Understanding Your Executive Functioning Skills - by Emilio Jose Garcia

COURSE

Understanding Your Executive Functioning Skills

With Emilio Jose Garcia

Executive functioning skills allow you to consciously control your thoughts, your emotions, and your actions in order to achieve goals and manage your life. These skills allow you to manage your working memory so that you can execute plans, goals, and specific steps needed to reach your goal. As well, this helps you organize the order in which you complete activities and use your time, identify what you think about, and help you self-regulate your feelings and emotions. This course will help you become aware of your relationship with these skills, how your brain works, and find strategies to complement them. The executive functioning skills covered in this course are: Working Memory, Adaptable Thinking, Metacognition, Emotional Control, Response Inhibition, Impulse Control, Emotional Self-Regulation, Task Initiation, Focus, Attention Control, Time Management, Task Completion, Organization, Planning, Sequencing, Prioritizing, and Transitioning. This is a practical course. The main intention of this course is to help you notice your skills one by one, observe how they work in your day-to-day life, and learn strategies to complement them in a way that feels good to you and to your brain.


Meet your Teacher

Emilio Jose Garcia is a playful and passionate teacher, speaker, and coach. His mission is to make intentional living simple, fun, and available to every person on the planet. Emilio's teachings are simple, inspiring, and actionable. Join him Live every week, enroll in one of his courses, join his circle "Your Thriving Lifestyle," or book a 1-on-1 call with him all via Insight Timer. Emilio can support you with topics like home organization, self-care, minimalism, time management, meal planning, finances, paper management, and digital organization.

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18 Days

3.2k students

4.9 stars

15 min / day

Performance

English


Lesson 1

What Are Executive Functioning Skills?

Learn what executive functioning skills are and how they help you manage your mind and your life. In this session, you will learn what these skills are, what they help you do, and how they interact with each other.

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Lesson 2

Examples Of Executive Functioning Skills In Action

The best way to understand executive functioning skills is by looking at real-life examples of how these skills work and how they help us manage every area of our minds and lives. In this session, we will look at real-life situations where these skills are in action.

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Lesson 3

Understanding & Honoring How Your Brain Works

Your brain is beautiful and unique the way it is now. Once you understand and honor how your brain works by noticing and becoming aware of how it functions, you will then be able to accept it and find strategies to complement and improve your executive functioning skills.

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Lesson 4

Working Memory

Working memory allows you to keep key information while performing a task. Learn how this skill works and strategies to help you complement it.

Lesson 5

Adaptable Thinking / Cognitive Flexibility

Adaptable thinking allows you to adjust your behavior to unexpected changes, view reality from different perspectives, brainstorm different solutions to solve a problem, and learn new things. Discover how you use your adaptable thinking and learn strategies to become more flexible.

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Lesson 6

Metacognition

Metacognition means “thinking about how we think.” It’s the ability to be aware of our own thought processes and having an understanding of the patterns behind them. It’s our ability to reflect on what we think and do. This session will allow you space to pay attention to this specific skill and learn strategies to complement it.

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Lesson 7

Emotional Self-Regulation

Emotional self-regulation is our ability to identify and self-regulate our emotions and how we react to them. Become aware of how you manage your emotions and learn practical strategies to complement this skill.

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Lesson 8

Response Inhibition / Impulse Control

Impulse Control is the ability to suppress actions that do not fit the current context and would interfere with goal-driven behavior. Learn how to pay attention to this skill in your day-to-day life and strategies to complement the way you control your impulses.

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Lesson 9

Task Initiation

Task initiation is the skill that allows you to get started doing tasks. Learn strategies to help you improve this skill so that you can overcome procrastination.

Lesson 10

Attention Control & Focus

Attention control is your ability to decide what you pay attention to and what you ignore, while focus is your ability to concentrate your attention on a specific task. Learn your relationship with these skills and strategies to help you control your attention and focus better.

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Lesson 11

Time Management

Time management helps you use your time consciously, efficiently, and intentionally. Learn what your relationship with time is and strategies to complement your time management skills.

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Lesson 12

Task Completion

Task completion is the skill that will allow you to take the required actions, with the required attention/focus, at the required time to make sure that a task is completed according to a specific standard. Learn strategies to avoid procrastination and stay motivated until your task is completed.

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Lesson 13

Organization

Organization is the skill that helps you keep track of things physically and mentally. It also helps you create structure and systems to be able to maintain order. This session will help you notice your relationship with this skill and learn strategies to complement your organizational skills.

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Lesson 14

Planning

Planning is the skill that will help you design and find a way to carry-out tasks to reach a specific outcome. Discover the way you use this skill and strategies that will help you plan better.

Lesson 15

Sequencing

Sequencing is your ability to put tasks in the right order to be able to achieve your desired outcome. Sequencing can help you create efficient systems and routines that you understand and are able to follow. Learn how you sequence and ways to complement this skill.

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Lesson 16

Prioritizing

Prioritizing is your ability to decide what tasks or outcomes are more important and need your immediate attention. You will learn to pay attention to the way you prioritize in your day-to-day life and find deeper and more intentional strategies.

