Working memory
The capacity to hold multiple items in mind while operating on them. Capped, in most adults, at 3–5 items reliably. The first thing that degrades under fatigue or autonomic load.
Performance · Executive function
Executive function — under demand.
For founders, surgeons, pilots, lawyers, and other professionals whose work depends on holding multiple threads under load. A measurement-led layer to your existing performance work.
Who this is for
High-demand cognitive roles.
If your day involves holding several open threads, switching between them under pressure, suppressing distraction, sequencing actions across long horizons, and recovering quickly between intense interactions — that's executive function in action. Most professionals at this level have built capable systems around it. What they've usually not had is a measurement layer underneath.
What we do
Measure, formulate, train.
A qEEG recorded at rest and during cognitive task — typically a continuous-performance test — reveals where the prefrontal signature changes under load and where it doesn't. Combined with autonomic markers and a structured intake of the demands you actually face, it builds a usable picture.
From there, the programme is built. Common components: autonomic-regulation work for cognitive endurance, neurofeedback for specific cortical patterns the picture indicates, sleep and recovery work for sustained output, mind-body skills for inter-task recovery.
The functions we look at
Executive function is several things.
Treating it as a single capacity gets you generic advice. Treating it as the constellation it actually is gets you targeted work.
Inhibitory control
The capacity to suppress a salient response in favour of a goal-relevant one. The mechanism behind ignoring distraction, holding back impulse, and deferring gratification.
Cognitive flexibility
The capacity to switch between tasks, frames, or sets without leaking attention. Often the variable that separates "managing" from "thriving" in roles with high context-switch demand.
Sustained attention
The capacity to maintain focus on a single thread across time. Particularly relevant to surgeons, pilots, traders, and any role where one error costs disproportionately.
Planning & sequencing
The capacity to hold a multi-step goal in mind, sequence the steps, monitor progress, and adjust. The function most commonly compromised in post-concussion presentations.
Self-monitoring
The meta-cognitive capacity to notice your own state — fatigue, drift, error — and intervene before it becomes a problem. Often the one professionals quietly lose first under chronic load.
Programme structure
12–24 weeks, calibrated to the role.
Most executive-function programmes run weekly for 12–24 weeks, with structured home practice in between. The first 4 weeks are typically autonomic ground-work — building the substrate. Weeks 5–12 layer in targeted neurofeedback and the cognitive-load work. Weeks 13+ shift to consolidation and re-imaging.
For patients with travel-heavy or high-meeting calendars, we can structure intensives — three sessions in a week, then a fortnight off. The work is built around the calendar of the role, not the other way around.
Related
If your picture is different.
- Clinical executive-function — when there's an underlying clinical picture (ADHD, post-concussion, etc.).
- Stress & burnout recovery — when the load has tipped past performance into depletion.
- Performance anxiety — when the issue is autonomic activation under pressure.
Your brain.... Your call.
Start with a free Brain Snapshot, book an Initial Consultation, or call us.
Scope & safety
We work alongside — not in place of — primary medical and psychological care. We do not diagnose neurological or psychiatric conditions from EEG, and we do not prescribe or alter medication. If you or someone you know is in crisis, call 000 or Lifeline 13 11 14.