Executive Function: The Missing Foundation of College Admission Readiness

High school today isn’t just “harder classes plus more activities.” It’s what I call a capacity–complexity spiral: each year, students are asked to handle more work, more decisions, and more digital systems, often without an equally clear roadmap for how to manage all of it. The result is that many students feel like they’re falling behind not because they don’t care or aren’t capable, but because the demands on their time and attention are outpacing the skills and structures they’ve been taught to use.

Over roughly 15 years as a college counselor and academic advisor for nearly 500 students—and as an admission representative who has read applications for thousands upon thousands more, now serving as a School Relations Manager at Revolution Prep—I’ve seen this pattern across schools and regions. Educators warn that rigor, independence, and time-management expectations will all increase, and they’re right. But those messages are usually broad. They rarely turn into concrete, teachable skills like estimating task complexity, building a reliable system for deadlines, or protecting focus in a noisy digital world—so most students walk away believing they just need to “work harder” without knowing how to do that effectively or sustainably.

The students who ultimately thrived were not simply the ones who earned admission to the most selective colleges. The ones who stood out had a depth of knowledge, a breadth of interests, and a strong sense of purpose—and underneath all of that, they had learned, early on, how to harness their executive function skills. Sometimes that happened with the active support of parents or guardians. Sometimes it seemed almost intuitive. Sometimes it came through a learning specialist or coach who helped them build systems for the first time.

They were the students who:

• Showed up consistently and followed through, so others trusted them with real leadership.

• Built systems to handle rigorous workloads instead of living in constant crisis mode.

• Didn’t just rely on the school portal; they pulled information out into calendars, whiteboards, and checklists so they could see and manage the full picture.

Research backs up what I’ve seen: stronger executive function in childhood and adolescence is linked to higher academic achievement, smoother school transitions, and better long-term outcomes, including health and well-being (Diamond, 2013; Best & Miller, 2010; McClelland et al., 2013).

The Capacity–Complexity Spiral

Each year of high school, students are expected to take on more:

• More rigorous courses

• More activities and leadership roles

• More responsibility for decisions about testing, course selection, and, eventually, college

At the same time, the systems they rely on become more fragmented and less visible:

• Learning management systems and teacher websites

• Email, text alerts, and group chats

• Testing portals and multiple application platforms

A recent study of adolescent phone use found that teens receive roughly 237 notifications per day on their devices and use about 40 different apps in a week, reflecting how fragmented their digital attention has become (Christakis et al., 2023). Separate work on interruptions suggests it can take around 23 minutes to fully refocus on a task after being disrupted (Mark, Gudith, & Klocke, 2008).

Put simply: the capacity we expect students to carry and the complexity of the systems they navigate are both increasing. Executive function is the infrastructure that lets them keep up with that spiral without burning out (Diamond, 2013; Pascual et al., 2019).

Then vs. Now: The Visible → Invisible Shift

A big part of the challenge is how much has moved “off the table” and into screens.

Then: Visible systems

• Notebook and paper planner

• Textbooks and binders

• A stack of papers on the kitchen table

Parents and caregivers could sit down, see what was happening, and help troubleshoot.

Now: Invisible systems

• LMS platforms and teacher websites

• Email inboxes and nested Drive folders

• Messaging apps and social media

• Testing portals and multiple college application platforms

Most of what matters is now hidden in tabs, apps, and notification streams. Unless students deliberately pull information out into a visible system of their own, their academic lives are scattered across platforms that constantly compete for attention.

Many educators do teach pieces of executive function—some exceptionally well—but that instruction is often less explicit, less cohesive across classes, and concentrated in learning support programs rather than woven through every student’s experience. All students need these skills, not just those with documented learning differences (Best & Miller, 2010; Diamond, 2013).

From “Be Organized” to Specific, Learnable Skills

Executive function is often described as “being organized” or “not procrastinating,” but in practice it’s more nuanced—and more coachable—than that. Researchers typically describe EF as a family of skills including working memory, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility that support goal-directed behavior in complex situations (Miyake & Friedman, 2012; Diamond, 2013).

In a modern high school context, I see six practical skills that really matter:

1. Task complexity estimation
Not all assignments are equal. Executive function helps students predict which tasks are truly demanding so they can plan accordingly, instead of underestimating and ending up in repeated late-night scrambles (Best & Miller, 2010; Blair & Razza, 2007).

