by Katherine O'Brien, ThD, Certified College Planning Specialist, Founder, Celtic College Consultants
We all want the same thing for ourselves and our kids, college bound or not. We want to:
- Do our best work!
- Live intentionally!
- Be successful! (good grades, work promotions, etc.)
- Have less stress in your life!
- Be able to enjoy life (take care of responsibilities, and actually relax when it’s time to have fun!)
- Gain clarity about what’s most important in your life!
- Have a clear reason to get out of bed in the morning
- Be able to make the world a better place, make a difference!
- Be less stressed and grumpy
- Keep your commitments!
- Make good decisions about opportunities that come up. (Do I have time for this? Can I make the time and take care of my responsibilities?)
Learning to manage our time and complete our work by deadlines is a critical skill we all need to be successful in high school, college, and in life. This is one of those practices generally referred to as self-discipline.
A deadline tells us what needs to be done, and in what time frame, to have positive outcomes in our life. Deadlines are also signals that there are negative consequences ahead which can be avoided. Late fees on bills, cancelled services, lower grades, these are examples of possible negative consequences.
Know Your Deadlines & Create Your Own Mini-Deadlines
Be aware of Deadlines – the first step is acknowledging the existence of deadlines
For larger projects is to break it down into steps and assign them deadlines. This will help you make steady progress, avoiding the situation of having “everything” need to be done quickly just before the deadline. When that happens, cutting corners to get the work done on time is inevitable, as is increased stress. Both degraded performance and intense stress can be avoided.
Some people argue that they do their best work in the rush of the last moment. They are kidding themselves. What I think they really mean is that the pressure of a looming deadline is necessary for them to put forth effort and that they are unaware of how much better their work and life could be.
Stepping through a project offers numerous small
deadlines/ pressure points to complete the various tasks that “forces” you to
complete the work, bit by bit. These deadlines also serve as markers that you
are making progress, so you need to improve, when you are falling behind, or
can relax a bit, if you are ahead. This process also allows you to focus on one
portion of a large task at a time, and do it well. As you become experienced
with this, you can schedule in “extra” time to review and refine your work,
thus enhancing the overall outcome. It is delightful to find that we can do
better than we previously thought, and that our lives can be more steady, less
stress filled, more enjoyable, than we’d previously experienced.
Know what Motivates You - Create an Image of Yourself Being Successful
Be aware of what motivates you, and incorporate it into your life. – remind yourself of the negative consequences, remind yourself of the positive possibilities, leave visual reminders of them, reminders on your phone, post it notes, notes on your mirror, vision boards, whatever works
Reminders of what you are working to avoid, or working to accomplish, can be highly motivating. Having a picture of yourself in a cap and gown, at a podium speaking to an audience, etc. can be such an encouragement, and a reminder of why the present toil is worth doing, and doing well. Create a "vision board" of you accomplishing your big goals, avoiding the pitfalls, being successful!
Set Reminders
Use visible reminders of the stages, of the next deadline, to help you stay on task! Use a calendar to get things done, to step yourself through the process. Put the various steps onto your calendar, reserving time – schedule research the topic/create thesis statement, schedule write outline, schedule research Part I on outline, etc. Put reminders on your phone, sticky notes on your mirror. Whatever works for you, do it!
Allow for the Unexpected
Allow extra time for hiccups, problems, distractions, etc. So add in buffer times to handle these unexpected occurrences. This is critical to successfully completing tasks by deadlines.
In the beginning, "Frontload" Your Timeline
If you are new at something, “frontload” your plan. Be aggressive with your goals for the first half of two-thirds of the allotted time. Plan to finish the whole project in three-quarters of the allotted time (I have school assignments in mind here.) If the teacher assigns a paper that’s due in four weeks, write your plan to have it done in three weeks. Set a week one goal, week two goal, week three goal – completion! Work hard to meet your goals. Notice what took more time than you expected. Does that task often take longer? Did you waste time? Noticing these sort of things gives you the information you need to improve your process. For example, I find pulling together a thesis statement to be challenging. To get it done with enough time to do the required research, outlining, drafting, and editing, I allot a lot of time to it and break it down even further. I might set a goal to have research done over the weekend, a thesis or two written Monday, and set a meeting with my teacher to discuss it on Tuesday. The meeting does a few things to help me along. It forces me to focus, since I don’t want to arrive at the meeting without any ideas. It also gives me the opportunity to get clarity from the teacher – yes, this is a good direction, no that’s a distraction, your focus is too broad, or too narrow. In effect, I’m getting a course correction at the start, rather than after I’ve spent lots of time researching and drafting my paper, only to realize I don’t have enough material to produce an adequate paper, or that I have far too much, both of which require me to go back to the thesis statement, revise it, and significantly revise all that I have done so far.
One of the benefits of “frontloading” my timeline for a project is that it gives me “wiggle room.” I now have time to finish early, get feedback from others, or to let it sit for a few days, then look it over to catch any rough transitions or other little edits I can make to improve the flow (and my grade!)
Another benefit of “frontloading” the timeline is that there’s room to allot more time to a task that is requiring more time than originally expected.
You may also have the happy experience of being done, knowing your work is well done, and relaxing while others are stressed and doing a rush job just before the deadline.
Katherine O'Brien is available to help your teen prepare for college and beyond. Email kob@CelticCollegeConsultants.com to schedule a consultation.
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