Three Executive Function Tips to Keep your Summer Balanced

Last month in our June blog, we reminded you to maintain that work/play balance for the summer.  It’s important to maintain skills, pace out summer assignments, and still make sure you have ample down time to enjoy the break.  Now that we’re into July, it’s a good idea to take stock of your summer activities so far, and make sure that you’ve been keeping up that balance beam act.

The first day of school will be here before you know it.  For some of you, that means even before Labor Day weekend.  Any work assigned over the summer will typically be due the first week back.  And whether it’s a math packet, an assigned book or reading log, or a variety of other common summer activities to start the school year on the right foot, summer activities tend to have one thing in common.  They require time to complete. 

Haven’t started yet?  Don’t panic – we’ve got some executive function tips to get you going and make sure that you don’t have to cut your summer short to have your assignments ready for the first day of school. 

·       First tip:  Take a deep breath, you got this!  If you’ve been procrastinating, the good news is that there’s still plenty of time to get on top of things so that you don’t have to give up your summer recreation and relaxation as the first day of school gets closer.

·       Second tip: Take some time to assess your summer assignments.  Do you understand the task or tasks?  If you have been staying on top of your summer work, good for you!  Now is the time to go back to the instructions and make sure you’ve got your bases covered while there’s still time to make an adjustment.  Haven’t started?  Now is the time to refresh your memory and plan ahead.  There’s nothing worse than reading through your summer packet the night before school begins and realizing you were supposed to be keeping a weekly reading log, or some other documentation that’s too involved to complete at the last minute.

·       Third tip:  Break down your summer assignments into manageable chunks with timelines (sound familiar?).  Here’s one method to help you get started:

 1.     Estimate out how long it will take to complete the assignment (or what remains of it if you have already started).

2.     Work backwards from the first day of school.  How many days do you have left?

3.     Divide the work into manageable chunks that work for you, using the time you came up with in steps one and two.  This can be a few hours a few nights per week, it can be 20 minutes every day, or any schedule in between that you can reasonably follow. 

4.     Set up benchmarks – points at which you expect to be a quarter of the way through, halfway through, and finished.  Reassess regularly to make sure that your schedule is realistic and that you are following through.

Executive function doesn’t have to take a summer break – but these strategies will make sure that you make the best use of yours!