Tips to Tackle Procrastination Pitfalls
Let's face it - every adolescent puts things off at some point. Actually, every human being does that! I'm sure it wasn't too long ago that you helped your child in a panic the night before a big project was due. In elementary school, this is not a huge deal. But when procrastination rears its ugly head for teens and twenty-somethings, it can have some broader impacts on their life. Today we'll cover some reasons why this happens and how you can assist your teen to overcome procrastination.
Why do teens and adults procrastinate?
Whether it's an occasional issue or a chronic one, teens and young adults are often guilty of procrastinating both personal and academic tasks. Believe it or not, this issue doesn't mean your child is lazy or has a bad work ethic. There are many causes, but the general reasons stem from the below.
The Adolescent Brain: Remember, your child's brain - namely the frontal lobe - hasn't fully developed. They may look like mini adults, but they don't conceptualize or process things like an adult yet. This impacts their ability to…
estimate and manage time. They always think they have more time than they actually do.
self regulate. Adolescents act impulsive, get easily distracted and struggle to concentrate for long periods
Avoid Negative Thoughts & Situations: Even adults do this. We naturally avoid things that we're “not good at” or find boring. For instance, self doubt, fear of failure and perfectionism are major causes of procrastination habit. In many ways, you can't blame a kid for steering clear of this heavy stuff.
Parents: Whether parents put pressure on their adolescent child or not, the child often fears disappointing their parents or suffering consequences.
Peer pressure and personal difficulties.
Impacts of Procrastination
Persistent procrastination can have numerous effects on your teen's life. Unfortunately, their mental health can take the biggest hit. If unaddressed, high levels of frustration, guilt and stress can lead to serious issues including low self confidence or self-esteem and depression and worst drug abuse.
From an academic perspective, data reveals that students who consistently procrastinate assignments and studying receive lower grades than their peers who do not (Green-Lerman 2015; Warwick Business School, England 2015). Ohio State University psychology professor Christopher Wolters calls behaviors like procrastinating work, avoiding studying, and pulling all-nighters to study for an exam “self-handicapping,” which is obviously unhealthy. Whatever you call it, this behavior is a big deal in high school and college when grade point average makes a difference in college and grad school choices.
The goal is to avoid these impacts by helping your teen be proactive and do the best they can. Most of all, the goal is to stop procrastinating and AVOID MENTAL CRISIS.
Strategy 1: Start with healthy habits
As with many things in life, it's best to start with the basics. Learning and being proactive is possible only when your child's brain is set up to function properly. Two key areas that impact brain function for teens include gut health and sleep.
Believe it or not, gut health directly relates to brain function. Just like the old saying goes, “Junk in, junk out!” Whole foods, plenty of water for proper hydration, and a true balance of protein, veggies and grains is key to sustained energy and function. Suzy will be doing a Facebook Live session on 7/11/21 at 4pm dedicated to healthy diet tips and good gut health for adolescents. The corresponding blog will be posted shortly after this session and will have some extremely helpful tips. So be sure to look out for that post!
Sleep is critical to an adolescent's ability to process and plan, but is a tricky subject for this age group. The reason being that melatonin, which helps you sleep, doesn't kick in and make teens sleepy until much later than adults. Most adults start to naturally produce melatonin at about 10pm, whereas teenagers studied only began to produce the hormone at 1am (BBC.com archives). And with the need for frequent early morning alarms to get to athletic practice, school, etc. this means 8 - 10 hours of solid sleep might be tough. So be sure to let your child sleep when they can.
Strategy 2: Create a dedicated work space
I can personally attest that distractions and clutter decrease my ability to focus. This dynamic is exaggerated for teens. So work together with your child to designate a dedicated work space that stays clear of clutter and noise. Equip the space with supplies they'll need so that is not an excuse - plenty of pencils, an erasure, pens, highlighters, sticky notes, a calculator, and paper.
Strategy 3: Make it meaningful
Sometimes kids just need to get out of their head when they get stuck on a task. If you relate it to an interest dear to their heart, this might be the trick to getting them started. Create a metaphor to make the work more interesting, and less about “work.” For instance, remind them how a little extra soccer practice enabled them to score a goal in the last game is just like reviewing that math study guide one more time. Give it a try!
Strategy 4: Set realistic expectations
As mentioned previously, fear of failure and perfectionism are major causes of procrastination. And whether you know it or not, your adolescent may worry about disappointing you when they feel they aren't “good enough” at something. So, lay it all out there and let them know how much you support them when they do their best - no matter what the outcome.
Every kid also needs to assess their own personal expectations. Help them with this by explaining imperfection is part of being human. Encourage them to sync up their goals with what they are actually capable of rather than overcommitting based on what their friends are doing, or what their pie-in-the-sky vision might be. You can take this further by asking them questions about how they might feel if they don't get what they want. This way, they can visualize that everything will be fine, no matter what, versus getting blindsided if failure occurs.
Failure is a good thing. Adolescents need to fail and figure out what they learned and how to pick themselves back up in order to function successfully after leaving home. There are so many resources about this topic alone (next blog post perhaps?), including letgrow.org and Grown and Flown by Lisa Heffernan and Mary Dell Harrington.
If a high GPA is a big priority for you as a parent, be sure to set your child up for success. Gain a true understanding of what comes easy to them, and what requires more assistance. Help them fill the gaps with one-on-0ne sessions with yourself, a tutor, or even a teacher.
Strategy 5: Use time management tools
We all need to establish what tools work for us to help manage our time. Kids love technology and there are so many fun apps to help with this. They also might just love using an old-school planner, or set time blocking reminders on their phone. Whatever their preference - finding what works is so important to ensuring they actually use the tools effectively to map out their time, schedule projects and prevent procrastination.
Most teens who procrastinate are great at talking themselves into putting things off. I'll do it tomorrow or I'll do it when I'm not tired. Help your child manage time according to REALISTIC goals and priorities that they set. Whether it's extra studying for their most difficult subject in school so they can get a B, or an extra 10 min. With the soccer ball every night, both academic and personal goals are more likely to become a reality if they are discussed in real time, revisited and readjusted as needed.
Bigger assignments and goals require a project plan. Simply break the larger task up into smaller ones that are more digestible. Then set aside time and milestones for each one. This is called “chunking” and is very effective. Most teachers create project outlines or study guides for larger projects, so be sure to ask your teen if the teacher already has one.
Strategy 6: Build them up!
The best strategy of all is simply supported. But you must verbalize this! Make sure they know how much you believe in them, and are there for them - no matter what. Ideas below...
Identify what they do well, then let them know how it will help.
Have them identify possible roadblocks, then see if you can help them fill the gaps or find a resource that can (there are so many great ones online!).
Encourage, encourage, encourage! Have them get to a point where they are annoyed at your encouragement, which is so much better than not realizing they somehow felt lost or discouraged after the fact.
Whew! Hopefully, you found a few useful pearls of wisdom there. If you need to seek some professional help from private practice, just reach out to us. If not, start using the strategies today to help your child overcome proscrastination!
