Back to school is like New Year’s Day because it’s a chance to start fresh with new teachers, classmates, classes, and the opportunity to create new habits.  

“The opportunity to take and pick different classes throughout high school with different teachers gives us the chance to try out different study habits and methods of completing our work, so we can figure out what works best for ourselves,” said junior Tori Kaufman.

Over the years, our teachers have given us tips on how to excel in courses and get good grades on their assignments, but what works for some students does not work for everyone.  Executive functioning is an umbrella term for a set of skills that can allow us to be successful in school and help us later in life, such as in college classes or future jobs.

Executive functions include self-control, the ability to stay focused and on task, problem-solving, time management, and the overall mental ability to complete goals and assignments.  There are lifelong skill sets that can benefit us in any environment, but many students don’t know where to begin when creating good executive function skills.  

A significant factor that has transformed executive functioning is technology.  Like many innovations, the Internet is a double-edged sword, and this holds true for self-control and habit formation as well.  Staying off your phone during class demonstrates the use of self-control, but it can be hard when many people are addicted to their phones.

Phones often distract us from our daily to-do list and tasks, but there are also many positives to it, like making organization an easier task for us.   Digital calendars can help to track long-term and short-term goals or assignments.  Sometimes, they are made automatically, like in the case of Google Classroom, which creates a to-do list of our homework.

It is a daily conflict between using our phones to develop positive habits — studying, organization, and communication between students and teachers — or having our phones pull us into an endless cycle of distraction.  

“The biggest thing to do to help develop a good executive functioning skill set is to find a good balance between school work and everything else, and to be able to use these skills to know when it’s time to ask for help from your friends, teachers, parents, and guidance counselor,” said Assistant Principal Dr. Geri Weinstein.

Finding the right time to use technology checks off a lot of skills associated with the executive functioning skill set including self-control, staying focused, and time management.  

While it’s important to stay focused on our school work, it’s just as essential to make time for relaxation, fun, and resetting.  Maintaining this balance allows us to give our best effort during the school week, and is a crucial aspect of effective time management, which includes making room for sleep.  Schreiber uses technology almost every day to help us practice self-control during class and create organizational skills.  In many of our future jobs, we will work with technology and need high-end executive functioning skills to be successful at them.  

Despite many classes at Schreiber not translating into our future jobs, they offer a good chance for us to create positive habits to improve our executive functioning skills before entering college and the real world.  There is a lot of advice online from different people that seem conflicting and overwhelming, so the best way to find habits that make you successful is through trial and error.  

“Different study habits work for different classes for me since some classes and teachers are so different from each other, and having multiple ways of completing your work can help you to change things up if you are struggling in some classes,” said junior Jordan Morley.  

During our four years at Schreiber, students take different classes that require distinct skills, but practicing executive functioning skills in all classes will increase success in both high school and the rest of life.