The Smart but Scattered Guide to Success: How to Use Your Brain's Executive Skills to Keep Up, Stay Calm, and Get Organized at Work and at Home

by Peg Dawson, Richard Guare

Are you smart, scattered, and struggling? You're not alone. Cutting-edge research shows that today's 24/7 wired world and the growing demands of work and family life may simply max out the part of the brain that manages complex tasks. That's especially true for those lacking strong executive skills--the core brain-based abilities needed to maintain focus, meet deadlines, and stay cool under pressure. In this essential guide, leading experts Peg Dawson and Richard Guare help you map your own executive skills profile and take effective steps to boost your organizational skills, time management, emotional control, and nine other essential capacities. The book is packed with science-based strategies and concrete examples, plus downloadable practical tools for creating your own personalized action plan. Whether on the job or at home, you can get more done with less stress. See also the authors' Smart but Scattered parenting guides, plus an academic planner for students and related titles for professionals. 

Genres: Adhd, Self Help, Nonfiction, Psychology, Mental Health, Audiobook, Personal Development

294 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 15, 2016

About the author

Peg Dawson, Ed.D., received her doctorate in school/child clinical psychology from the University of Virginia. She worked as a school psychologist for 16 years in Maine and New Hampshire, and, for the past 18 years has worked at the Center for Learning and Attention Disorders in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where she
specializes in the assessments of children and adults with learning and attention disorders and provides training on assessment, attention deficits, learning disabilities and executive skills.
Peg has many years of organizational experience at the state, national, and international level, and served in many capacities, including president, of the New Hampshire Association of School Psychologists, the National Association of School Psychologists, and the International School Psychology Association. She has also participated in many of NASP’s leadership initiatives, including the Futures Conference and the development of both the second and third Blueprint for the Training and Practice of School Psychology. She is the 2006 recipient of the National Association of School Psychologists’ Lifetime Achievement Award.
Peg has written numerous articles and book chapters on retention, ability grouping, reading disorders, attention disorders, the use of interviews in the assessment process, and homework. Along with her colleague, Dr. Richard Guare, she has written several books, including a manual on coaching students with attention disorders as well as books for both parents and professionals on executive skills.

Reviews

[Leigh Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tools to turn your mess around.

And when I say "mess," I'm talking about the "never on time," "chronically disorganized," "starts stuff but can't finish" and "procrastinates like a mofo" mess that many people struggle with. You're not a bad person. You just can't seem to get your shit together. Executive skills training to the rescue.

Most books of this nature are written for children, teens, or parents of children and teens, as executive skills development is really critical for kids. This makes Dawson's text valuable right out of the gate, and the contents live up to the promise of the title. Part I explains what executive skills are and how they can be improved, primarily by changing your environment or actively working to improve a skill. You can also rely on your stronger skills to help you with your weaker skills. There is, of course, the obligatory test to help you find your key strengths and weaknesses, which will help you decide which chapters to read and work with next. And make no mistake: this is a book you do, so much so that Dawson and her co-author make the worksheets and forms in the text available for download from a companion website (meaning, hopefully, that no one will write in the library copy).

Part II explains the difference between use of executive skills at work and at home, because you can be competent in one place and struggling in the other, or overwhelmed with both for different reasons. Most valuable to partnered folks will be the chapter you and your companion can take together, so you can see how your strengths and weaknesses match up. It may come as a relief to you to discover your similarities and differences, as then you can actively work to help each other instead of going it alone. Part III devotes a chapter to each skill, suggests concrete strategies for improvement, suggests supplemental resources, and gives a hypothetical example of a person struggling with that problem, and how they solved it.

The book ends with a chapter on executive skills and aging that, while interesting, seems a bit tacked on and could've been left out without hurting the book as a whole. The chapter notes and list of other recommended reading yield suggestions for additional work in the areas readers are interested in. Because this book is literally one of a kind, it's recommended for all but the smallest consumer health collections.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I consider my organizational and executive functioning skills to be strong, I was interested to read this book for two reasons: 1) One can always improve, and 2) I was looking for ideas to implement for some in my family who could use help in these arenas.

