Why Many Neurodivergent Students Need More than Planners & Checklists
TL;DR
Planners aren’t always the right starting point. Planning, organization, and time management are advanced executive functions, and many students need scaffolding in foundational skills first.
Scaffolding beats independence. Rather than expecting students to run with a planner, we can model, practice, and guide—building the skills that make independence possible later.
Habit tracking is a hidden superpower. Supporting students to track their daily habits builds self-awareness, reinforces foundational EF skills, and provides visible wins that spark motivation.
Neurodiverse learners especially benefit from flexibility. By matching tools to EF readiness, coaches and teachers can spark buy-in and lasting growth.
Let’s take a closer look at why planners fall short—and what to try instead. This post is especially useful if you’re interested in executive function coaching for students or wondering how academic coaching for neurodiverse learners can make a difference.
This Post Will Resonate Most With
Academic coaches and tutors who want fresh tools when planners and checklists don’t “work” for their students.
Classroom teachers who are curious about why some students don’t follow through with organizational systems and want to take a more coach-like approach.
✏️ My Early Days with Planners
When I first transitioned from being a teacher to a coach back in 2010, I had no idea what executive function even meant. In my job interview, someone asked if I knew, and I literally said: “I don’t know, but I’ll make it up!” Somehow, I wasn’t far off of a general defintion, and my new boss (I was hired!) told me to go research it.
These days "executive function" is becoming much more commonly known. However, sometimes I think people use it as a "catch all" phrase for time management and organization, rather than having a deeper understanding of the intricacies and subtleties of the concept. And certainly back in the day, after my initial research, I still didn't fully understand.
One thing I did do way back then: lean heavily on planners as my go-to time management solution for scattered students. After all, as a teacher I’d seen planners as essential, and parents and schools often saw them as the solution for executive function struggles. But over time I noticed something: some students never took to planners—no matter how fancy the system, how colorful the pages, or how many reminders I gave.
As a newbie coach, I chalked it up to resistance or “laziness.” Later I assumed that students simply needed the steps of using a planner broken down into doable increments. Which is not wrong! But only recently did I learn a deeper truth: planners, time management, and organization are actually advanced EF skills. This insight came from one of our trusted Anti-Boring Learning Lab members, Crista Hopp, who teaches a phenomenal course for educators called Mastering Executive Function. Her claim sparked my curiosity, so I dug into the research myself. And sure enough—the science confirmed it.
It turns out that if a student is still developing foundational executive functions like emotional regulation, impulse control, or working memory, then throwing a planner at them is like giving a car to someone who’s never learned to steer. Let’s check it out in more detail.
🧩 Foundational vs. Advanced Executive Functions
Before we jump into specific coaching strategies, it helps to pause and look at the science. After all, our Anti-Boring Toolkit is built on the marriage of strategies and the science behind why they work. Educators, and students themselves, deserve to know both.
So here’s what’s key: Executive functions develop in layers, and understanding which skills tend to emerge earlier or later can give us a rough roadmap for supporting students. Just a quick note of caution: development isn’t strictly hierarchical—students may be advanced in one area while still strengthening another. With that in mind, here’s a list of common executive functions often described as more “foundational” or more “advanced:”
Foundational EF Skills (often develop earlier):
Inhibitory control (resisting impulses)
Emotional regulation (managing frustration)
Working memory (holding steps in mind)
Attention control (shifting focus, ignoring distractions)
Advanced EF Skills (often develop later):
Planning & prioritization
Organization
Time management & time awareness
Goal-directed persistence
Metacognition (self-monitoring and reflection)
This developmental layering matters because many students served through academic coaching for neurodiverse learners (ADHD, autism, dyslexia) are still building foundational EF skills in middle and high school. When that’s the case, jumping straight to planners is setting them up for frustration.
⏳ Three Shifts for Stronger EF Coaching (with Flexibility in Mind)
When planners don’t work, many adults assume the student is being resistant or, even worse, “lazy.” Remember: that’s what I did early in my teaching and coaching. In reality, resistance is often a sign of a mismatch between the tool and the student’s readiness. That’s why the shifts below are framed with flexibility at the center.
So if not planners first, then what? The good news is that there are concrete moves you can make as a coach or teacher to set students up for success. These aren’t abstract theories—they’re student-tested shifts that consistently create traction. And this school year, I’ll be teaching a series of masterclasses that go into depth on many of the elements in the Anti-Boring Toolkit, including the ones outlined here.
Here are three shifts that can transform your coaching impact:
Start with assessment. Identify which EF “gears” are weakest. Is the student time-blind? Overwhelmed by emotions? Struggling to remember steps? There are many ways to assess Executive Function, and we urge you to find ones that work for you. Coming up later this year, we’ll actually be adding an Advanced Micro-Credential to the Anti-Boring Toolkit filled with all kinds of assessments, and in our upcoming Masterclass (see information below), we’ll be recommending one or two you can start with right away.