2. Cross-system visibility
Deadlines now live across portals, emails, and apps. Students need one “source of truth” (a calendar, planner, or whiteboard) that pulls everything together so they’re not relying on memory or notifications alone. This kind of external structure reduces working-memory load and supports better academic performance (Diamond, 2013).

3. Temporal spacing & pacing
Strong EF means thinking in weeks and months, not just “What’s due tomorrow?” Students who map out heavy weeks and move work earlier are using exactly the planning and self-regulation skills that research links to higher GPA and better well-being (Mann et al., 2017; Pascual et al., 2019).

4. Metacognitive monitoring
This is the ability to notice, “This is taking longer than I expected,” or “This study method isn’t working,” and adjust before things crash. Adolescents with stronger self-monitoring tend to show better academic resilience and life satisfaction (Pascual et al., 2019; Zelazo, 2015).

5. Attention recovery & context switching
Jumping between an essay, texts, portals, and social media isn’t free. EF means recognizing the cost of switching and intentionally building pockets of focused work time into each week. Given how many notifications teens receive, even one or two short, protected blocks can significantly improve the quality of their work (Christakis et al., 2023; Mark et al., 2008).

6. Impact thinking within constraint
Instead of “do everything,” students with stronger EF ask, “Given my actual time and energy, where can I contribute meaningfully?” That kind of prioritization protects both performance and mental health and has been linked to better academic and life outcomes (Pascual et al., 2019; McClelland et al., 2013).

These skills aren’t fixed personality traits. They can be named, practiced, and strengthened over time, especially when adults make them explicit and provide coaching and feedback (Diamond, 2013; Pascual et al., 2019).

Executive Function as Project Management—for School and Work

By the time they graduate, most students are already doing a version of project management: they juggle multiple classes, activities, jobs, and applications, each with its own deadlines and stakeholders. They just haven’t been given the language or tools that professionals use.

In the workplace, people are expected to:

• Manage calendars and competing priorities

• Break big projects into smaller tasks

• Coordinate with teams and adjust when plans change

Those expectations are, at their core, executive function expectations (Diamond, 2013; Miyake & Friedman, 2012). Studies show that EF skills are linked not only to academic success but also to job performance, physical health, and life satisfaction in adulthood (Pascual et al., 2019; McClelland et al., 2013).

When students start building EF in high school, they’re not only making their teenage years more manageable—they’re arriving in college classrooms and future workplaces ready to contribute, rather than learning basic organization on the fly. They spend less energy simply surviving the logistics and more energy on the actual work: thinking deeply, collaborating effectively, and making a meaningful impact.

How Families Can Shift the Conversation

You don’t have to overhaul your entire household to start supporting executive function, but small, consistent shifts—paired with more structured instruction when needed—can make a real difference.

Ask about systems, not just grades.
Instead of “Why is this grade low?”, try:

• “How are you keeping track of what’s due?”

• “What happens between getting an assignment and turning it in?”

That moves the focus from judgment to problem-solving around specific skills: planning, organization, and follow-through.

Make the invisible visible.
Help your student set up one calendar or whiteboard that includes school, activities, and personal commitments. Seeing everything in one place reduces last-minute panic and supports better planning.

Normalize adjustment, not perfection.
Once a week, ask:

• “What worked in your system?”

• “What didn’t?”

• “What’s one thing you’ll try differently next week?”

This simple reflection is metacognition—the “thinking about thinking” that research links to better long-term academic and emotional outcomes (Zelazo, 2015; Pascual et al., 2019).

Name executive function when you see it.
When your student starts early, protects focus time, or says no to an extra commitment they don’t have bandwidth for, call that out as a skill, not luck: “That’s you managing complexity differently.” Over time, students begin to see these as capacities they can grow, not fixed traits.

For some students, these shifts at home and at school will be enough to unlock real growth. For others—especially those already stretched by rigorous classes, activities, and the emotional weight of the college process—more structured executive function instruction can be the bridge between effort and sustainable success. Targeted EF coaching or tutoring goes beyond “try harder” and “be organized” to explicitly teach how to:

• Break complex tasks into manageable steps

• Build and maintain a personal system for deadlines and priorities

• Estimate time and mental effort more accurately

• Protect attention in a world of constant notifications

High-quality EF support doesn’t just help students get through this semester; it equips them with a toolkit they will use in college and in their professional lives. High school will likely continue to become more complex. We may not be able to simplify every demand, but we can give students the tools, language, and structured support to navigate that complexity with more intention and authenticity—and with enough bandwidth left to figure out who they are becoming in the process.