The ability to organise, sequence and prioritise helps us to plan daily activities and manage our time effectively. However, some people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may find organising, sequencing and prioritising difficult. Here, we explain why this can be the case, and list some ways to help.

People with an ASD may have deficits in what we call 'cognitive function', that is, the intellectual process by which we think, reason, understand ideas and remember things. So a person with an ASD may have difficulties with:

• processing information
• predicting the consequences of an action (if I do this, what will happen next?)
• understanding the concept of time
• 'executive function' (ie, a person may be detail-focused and less able to see the whole picture).

One or all of these four examples can affect a person's ability to organise, prioritise and sequence. For example, if you struggle to understand the concept of time, how do you plan what you will do over the course of a week?

Here are some ways in which people with an ASD can organise and prioritise daily activities and tasks (we'll call them 'strategies'. At first, other people may need to have a lot of involvement introducing the strategies and helping a person with an ASD to get used to using them. You may use the strategies in more than one place, for example at home and at school. Therefore, it is important that everyone who is using them - be it family members; employers; teachers; or friends - uses them consistently.

Over time, some people with an ASD will be able to use the strategies independently - although others may always need support.