.
In this article, we’ll review the science behind executive functioning, explain the role of self-care, and identify strategies and micro habits that can support cognitive and emotional growth.
Click here to jump down to the TL;DR summary.
Review of Executive Functioning
Executive functioning refers to a set of mental skills that help people manage their thoughts, behaviors, and emotions to achieve goals. These skills include working memory, resisting impulses, organization, planning, and time management. These skills are often areas of difficulty for neurodivergent individuals. Strong executive functioning supports academic achievement, social interactions, and daily living skills.
Executive functioning can be developed by intentionally targeting specific areas of difficulty. It’s important to practice self-care while developing executive functioning skills.
What is Self-Care?
Self-care includes a wide range of practices that people take to improve and maintain their physical, mental, and emotional well-being. Self-care practices vary slightly from person to person, but they are all aimed at achieving a sense of balance and overall health. Examples include:
- Physical health – Drinking enough water, getting enough sleep, practicing hygiene, and exercising.
- Mental health – Spending time with friends or family, engaging in hobbies, or practicing coping skills.
- Emotional health – Expressing feelings, setting boundaries, and taking regular breaks.
The better we care for our overall health, the more energy our brains have for complex tasks, like executive functioning.
Burnout and Executive Functioning
Burnout occurs when ongoing stress leads to mental, emotional, and physical exhaustion. Whether you are a parent, teacher, or neurodivergent individual, you may be able to relate to the feelings associated with one of the types of burnout described below.
Occupational Burnout
Intense feelings of exhaustion in the workplace are common challenges, especially in environments where overworking and constant productivity are seen as social norms. Individuals experiencing occupational burnout may find it difficult to manage responsibilities or adapt when rapid task-switching is required. These difficulties often reflect strain on executive functions such as working memory, attention control, and cognitive flexibility, which are the very skills that help us stay efficient and organized under pressure.
Neurodivergent Burnout
Neurodivergent burnout, sometimes referred to as “autistic burnout,” is a distinct form of burnout that occurs when individuals whose brains function differently face ongoing stress in environments not designed for their needs. Constantly masking traits, navigating sensory overload, or meeting unrealistic expectations can deplete cognitive and emotional resources. Over time, this can lead to difficulties with working memory, flexibility, and reduced motivation.
Cognitive Load Theory
Cognitive Load Theory explains how the limits of working memory affect our ability to learn, think, and perform. Cognitive load refers to the total amount of mental effort being used in working memory at any given time. Because working memory has a limited capacity, excessive stress, multitasking, or unmet basic needs, such as sleep and nutrition, can reduce how efficiently we process information and make decisions.
If you’re an educator, imagine balancing lesson planning, student behavior management, administrative tasks, and communication with families while maintaining emotional regulation and focus. Each demand adds to the cognitive load, and there are fewer resources available to solve in-the-moment problems.
6 Self-Care Strategies for Promoting Executive Function
Improving executive functioning often begins with small, intentional changes in daily routines. Self-care habits targeting your physical, social, and emotional health play a huge role in supporting the brain’s ability to think clearly and stay organized during the day.
1. Sleep
Research shows that sleep plays an important role in executive functions. Short sleep duration, poor sleep quality, and irregular sleep schedules can make it harder to focus, remember information, and switch between tasks. People who do not get enough consistent, good-quality sleep demonstrate weaker working memory and less attentional control. It is also true that stress can lead to sleep loss, with further negative impacts on executive functioning.
2. Nutrition
A balanced, nutrient-rich diet is essential for supporting executive function skills such as planning, focus, and emotional control. For neurodivergent individuals, particularly those with ADHD, poor nutrition and irregular blood sugar levels can make it harder to manage mood, sustain attention, and control impulses. Eating a variety of whole foods, including fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins, and healthy fats, can help stabilize energy, enhance concentration, and support overall brain function.
It is also true that executive dysfunction has a significant impact on a person’s ability to make and maintain positive dietary choices. If a person struggles with impulse control, it’s likely that they will struggle to stick to their diet when presented with opportunities to indulge in preferred foods that may not stick to the plan.
3. Mindfulness Meditation
Mindfulness is a mental practice of paying attention to the present moment without judgment. When people practice mindfulness, they are fully aware of their thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surroundings. Mindfulness can also be a way to train our brains to use different executive functions. Practicing mindfulness strengthens several executive functions:
- Attentional Control – Learning to direct one’s attention to the present moment, guiding attention back to the present moment when it wanders.