Authors Peg Dawson and Richard Guare have penned several books in the "Smart but Scattered" series, and I believe that this is the first book focusing on adults. They offer an overview of 11 executive skills areas, with a quiz that will help the reader determine his/her strengths and weaknesses. Following the quiz is an in-depth look at strategies to manage and improve each of the 11 skills.

This book offers many solid, practical solutions for people who are ready to make improvements (like any other program, in order to work, the first step is that the person actually wants to change his/her behavior). To that end, this book not as helpful for parents looking to help their children improve executive function skills (to be fair, it doesn't claim to be). If that's what you seek, turn toward the authors' books written specifically for children and teen behavior.

4 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Guilford Publications for a galley of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Jeanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read Peg Dawson and Richard Guare's Smart but Scattered Guide to Success: How to Use Your Brain's Executive Skills to Keep Up, Stay Calm, and Get Organized at Work and at Home not because my own executive skills are weak, but because I work with people who have weak executive skills. I was not personally invested in the book and somewhat skeptical.

I was surprised. This is clearly an accessible book and an easy read, but it's also unexpectedly helpful. It has several questionnaires and 20-30 handouts to download from the internet to help readers identify problems and improve skills (they are also available in the book). Following their initial material to describe their model and assess strengths and weaknesses, they identify 12 executive skills (e.g., working memory, task initiation, time management, flexibility, and others) and what can be done to address relative weaknesses in these skills. Each of the 12 chapters addressing building these skills takes a typical format (e.g., what we know about the skill, how to modify the environment to help, how to improve through practice, helpful apps and other software, and an extended example, including what made changing successful). Dawson and Guare also included frequent sidebars that summarized the research on a related issue in accessible ways (e.g., mindfulness, cognitive restructuring, goal setting).

I confess: I was familiar with most of the information described and, although Dawson and Guare described the change process in easily understandable and articulated terms, I skimmed. I thought I found things that were useful to my students and clients, but not to me.

After 17 years, my work office has gotten overwhelming. Its "skeleton" is still attractive and welcoming, but it has gotten flabby and downright messy. Finding an empty chair can be challenging. I had a conference call yesterday and, without consciously considering this, I began to clean (something I could do during this call, but not others I have to do). After less than an hour, my office is now about 80% clean. The last 20% will take more time, but I think I can and will do it.

Why should Dawson and Guare receive credit? They helped me recognize that this was a problem that was bothering me and that I could do something about. They suggest small, specific steps toward addressing the problem (once I get going it is easier for me). I committed to the task after I started – and received support from my very kind colleagues. Dawson and Guare suggest throwing out things that haven't been touched in years. And I received a clear reinforcement – I like a clean, attractive space. (I also found a card that I wrote to a friend probably five years ago, which I've sent off.)

Will everyone receive the same level of success? Probably not. Change is difficult, as they readily acknowledge. Still, following their recommendations can be very useful to most readers.

[Umi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I hated this book!! Reading it tried almost all of my executive skills!!

Ok got that out of my system. I picked this up because it was on a few different like ‘reading lists for adults recently diagnosed with adhd’ type things and would normally never have picked something like this up because:
1. In the past, I would have read it and been like I am doing all of this!! I just can’t do it consistently!! Whatever if I can’t distract people with my sense of humour at least I manage to write things well at least once a year and my outfits and good attitude are appreciated by all (I spend most of my time low grade panicking about wanting to do things and forgetting what I’m actually doing but that’s not important!!)
2. The tone of these books is usually really annoying

But I was like, whatever, I’m ready to give anything a shot because about three months into correct diagnosis and medication, I am able to do a lot of stuff I wasn’t before but still find that I never really learned organisational techniques or just may be lacking in a lot of areas other people take for granted (I also chronically put myself in situations that play to my weaknesses but that’s a different issué!) so I figured this would be worth checking out.

