When Email Overwhelm Almost Derailed a College Dream
I was working with a student deep in the college application and acceptance process. They had chosen their school—exciting!—but were now getting absolutely bombarded with emails: housing updates, orientation tasks, placement tests, and more.
Like many neurodivergent students, they didn’t check email daily, and when they did, the mix of urgent tasks and general updates made it hard to prioritize. I had just started coaching this student when their parents reached out, anxious they might miss something critical.
And they almost did.
It was a perfect storm of digital disorganization and Executive Function overload:
Working Memory—hard to hold onto what they read in each email
Task Initiation—trouble getting started on multi-step items buried in long messages
Prioritization and Planning—no system to separate action items from FYIs
Organization—their inbox was one long list with no folders, no filters, no plan
This student didn’t need just reminders. They needed a system. One that worked for their brain—not just a suggestion to "check email more."
What did we do? Visit our blog for more
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💡 Now that things have calmed down a bit, I wanted to share one of my favorite tools with you: the Time Management Educator Page from our Pre-Frontal Power Up Companion Guide.
This downloadable Sidekick is packed with over 85 pages of support and strategies—
🧠 One section just for educators and parents
👩🎓 One designed to use directly with students
✔️ Plus real-life examples, reflection prompts, and executive function insights
Whether you’re supporting students in planning, pacing, or just getting started, this guide was built to help you make time management click—especially for unique brains.
🧠 Lesson Learned: Email Is a System, Not Just a Skill
What looked like procrastination or irresponsibility was actually an Executive Function overload. This wasn’t about motivation—it was about missing infrastructure.
Once we created a simple email organization system, everything changed:
✅ Folders: One for “To-Do,” one for “College Updates,” one for “Done”
✅ Filters/Rules: Automatically flagged messages from the college domain
✅ Daily Email Time: A scheduled 5-minute inbox check built into their routine
✅ Color-Coding + Subject Line Highlights: So tasks stood out visually
And most importantly…
We practiced reading with action in mind: What is this email asking me to do, and when?
🎯 For Educators and Parents
Don’t assume a student struggling with email is just “ignoring it.” For many neurodivergent learners, email is not intuitive. It’s an advanced task that pulls on working memory, organization, task initiation, and planning—all at once.
Try this:
Help them create folders or labels and sort emails together
Model how you scan emails and decide what needs action
Talk through strategies out loud: “Hmm, I see this one is just an update. This one I need to respond to today.”
Consider tools like email filters or even forwarding important emails to a shared adult account during high-stakes transitions
