School is starting for children all over the United States, and with that comes mounds of paperwork, tests, book reports, science projects, and all kinds of homework our children will be tempted to procrastinate. (Remember those days?)
Many parents, who perhaps feel they need to pay penance for their own years of procrastination, resort to doing these projects themselves. (I’ve seen an amazing Golden Gate Bridge made out of Popsicle sticks.)
But if we want our children to become independent, confident students who do their own work (before midnight of the day it is due) we need to teach them the skill of getting things done.
The simplest, most effective tip I know for curing the urge to procrastinate is this:
Learn to identify Next Actions.
The term “Next Action” is from the book Getting Things Done, by David Allen, and it’s defined as “the next physical, visible activity that will move a project toward completion.” Instead of focusing on how overwhelming a project or assignment can be, we simply focus on the very next task that needs to be done.
Corporate executives are trained in this, but who’s going to teach it to our children?
That would be us.