- Cognitive Flexibility – Shifting attention from one thought or feeling to another as it passes by.
- Emotional Control – Learning to sit with discomfort; acknowledging all comfortable and uncomfortable feelings, acknowledging them, and letting them go.
- Self-Monitoring – Observing thoughts and behaviors to make intentional adjustments.
Mindfulness is a way to practice these skills in real-time, building stronger executive control over attention, emotions, and decision-making.
4. Physical Exercise
Exercise can improve executive functions by changing how the brain works and grows over time, a process called neuroplasticity. Research shows that the benefits of exercise on executive function depend on factors such as how often, how long, and how intensely a person exercises.
Longer and more consistent exercise is likely to have the best chance of success. There continues to be research to see if exercise truly helps support executive functioning, or if individuals with more well-developed executive functioning skills are more likely to exercise.
5. Social Support System
Social support serves as a buffer for many of life’s stressors. When people have the support of family and friends, they can better overcome hardships. Executive function skills like task initiation, planning, and goal-directed persistence support social interaction.
Setting boundaries is also an important part of self-care and a crucial part of developing healthy, fulfilling social support systems.
6. Leisure Activities
Spending time in leisurely activities is generally regarded positively. As we grow, we develop self-directed executive functioning skills. A study from 2014 found that there’s an association between time spent in leisurely activities with less structure and higher executive functioning skills. These students were observed to be better able to change based on the environment’s demands and monitor their actions. At this time, it is not clear if self-directed, preferred activities influence EF or if learners with well-developed EF skills seek out certain activities in their free time.
All the self-care recommendations above require that a plan be made, implemented, and maintained over time. For individuals with executive dysfunction, getting started and sticking with a self-care plan can be extremely challenging.
Additional Resources
For practical ways to build self-care habits while managing executive functioning challenges, resources like The Neurodivergent-Friendly Cookbook and How to Make Working Out Executive Function Friendly can be good starting points to make some changes independently.
Some neurodivergent individuals may find it difficult to implement and maintain these routines over time.
Neurodivergent-affirming executive function coaching is a great option for individuals looking for more support and guidance when making these changes. Coaches help develop personalized systems for time management, organization, and planning while also providing accountability.
TL;DR – (Too Long; Didn’t Read)
Improving executive functioning starts with taking care of yourself. Core skills like planning, organization, self-monitoring, and emotional regulation are strengthened through consistent self-care routines. Research shows that habits supporting physical and mental health, such as quality sleep, balanced nutrition, and mindfulness, help boost focus, flexibility, and stress management. Burnout, whether occupational or neurodivergent, can drain these cognitive resources, making self-care essential for recovery and prevention. Social support and leisure activities also contribute to healthier executive functioning by reducing stress and improving adaptability.
Further Reading
- Barker, Semenov, Michaelson, Provan, Snyder, & Munakata (2014) – Less-structured time in children’s daily lives predicts self-directed executive functioning
- Doreste-Mendez R, Oberlin LE, Ilieva I, Chen SZ, Gunning FM, Solomonov (2023) – Perception of Social Support and Cognitive Performance in Older Adults With Depression
- Flook, Hirshberg, Gustafson, McGehee, Knoeppel, Tello, & Davidson (2024) – Mindfulness training enhances students’ executive functioning and social emotional skills
- Gilmore, Smith, Dickinson, Crosswell, Mendes & Whitehurst (2024) – Sleep/wake regularity influences how stress shapes executive function
- Hostinar & Gunnar (2015) – Social Support Can Buffer against Stress and Shape Brain Activity
- Psychology Today (2024) – Burnout and Neurodiversity
- Teper & Inzlicht (2012) – Meditation, mindfulness and executive control: the importance of emotional acceptance and brain-based performance monitoring
- ScienceDirect. (n.d.) – Cognitive load theory – an overview
- World Health Organization (2024) – Self-care for health and well-being
- Wyckoff, Evans, Manasse, Butryn, & Forman (2018) – Executive functioning and dietary intake: Neurocognitive correlates of fruit, vegetable, and saturated fat intake in adults with obesity
- Life Skills Advocate (2023) – How Nutrition and Executive Function Connect to Daily Success
- Life Skills Advocate (2024) – The Neurodivergent-Friendly Cookbook
- Life Skills Advocate (2022) – What is Executive Functioning?