Scaffold planners, don’t assign them. Teach the structure of planning and then practice together—again and again—until it sticks. Just because a student isn’t ready to keep one on their own doesn’t mean you can’t practice the scaffolding skills during coaching sessions, or in the classroom. We’ll share more about this in our upcoming masterclasses.
Track habits, not just tasks. Link daily routines to the foundational EF skills your student most needs to build. One of the problems with planners is that it’s easy to think that, just because you’re keeping a list of what’s going to be done in your planner, it means that you’re actually staying organized. However, I’ve found that many students benefit from being guided on how to track their habits BEFORE they ever track their tasks.
Alternatives to a planner might include using visual schedules or daily routines instead of full planners, pairing body-doubling or timers with task lists, or practicing emotional regulation strategies alongside organization. The key: meet them where they are, not where we wish they were.
Taken together, these shifts help you move beyond quick fixes and toward long-term growth—meeting students where they are today while building the independence they’ll need tomorrow.
📊 A Deeper Look at Habit Tracking
Habit tracking deserves its own spotlight because it is one of the most effective ways to help students grow their executive function skills.
Unlike planners, which can feel overwhelming, habit trackers give students small, visible wins. They create a record of effort, consistency, and progress—even if the results aren’t immediate.
Habit tracking also helps students:
Build self-awareness (“Oh wow, I only studied three times last week”).
Strengthen foundational EF skills like attention and persistence.
Experience the dopamine boost of checking something off, which fuels motivation.
This is why in the Anti-Boring Learning Lab, we pair our Get in Gear model with the Anti-Boring Habit Tracker. Together, they help students see where they need scaffolding and then give them a tool to practice consistency in the foundational skills that matter most.
Speaking of these modules...
🚨 Commercial Break! (Coming Attractions)
If you’re nodding along, you’ll love what’s coming up next. We’re teaching some of our most celebrated modules for the public!
Both the Get in Gear model and the Habit Tracker are widely celebrated by our alumni, and we’re thrilled to share them with you this semester. Whether you’re a classroom teacher, tutor, or a private executive function coach, these tools are designed to help you bring powerful strategies to your students.
Beyond Planners Masterclass — Learn our Get in Gear model so you can coach your own students through EF readiness. We’ll unpack the science behind it and do a deep dive into the role planners play in the bigger picture. Click here to register.
Beyond Checklists Masterclass — Explore how to support students this semester with building habits. You’ll get the Anti-Boring Habit Tracker, a favorite, customizable tool among our alumni for making habit-building visible and fun. Click here to register.
👉 Each masterclass is $197 (attend one or both!), or join the Anti-Boring Learning Lab for $349/quarter and get access to both masterclasses PLUS the full Anti-Boring Toolkit. Click here about more info.
If you’re reading this AFTER August 2025, the LIVE masterclasses are over but their recordings live in the Lab. Feel free to join us at any time.
And now, let’s ease back into our regularly scheduled programming.
📚 Research Spotlight
Just in case you like to read the research yourself, here’s a quick look at the science that underpins foundational versus advanced executive functions.
These three studies go into detail on the topic—feel free to click the links to read more about them:
Miyake et al. (2000) identified inhibition, working memory, and cognitive flexibility as core EF components, with advanced skills like planning developing later.
Best & Miller (2010) mapped EF development, showing foundational skills stabilize in early childhood while advanced ones continue into adolescence.
Diamond (2013) emphasized EF growth as hierarchical, making scaffolding crucial for learners who aren’t yet ready for independence.
Together, these studies paint a clear picture: executive functions grow step by step, which is why educators and coaches must match strategies to the right developmental stage.
🧠 Modeling the Mindset
And finally, let’s bring it home with an important reminder: science and strategies alone aren’t enough, important as they are.
Students grow most when we, as educators and coaches, model the reflective habits we want them to build. At the Anti-Boring Learning Lab, we call this modeling the mindset.
Reflection prompts for educators:
Am I offering tools my student isn’t ready to use independently?
How can I model using the tool with them rather than assigning the tool?
Have I checked in about how my student feels about planners, habits, or checklists before introducing them?
Am I creating space for the student to consent to trying a tool, rather than assuming buy-in?
How can I frame experimentation with tools as a low-stakes test run, rather than a permanent commitment?
When we weave reflective practices into our work, we signal to students that learning isn’t about perfection, but about curiosity, growth, and building tools that truly fit them. In the end, reflection and consent aren’t just abstract ideas—they’re what help students build study skills that stick.
Feel free to journal about some of these questions in the comments below!