First of all, the focus of this isn’t executive skills for adults with adhd - it’s just, like, executive skills. The first chapter describes a scenario to which I should have been able to relate but just didn’t because it felt a little caricatured, and then the second chapter goes into what executive skills are and describes the brain function that goes into them. Here is a brief description of how my brain functions:
70s musician - yes
Other thing - no

Look, I persevered. I took the quiz. Pretty much all of them were weaknesses except stress tolerance (most people spend their lives avoiding tense situations...) and even though the book says that’s unlikely and you should focus on three, I either made my first mistake there by trying to learn about all of them and then decide which ones were the worst or was already kind of disheartened because I feel like I spend a lot of time trying to convince people that just because I do some things very well does not mean I will ever be able to do the things I’m doing badly as well as I do the other stuff. I’ll also never write a simple sentence.

The last section is more in-depth information about each skill and coping strategies and case studies. I hated, hated, hated the tones of these. I felt like when I was a kid and adults without kids would really overdo it on trying to talk to me as a child and I’d be like um... I can understand words, just talk normally. I know this is a really bad attitude. I know that having an author try to come across as “relatable” probably really works for some people. It doesn’t work for me. It felt way too much like what I’ve already been up against where people are like, you’re smart, just break things down into smaller chunks and have someone sit with you, we all have trouble with this, even me :) :) :) And it’s like yeah I know? But it’s not really the same?

I think this book is too advanced for me basically? I need a lot of hand-holding but I need it not to be too buddy-buddy with me and I think if I could get, like, the beginner’s version of this that’s like hey, you can suddenly set goals! here’s how to do it effectively and why it might be hard but will be ok later, then maybe I could revisit this later with less irritation. I do think there were a few useful things (like, set goals even smaller than you think), but overall I just don’t know that I’m at a point where I could even action a lot of this stuff yet.

[Bethany]

http://psychcentral.com/lib/book-revi...

True story: I started writing this review about five times. Each time, a distraction presented itself right as I began to write and took my attention away from this task for a while. When I came back to it, it was harder each time to get started again. As an entrepreneur who answers to herself and to clients, staying on task is 100% my responsibility, and in most cases, there is no one to hold me accountable. I have found that the pain/pleasure principle comes into play as I prioritize my work schedule, determining whether or not I will see the pleasure of a job done at a reasonable pace or the pain of a looming deadline. From that perspective, The Smart but Scattered Guide to Success, written by two masters of executive skills and learning/attention disorders, was both a challenge to step up and an answer to a desperate plea for help.

The Smart but Scattered Guide to Success is a practical work written by Peg Dawson, EdD, and Richard Guare, PhD, that is truly deserving of the descriptor “guide.” Its focus on the development of executive skills — defined as the core brain-based abilities needed to maintain focus, meet deadlines and stay cool under pressure — is not age or industry specific, and reads as if targeted instead to the desperate, disorganized and dysfunctional thinker.

The authors set out to take the reader on a journey, beginning first by helping the reader identify both his or her strengths and weaknesses as they relate to executive skills, before walking through the step-by-step, action-oriented process of skill development. While it is scientifically-based with many plentiful case studies and resources for practical application, Drs. Dawson and Guare have successfully encapsulated a course on living with excellence into a 294-page book.

This book fits into my library next to others that focus on strengths and skill-building such as Strengths Finder 2.0 and other personality-based metrics. While I enjoyed those and certainly gained from the coach-like tone of those works, The Smart but Scattered Guide to Success takes a different approach. Going back to my initial example, it was not difficult for me to find my weakness in the area of Task Initiation, listed as one of the Essential 12 executive skills discussed in the book. It was defined (a type of procrastination), explained in accessible language, and then pulled apart, one piece at a time into manageable bits.

One factor that I found particularly unique and increased my regard for this book and the insight of the authors was the emphasis on task and environment modification. In my case, the book prescribed ways to modify both the space and environment around me to strengthen this core area, as well as ways to modify the task itself to empower me to succeed instead of procrastinate. I found this approach to be both effective and innovative, and most importantly, easily replicated.

