Organization – How Does It Work

“Identifying the mechanisms and processes that underlie organization problems is imperative given their chronic, worsening course and adverse outcomes.”^​1​

When being studied, organization is often lumped together with time management and planning (OTMP).

“OTMP problems may represent behavioral manifestations of poor executive function […] Impairments in arousal, inhibitory control, delay tolerance, working memory, and time perception likely impede self-regulatory behaviors and interfere with organizing actions and planning.”^​2​

Though there has been numerous studies on the efficacy of various interventions that target OTMP, there hasn’t been much research on what causes organization difficulties in particular. However, there a has been some relatively recent work to that end.

With other EFs

“…executive dysfunction contributes to organizational problems by interfering with opportunities to learn and practice age-expected task planning and materials/project management […] [and] may limit exposure to appropriate scaffolding of organizational skills.”^​1​

Working Memory

Problems with organization, “to a large extent, [are] an outcome of impaired working memory processes that in turn negatively impact [people’s] ability to sustain attention and maintain consistent task engagement.”^​1​

“Working memory deficits would make it extraordinarily difficult to engage in the forethought and planning necessary to organize materials, anticipate deadlines, inhibit irrelevant internal and external stimuli, and simultaneously coordinate relevant, in vivo data with project goals and prior knowledge. Impaired working memory would create a world in which [people with WM deficits] must act quickly and without forethought to compensate for the inception of new and rapidly accumulating thoughts that interfere with the maintenance of task-oriented thoughts.”^​1​

With impaired working memory, it can be difficult to process what is happening in the moment while also deciding (and remembering) the best thing to do with any given thing or piece of information.

For example, reduced WM capacity may lead a student to not have any leftover processing power to use on their belongings when, say, a bell rings and they are trying to clear their desk, remember the homework they were just assigned, switch “out” of that class in their minds, think about the next class they’re going to and who they are going to see in the hall, etc. Whereas students without impaired WM may require less processing power for these tasks, and will thus have enough left over to make sure their notes get put in the correct folder and their homework gets written down in their planner, the impaired student is likely to shove loose notes in their binder or backpack and forget to use their planner at all (or may forget important pieces of information that are required when copying down their homework.)

Similarly at home, problems with organization may stem from their working memory constantly working at full capacity, and not leaving any extra brain power left to give attention to where they put what. Even when belongings do have a proper home, because it is WM that “serves as an interface between the environment and long-term memory,”^​1​ both youth and adults may have trouble following organizational systems until the processes involved in utilizing the systems have been repeated to the point they are automatic.

This may require performance-based interventions to support the behavior until it becomes an automated process, and thus no longer requires processing power from the WM to complete. It is also important to have organizational systems in place that works for people with executive dysfunction specifically– which are not necessarily the same ones that work for others. (See Interventions)

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