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Lesson 17

Transitioning / Shifting

Transitioning or shifting is your ability to shift your attention intentionally from task to task allowing yourself enough buffer time to get ready physically, mentally, and emotionally. You will become aware of how you transition in your day-to-day life and you will learn practical strategies to transition with more intention.

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Lesson 18

Recap & Strategies For Moving Forward With Your Executive Functioning Skills

This session will give you a recap of all the executive functioning skills that we covered, how to pay attention to them in your day-to-day life, and some strategies to improve them.

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Ask your teacher

This course includes 97 community questions and 77 audio replies from Emilio Jose Garcia. The community classroom and teacher audio replies are only available via the app.

97

4.9 (35)

Recent Reviews

Kimberly

September 3, 2025

Thank you so very much! The course has put into perspective for me.

Kelly

Kelly

August 20, 2025

❤️ I enjoyed and appreciated everyday learning and expanding. The time spent doing your course have helped me better, manage my time, pay attention to organize and regulate my behaviors to achieve goals yay. I would like the printable stuff that you mentioned. I look forward to starting one of your others. Excellent course, thank you Emilio 🤗❤️

Yulia

August 18, 2025

Thank you very much Emilio for putting together this course and for helping me understand how my brain works and what can enhance its function. Lots of insights and small and big actions that I can now take to keep improving my executive skills.

Carolyn

Carolyn

June 12, 2025

This is third course I’ve taken with Emilio. I’ve found all the courses very helpful. I took notes each day and really reflected on how I use (or sometimes fail to effectively use) each skill. The strategies are so helpful. Now when I can’t motivate to do a task, I remind myself why that task is important. I’m using the Pomodoro method for everything! And I’m setting timers as I work, and giving myself transition time. I look forward to continuing to improve!

Lydia

Lydia

March 1, 2025

Excellent

Sarah

Sarah

April 24, 2024

What a fantastic resource! I will be returning to this course often to refresh my knowledge of myself. Thank you so much for all your hard work 🥰

Connie

Connie

April 9, 2024

I really enjoyed this course and can improve my life with new awareness 🙏

Germa

Germa

April 9, 2024

Thank you for this most effective course and at the same time empathic approach. For the most challenging tasks I felt safely taken by the hand by a patient and understanding adult. I also could identify, acknowledge and celebrate the skills which I had more or less already mastered and could expand or consolidate more consciously. Many thanks and I will do one of your other courses.

Tom

Tom

February 5, 2024

This is an exceptional course! It provides a lot of information in a number of specific areas. Highly recommended!

Sarah

November 8, 2023

I appreciated that this course gave me the time to reflect and envision, and also had practical suggestions for changes I could make almost immediately to both my mindset and my physical environment.

Jane

Jane

August 21, 2023

Thank you for sharing your experience and expertise through this course. I found it helpful and will refer back to it as I implement your suggestions and strategies. 🙏

Colleen

July 16, 2023

Wonderful, informative, practical course!

Cheryl

June 22, 2023

This is a wonderful course, full of information about each of the executive functioning skills. Emilio has a wonderful energy. He offers useful suggestions for using each of the skills with more intention. Thank you, Emilio, for a thoroughly enjoyable experience!

Lisa

Lisa

April 4, 2023

Thank you. 🪴

Millie

Millie

February 20, 2023

Amazing course, thank you Emilio! Lots of insight and clarity which will enable me to execute everyday tasks, activities and projects with better strategies, ease and flow. Emilio was very responsive and supportive in the classroom! Many takeaways to implement already in my daily life.

Angela

February 11, 2023

Hi Emilio, Thank you so much for creating an easily digestible and clear explanation of our executive function skills, and practical solutions to improve them to manage simple chores to complex projects. The passion you have to help us be intentional, positive, reframe even challenging situations and imagine ourselves using these skills shine through as you deliver the content with your calm and gentle voice and invitations to ask questions in the classroom. Regardless of your age, situation, whether you have ADHD or OCD tendencies, procrastinate or can’t finish a uni essay do yourself a favour and do this course Namaste

Amy

Amy

January 14, 2023

Emilio has a gift for creating content that facilitates change on every level in our lives. The change I’ve experienced is not only spiritual like many of the other courses I’ve taken in this course, but equally cognitive, emotional and physically pragmatic ways to integrate concepts in daily life. This course of his is the most comprehensive and challenging, but also in my experience the most impactful. Emilio is a change maker and inspiration to move through the most difficult of life challenges. I’ve taken every single one of his courses and am looking forward to the next. Thank you Emilio!!!!

Cj

Cj

January 1, 2023

Thank you for this wonderful course, Emilio! It has been a clear and helpful path to understanding & improving several aspects of my life. Your examples explain each concept and your strategies offer creative options for change. You do it all with compassion—Session #18 brought it all home!

Brittani

Brittani

October 28, 2022

Fabulous experience!

Jillian

Jillian

October 18, 2022

Beautifully done! Thank you.

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