📂 “It Must Be in My Personal Account…”
Before we dive into today’s story about J… a quick reminder:
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Remember when your student used to put their math worksheet in their English folder—then swear it was done, but couldn’t find it until an adult searched through every single folder?
Or when they were sure they finished their science project, only to find it crumpled at the bottom of their backpack?
Now we’re seeing the same thing—just digitally.
I work with a student—let’s call him J—who tries hard. We meet several times a week, and he genuinely wants to stay on top of things.
But nearly every time we opened his school portal together, we’d see a list of missing work.
He’d look confused. “Wait… I did that.”
So we’d start the digital scavenger hunt.
First stop: his school Google Drive.
Nothing.
Then: “Maybe I did it in my personal account.”
And off we’d go—clicking through two different Drives, digging through vague file names, trying to figure out where the assignment had actually gone.
Just like the old paper system, he had done the work—it just wasn’t where it needed to be.
🧠What’s Really Going On?
It’s not laziness. It’s executive function overload in the digital age.
Behind the scenes, J’s brain was juggling:
Working memory (which account did I use?)
Task monitoring (did I finish it? did I submit it?)
Cognitive flexibility (switching platforms and formats)
Regulation (handling the stress of not being able to find it)
Without a system in place, everything felt like a guessing game.
At this point in the story, I usually tell you what we tried.
But this time, I want to pause.
Because I know I’m not the only one seeing students like J—smart, motivated kids who are doing the work, but still wind up with missing assignments because they can’t keep track of where things are.
They’re not lazy.
They’re not lying.
They’re overloaded—by digital systems that were never designed with executive function in mind.
So I’m curious...
What would you do with this student?
What tools or routines have helped your students navigate multiple accounts, manage files across platforms, or avoid that dreaded “I swear I did it” moment?
Let’s open the conversation.
And if you’re looking for tools to support students like J, we’ve built a few—
→ Like our Executive Function card deck with 34 cards and companion videos. Grab them here
→ And the TEFOS Summit, packed with insights and strategies, just 24 hours away! Register here
🧠Because digital disorganization isn’t a personal failing.
It’s a sign we need better supports for how the brain actually works.