While this one example targeted only one of 12 Essential executive skills discussed in the book (response inhibition, working memory, emotional control, task initiation, sustained attention, planning/prioritizing, organization, time management, flexibility, metacognition, goal-directed persistence, and stress tolerance), the other sections give breakdowns of the skills listed and explain how both a strength and a weakness in that area can hinder and limit professional and personal growth. Where the book really shines is in the plentiful resources available, including quizzes, charts, organizational tools, action plan templates and more, all designed to not only help you strengthen these executive skills, but also to stay on track to do so. This book also excels at not degrading any one weakness, but demonstrating how each individual is a combination of strengths and weaknesses and that growth is a constant, ever-changing process.

There was considerable information focused on the aging process and the importance of developing these skills as we age, which was both useful and out-of-place. The section was more a prescription of preventative medicine for a future of diminishing executive skills, as is common with general aging. Tucked away at the end, it seemed more as an afterthought than a strong component of an otherwise substantial work on the topic.

From the standpoint of someone invested in building on strengths and lessening weaknesses in the area of executive skills, The Smart but Scattered Guide to Success hits the target with accuracy, precision and an accessible style that will make it a regular fixture in my professional development library for many years to come.

[Rebekah Sheppard]

Received this after looking at The Smart but Scattered for Teens. This is the version for adults, but put it in parenting because I haven't been able to get The Smart but Scattered" for kids. Excellent insight as to why "scatteredness" is a problem.

Opening chapter made these pertinent points:

There 12 traits that are linked to whether a person is "scattered":

Response Inhibition - the capacity to think before acting, those with strong response inhibition know how to hold their fire and are a voice of reason in heated situations. Those that are weak blurt out things and make snap judgments that may go down a wrong way.

Working memory - the ability to hold information while performing complex tasks. Those with strong working memory have no trouble keeping track of things to do. Those that are weak are forgetful and loose track of critical competing information.

Emotional control - the ability to manage emotions to achieve goals, complete tasks, or control and direct behavior. Those with strong emotional control are able to keep their emotions in check even in stressful situations. Those that are weak tend to fly off the handle at minor provocations. They are easily stressed and find it hard to manage their feelings especially in emotionally charged situations.

Task initiation - the ability to begin projects withour undue procrastination, in an effecient and timely manner. Those with strong task initiation get started right away on projects and obligations and don't need deadlines as a motivator. Those that are weak put things off thinking they'll do it later. When the deadline comes, they find themselves backed up and want an extension.

Sustained attention - the capacity to keep attention on a situation or task in spite of distractibility, fatigue or boredom. Those with strong sustained attention have no problem persisting long enough to complete the task even if its tedious, boring or effortful. Those that are weak may start tasks quickly, but struggle to finish them.

Planning/prioritizing - the ability to create a road map to reach a goal or complete a task and involves being able to make decisions about what's important to focus on and what's not. Those with strong planning and prioritizing skills excel at multistep tasks. Those that are weak have a difficult time sifting through all the information and identifying where to start, and are particularly challenged when the planning involved requires them to manage others' work as well as their own.

Organization - the ability to create and maintain systems to keep track of information or materials. Those with strong organization live and work in neat and tidy spaces, and a place for everything. Those that are weak seem to have clutter accumulate effortlessly and cleaning it is painful.

Time management - the capacity to estimate how much time one has, how to allocate it, and how to stay within time limits. Those with strong time management meet deadlines, arrive on time for appointments and judge how long it takes to do a task thrown at them. Those that are weak underestimate how long tasks will take,

Flexibility - the ability to revise plans in the face of obstacles, setbacks, new information or mistakes. It relates to an adaptability to changing conditions. Those that are strong with flexibility can make adjustments when the unexpected happens, they "go with the flow" and are creative, nonlinear thinkers. Those that are weak are easily thrown for a loop when plans change or something unexpected happens.

