How Cooking Builds Executive Function with Sophie Mortner

And her kid-friendly chocolate chip cookie recipe.

Jul 28, 2026

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If you have a busy brain, you know that cooking can require a lot of executive function, but it’s also a great way to build executive function. And those skills — time management, prioritization, task initiation, you can bring them out of the kitchen and into every other aspect of your life, work, parenting, hobbies.

My guest today, Sophie Mortner, is an educator, a learning designer, and an executive function coach who is pouring her knowledge into her substack newsletter called Nibblings. She shares easy to follow recipes in her uniquely accessible format to get kids and adults flexing those executive function muscles and having fun in the kitchen.

So if you’ve ever struggled to read through a recipe, or you have a little one who wants to whip up their own chocolate cake, you are not going to want to miss this one.

Sophie leading kids during one of her cooking classes. Photo: Alex Rubin

Task avoidance, time blindness, and executive dysfunction — when it comes to helping others address those things, Sophie is a pro.

As an educator, executive function coach, and mom, she helps people like us get to the root of our task- and time-related struggles, and offers solutions that can keep us on track.

Feeling task avoidant and struggling to get started? Identify the very first step of completing the task. If the task is sending an email, the first step is not writing the email. The first step is opening your computer and starting a blank one. Rather than looking at sending an email as one big, scary task, break it up into smaller parts. This “will help build momentum to the next step,” Sophie said.
Next, ask yourself: How long is this going to take? “If you thought about that email and you said to yourself, ‘okay, how long is it gonna take? Okay, it’s gonna take two minutes,’” she explained, “that might have made it feel a little bit less scary because like you’re like, I can do something for two minutes.”
Have a conversation with yourself : Why am I not doing what needs to be? What do I need? What will get me through it? Sophie said this can help you build self-awareness and implement strategies to get through daunting tasks.
Give yourself “contingent reinforcement,” AKA a reward. After you’ve completed your task and defeated distractions, reward yourself with what you’d be doing if you weren’t working. For example: scrolling time on your phone, eating a snack, or taking a walk.

Check out Sophie’s kid recipe for Chocolate Chip Cookies from her Nibblings Substack post below!