Steps #1 and #2 for teens to stop procrastinating

One of my students is a smart kid who always wanted to do well in school. He almost failed out because he was an epic procrastinator who didn’t have the skills to manage his time, or the mindsets to ask for help.

Last week, he shared he hit a goal he had set earlier this year:

For 6 weeks in a row, he has turned in everything on time.

He was beaming. He told me this has never happened before. He’s never been THIS on top of his work.

He’s tried in the past, even got a couple of “good” weeks under his belt before falling off the proverbial wagon and into the pit of procrastination and overwhelm.

And, not only is he not procrastinating and not overwhelmed, he got a 90% on his last quiz.

How did this happen when, for years, school involved chronic procrastination, late work and low grades?

His solo attempts to turn things around didn’t pan out because he relied on motivation and willpower (neither works for long-term success).

His transition to organized and productive happened when he created a system for himself.

Let’s break down what this looked like.

—> He created his own calendar.

Students cannot effectively manage their time without their own calendar, let alone build capacity to

• prioritize

• follow through

• be productive

• minimize procrastination

Let’s take a moment to get clear on why we want your teen to build capacity.

Capacity-building refers to developing the skills, processes and resources needed to thrive and adapt. Importantly, this transformation is “generated and sustained over time from within; it goes beyond performing tasks to changing mindsets.”

This helps explain why making suggestions to your teen or even giving them tools often doesn’t move the needle. Telling them to use a calendar or manage their time better, making a to-do list for them, isn’t anchored in their own efforts or energy.

You can give them the fanciest calendar or planner in the world, but if they haven’t built the capacity to use it, it won’t help much.

While higher grades are an indicator that capacity-building is happening, this isn’t the ultimate goal. We don’t want your teen to just do better on their next English essay or Math test. We want them to build capacity to succeed in whatever they need to tackle: all subjects in school, SAT/ACT/GRE prep, college applications, post-secondary education etc.

Time management skills, the ability to prioritize and be productive, are key to building that capacity.

Once your teen has created their own calendar, they can learn how to use it to make school and life easier. This brings us to the second step this student took:

—> He used this calendar to scope and plan his work.

For every assignment, in every class, I always ask:

“How long do we think this will take?”

At first, most answers are along the lines of “I dunno” or “it takes as long it takes.”

Most teens don’t know that they can and should scope their work. This means estimating how long a task will take or breaking down a bigger assignment into smaller tasks (and estimating how long those will take). And writing this out in their calendar.

Scoping can take as little as ten seconds. The more they do it, the more accurate their estimates become. Soon, they know how long different types of assignments take based on evidence, not random guesswork.

This makes it easier to plan, i.e. to decide what exactly they’re going to do and when they’re going to do it.

This student went from keeping things in his head and “trying” to get it all done to having a clear plan of action and knowing when he would get it all done.

***

When teens take these two steps - creating their own calendar and learning how to use it - they have a base system for working and learning more efficiently, which translates to better grades with less stress.

But the really cool part about having this system in place is that it generates a frame of reference for how school CAN be (i.e. that it doesn’t have to suck or be stressful).

A lot of teens, especially those with a history of struggle, want to do better and try to do better but don’t have evidence in support of their ability to actually do better.

The system generates that evidence for them.

Even though I’ve seen this happen literally a thousand times, it never gets old.

Once this student had his base system in place, he started handing his work in on time. He felt more motivated. His grades went up. He felt even more motivated.

The system helps our teens realize they ARE smart and they ARE capable.

If your teen doesn’t have a system in place, I’d love to personally walk them through how to create one. I’m hosting a Time Management bootcamp in July, details are below and you can sign up here.

It’s a 2-for-1 offer so not only will your teen walk away with their very own time management system, we’ll optimize yours as well. Your teen will be in their own cohort with other teens, you’ll be in a separate cohort with other parents.

Details are below.

Happy Tuesday!

Kelsey

2-for-1 Time Management Bootcamp

• Monday, July 8 and Wednesday, July 10

  • Parents from 12-1pm ET

  • Teens from 4-5pm ET

• Early bird pricing (until June 24th): $199

• Regular pricing (June 25th - July 7th): $299

• Live calls with step-by-step instructions, coaching, personalized feedback and workbook included.

• Sign up here.

• You’ll receive confirmation and details via email within 24 hours.