Metacognition - the ability to stand back and take a bird's-eye view of oneself in a situation. Those that have strong metacognition see the bigger picture and can see how the pieces of the puzzle fit together. They are good at making connections between disparate concepts and experiences. Those that are weak tend to focus on isolated details. They revel in the immediate and the concrete and are not likely to spend a lot of time in introspection.

Goal-directed persistence - the capacity to have a goal, follow through to the completion of the goal, and not be put off by or distracted by competing interests. Those that have strong goal directed persistence set long term goals for themselves and pursue them, pulling themselves back on track and working around obstacles when they arise. Those that are weak tend to be less future oriented and are happy with how things are unfolding and not driven to take it to the next level. This weakness is not troubling to them unless they are dissatisfied with the status quo or they live or work with someone who is.

Stress Tolerance - the ability to thrive in stressful situations, and cope with uncertainly, change, and performance demands. Those that have a high stress tolerance prefer a lifestyle that has variety and unpredictability. Those that are weak like to know what is coming next and have had lots of experience with it.

Some of these traits have a conflict i.e. a person who has strong time management will not be flexible. Others are linked together such as those that have weak flexibility tend to have weak emotional control. A problem with emotional control could be a problem with impulse control or response inhibition.

Goal-directed persistence can overcome a weakness in task initiation or sustained attention.

[Renée · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great analytical tools and practical tools but extremely repetitive. Some of the case studies were too long and rambling and - perhaps as a consequence - seemed disingenuous. This book helped me to identify weaknesses and create actionable solutions but it could have been half as long and easily as effective in communicating the messages. Skimmed a great deal of it.

Useful reproducible materials on the publishers website: https://www.guilford.com/dawson7-forms

[Jodie | GeauxGetLit · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful guide to help with executive function disorders that are present in the neurodiverse community!! It helped me so much, especially with time management!

[Rissa Mineral · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally, an ADHD resource that doesn't talk to you like you're an incompetent and scared ball sac. This book is the only thing on the planet that has ever convinced me to use lists to get routines done. This book has helped me work with my skills to improve my weaknesses. It yassified my brain. I have a morning and night routine I like and can follow for the first time in my entire life. :)

Note on how to read the book: I think it's best to read this slowly - maybe a section/chapter at a time, talk with a therapist about it if you have one that's good about ADHD, then slowly go through the individual skill chapters. I realized that taking notes really helped me figure out what works for me. I read the skill chapters in the order they were published, but I will reread in a few months with a skim of strong skills before looking at my weak skills with the perspective of having practiced the plans I made while reading.

[Grace Lindsey]

Ready to be (rightfully) dragged for this one but did find it helpful in thinking about my own executive skill weaknesses and some new strategies, especially in this increasingly remote world. Think the teen version could be great for students!

[Nick DeFiesta · Rating 5 out of 5]

was recommending this book the most passive-aggressive thing my boyfriend has ever done? maybe. but he was right! it is good! dry, but direct and helpful advice for people with various executive functioning issues.

[Lowell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this Jan-Feb 2021. With literature like this, I don't mark them as fully done until I compile my notes and summary for future review. Initially read in an attempt to self-treat my self-diagnosed adult ADHD in an effort to accomplish long-term goals I have at 40 that I know full well will be thwarted if I don't develop better self-management in particular areas. How much self-management? Well, normally my summaries for a standard book constitute 1-2 pages. I probably over-noted for this one, but I have 10 pages of personal notes. Mea culpa. But still, my own custom Cliff Notes summary in a Google Doc will no doubt be more useful than re-perusing this book.

Enjoyed it at the time, and enjoyed reviewing my notes and typing up my summary a little over 2 years later. I've seen the benefit of some of these principles. I especially benefited from my wife and I separately taking their test to identify my weakest executive functioning skills and seeing the primary overlap in 2-3 areas. Made it easier to see where my initial focus should be.

However, I don't feel the notes and takeaways from this book - both two years ago and now - constitute a full 5-star rating. The knowledge was good, but I didn't find the execution suggestions "sticky" enough to the level I would have liked. So only giving a 4-star rating.

On a side note, I also enjoyed seeing the areas my wife and I both marked as my strongest executive functioning skills, and reflecting on how those align with my recent Strengthsfinder survey.

[Suzanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting book. I always thought time management was my biggest weakness, but it turned out to be task initiation. Likewise, it makes sense to learn that planning and organising are separate skills. Very informative read. Whether or not I manage to implement any changes based on what I read remains to be seen.

[Pixel · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5. While interesting, it felt pretty repetitive after the first part, and my biggest bug is that it was written in a way that leaves me wondering if this is pseudo science or not. Despite the authors being in the field, there are few sources, and most of them are not directly related to the method they propose.

[alexander shay · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you've never read any self-help books on ADHD, attention, planning, or other skills mentioned in this book, then it is a very useful one-stop-shop book for resources and things you can try. If, however, you have read any book on any one of the skills covered in this book, you probably won't learn anything new. The most helpful part of the whole book for me was the skills being broken up as they were and described; being able to rate myself on them to see which skills were in most need of help and how I might mesh with other people based on their skill set.

In terms of actual help, though, the training/resources offered for each skill are essentially the same. It basically comes down to setting reminders, writing things down, taking things one step at a time, allowing yourself failures, setting goals with reasonable timelines, and getting other people to hold you accountable. All of which sounds like pretty common sense when you think about it, and maybe for neurotypical people is more achievable. But as someone who is neurodiverse, it's not as easy as "just do it" or else I would be doing it already. Some of these things, like using reminders, I have begun to do (prior to reading the book, however) and they have been helpful. But something like getting other people to hold you accountable doesn't motivate me, it creates anxiety, and the shame felt from saying "no I didn't do the thing" is not motivation for me to do the thing like it might be for some people. Just a bit too one-size-fits-all in regards to the actual help/fixes offered, but the how/why I am the way I am in regard to skill set was still very useful.

[K-renée · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly descriptive of the executive functions and their roles in various areas of life (school, work, relationships, home management). The book also suggested numerous practical strategies for improving each executive functioning skill.

As a neurodivergent who has struggled with executive dysfunction all throughout life, I found this book to be a necessary resource. It is the book many neurodivergents are looking for, but it will also benefit any person who might need help with a particular struggle or skill. Other than the 12 skill terms themselves, the writing does not contain much clinical language that might turn off readers or listeners who dislike labspeak or "neurodivergent" vs. "neurotypical", etc.

The authors list the executive functions as:
• Response inhibition
• Working memory
• Emotional control
• Task initiation
• Sustained attention
• Planning/prioritizing
• Organization
• Time management
• Flexibility
• Metacognition
• Goal-directed persistence
• Stress tolerance.

I found that listing 12 separate executive functions was helpful in clearly identifying struggles and strategies. Many related resources only list 7 or 8.

Put this book on your shelf right next to Russell Barkley's Taking Charge of Adult ADHD. The two titles are equally informative and strategy-oriented.

[Kasey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is Kasey speaking: overall a decent self-help book to address executive functioning concerns, with a basis in evidence-based practices. I downloaded a lot of apps suggested in this (and actually use them!). I've also used this a lot to help teens with ADHD, motivation, or emotion regulation issues. Unfortunately, my fiance and mom were not as delighted with these antics lol But really, I think this does a nice job of identifying strengths and weaknesses, with lots of support, work sheets, and suggestions for improving identified weaknesses. Some of it is a bit redundant because executive skills overlap. I took forever to actually read it, so the overlap was more like refresher. I would recommend this to others, particularly counselors. I am planning on reading the "for kids and teens" version of this at some point as well.

[Danielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Closer to 2.5
I appreciated the break down of executive function, but the chapters dragged. The examples felt one dimensional. Relationships are more complex than one partner changing behavior. I feel confident that the authors don't think so either, but as written, that's how some of the examples came across to me. My strengths are planning and analyzing, so I didn't discover new methods of dealing with the struggle to initiate or stay focused on finishing the task. However, it was encouragement to see that the things I am doing are good. I may try the book instead of the workbook, but this just wasn't compelling enough to keep going. I do recommend it for understanding what aspect of executive function you may struggle with and then hit those specific chapters. The charts are helpful.

[Thu Nguyen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tôi không nghĩ quyển này phù hợp với tôi bởi vì có lẽ do tôi quá trẻ hoặc do phiên bản tôi đọc đã qua dịch thuật. Một vài điều tôi về sách làm tôi cảm thấy không quá thu hút là các kỹ năng có phần lặp lại nội dung nhiều, phần lớn thông tin không mới lạ.
Về điểm tích cực là cho nhiều ví dụ thực tế, nghiên cứu, kiến thức não bộ. Tuy nội dung trùng nhưng phần giải thích tương đối ổn
1 ý gây ấn tượng là khi đọc sách nên tưởng tượng như đang trò chuyện, đang lắng nghe tác giả chia sẻ trong cuộc hội thoại sẽ thú vị và tập trung.

[Andrea Schemehorn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aside from some gendered anecdotal examples, and the suggestion that physical fitness (i.e. thinness) is associated with brain function (?!), it was incredibly helpful and thoroughly researched.

There was this one weird thing where the authors would identify themselves in parentheticals before offering personal information "(This is Peg speaking:)" which, from an editorial standpoint, was unnecessary/could have been done differently. This doesn't affect my rating, it was just weird.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good strategies for organizing one's life. I don't have ADHD, but I was surprised how many of these I'd already figured out on my own as part of living.
This book was not meant to be read all the way through, but if you do, it gets kind of repetitive.

My favorite part of the book is the Executive Skills Questionnaire. It's a complex view of different executive skills, which is refreshing.

[Lori Lindsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great book for anyone who is looking to get a good start to the self help book genre. I’ve read quite a few so there wasn’t a lot of information here that I didn’t already know but there’s always something unique in every book. This book had information for people who are neurodivergent that I hadn’t heard in previous books and advice for older people looking to keep their brains in good functioning as they age. All in all a good listen.

[Ana Gutierrez · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this book; it flows well, it doesn't bog you down in a lot of technical jargon, and it offers simple/practical advice for improving what the authors call "executive skills".

At the very least have a skim through the first two parts of the book, the first 112 pages? You might find something that grabs your attention or gives you one of those light bulb moments.

[Patrick Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a good insight into executive functions and helped me identify mine and other peoples.

I felt what was most helpful was the identifying the executive functions and learning more about them. The actual behavior change suggestions were less helpful because it was routine habit and behavior change things that I had read in many other places.

[Kristin Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Audiobook. I could relate to so much in this book! So helpful! I appreciated that they give a link to download some forms if you have the audiobook. I didn't go through the forms yet, but want to read a hard copy of the book and work on some of the help worksheets.

Thanks to my friend, EA, for encouraging me to look into executive function skills!

[Brooke · Rating 4 out of 5]

240: 2023
Really solid, approachable steps, especially for those of us who aren't fully identified as neurodivergent, but have traits that would tip us in that direction, and want to strengthen our weaknesses etc. Probably will need to buy a hard copy to keep if I want me or anyone in my household to actually dive into these strategies.

[Wendy Lund · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful and helpful book that is easy to read. It packs in a lot of information about executive functioning and gives specific examples to help you apply the concepts to real life. Why bother taking a personality test when this book has it all?

[Vvvvv · Rating 4 out of 5]

An overview of several different executive skills, a questionnaire to find your weak spots, and strategies to work on them. The solutions provided are a bit simplistic, but they at least point you in a useful direction.

[BookHobby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the techniques and how easily they were broken down in this book. It was really useful not just for myself to find out how to work more efficiently but also in helping my teens. I am definitely going to read her book for teens too.

[Alison · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been really impressed with the Smart but Scattered series of books for recommendations for people with executive functioning issues. I found this book valuable and plan on incorporating some of the recommendations into my life.