Improving Work Ethic in Our Children
Students don’t care about projects, deadlines, papers, and in the end, their grade. As an educator, I believe offering opportunities to teach life skills to students will help make them well-rounded and more able to achieve their desired greatness with their abilities to follow through. This is a scope I take in my own children’s care, and have a few pointers for all of us, as adults to share with youth so that they can become more prepared for the “real world” and establish for themselves a professional work ethic.
I think many children see their parents procrastinate on their own personal projects, around the house, at work, whatever it may be; that they’re getting the wrong impression. Most adults are inundated with tasks each and every day that need to be completed. That’s understandable and there often aren’t enough hours in the day to fit every task in, but most of us have something that keeps us accountable to a task or schedule.
I often speak to myself while at the grocery store, so inevitably my children hear me discuss the items I need to do in a certain time period. While I do hold myself accountable, by keeping lists and ensuring that I get items accomplished, they’ll be on top of me if I don’t complete something, especially if it holds importance to them. “Oh, mommy needs help cleaning up. Let’s help her so that we have time to play at the park.”
Not everyone shares as radically as I do about the items that need to be done, but I think it is important to share with our children, family, or students the importance of making certain goals a priority; that we don’t wait until the last minute to complete tasks so that life isn’t rushed. I think procrastination really rubs off on students and shows them that preparation isn’t key, that just getting the project done is what counts.
I’m sure you’ve stayed up late at night, completing a project for personal or business reasons and then are tired the next day. What do we do? We drink an extra cup of coffee and smile a great deal pretending we’re happy and didn’t lose any sleep. Do the other people in our family know? Not always. Not unless we tell them. As children get older, they see that this is a lifestyle that is permissible and not one that is unhealthy. Being tired on the job, no matter what you do doesn’t show good work ethic, and is something that should be discussed with our children or students. In the end, I think most of us realize too that some better planning on our part would have also made us look a little better in the limelight.
Students need to be shown that time management is important. If adults can’t manage time well, they’re usually running around like a chicken with their heads cut off and it’s clearly visible who those people are. I’ve been there, plenty of times and learned my lesson the hard way. I’ve also seen students that have great intentions but get stuck with a heap bigger than they intended to put on their plate, and then they get stuck, and are often sitting in a sour spot because of it. Working with children, even from a young age is essential in teaching them about time management skills.
As an individual who cares deeply for others, I find it hard to understand that time management isn’t a skill taught when it holds so much importance in the business conundrum.
Beginning time management starts with opening up a calendar and looking at the pages (or in today’s world, the calendar on your cell phone). Filling them in and honoring commitments is the second step.
I have a weekly writing course that I teach to my homeschool students. Everything is written out, deadlines, projects, when I need a paper turned in by, and many times I’m in the hot seat, initiating response. Not one of them has a calendar and very few of them even carry around a notebook with their assignments in them.
You might snicker and complain that this is the life of the relaxed homeschoolers, but that isn’t the case because the students in my accelerated Screenwriting program in a private college have the same problem. They’re handed the material they need and lose their books or assignments, schedules, and then they’re the ones running around like a chicken with their head cut off.
We’re told that if we write down our goals we’re 75% more likely to achieve these goals. Why is that? Because we’ve made ourselves accountable to follow through! We should teach our children or students the same logic.
When we write down our goals, we need to be specific. We can use this same logic for many tasks in our home schedules, work schedules, and personal schedules. It takes time to accomplish all of our agendas. The first thing you learn to do in a time management course is to write down everything you do in a day, account every hour and write down what you accomplished. Yes, even when you’re sleeping! This will show you how much extra time you might (or might not) have to complete other tasks. You then become more aware of where you could fit in something important to you, or something that is necessary in your career or home life.
This same objective should be shared with youth. They will learn how to accomplish what they have to have done, for school, family, religion, etc. and then allow them to set aside time for activities they enjoy, a sport, additional family activities, time spend with friends, or whatever suits them. It is unlikely and illogical that a student can complete a whole project in one night. It is our responsibility as parents and teachers to help our children understand how to better manage their time, complete their project with esteem, and know that they did an excellent job. This trait is useful and will allow them to succeed later in life when it comes to juggling activities of all sorts and sizes (like most of us do).
Time management is often a statement cringed at, but is ideal to live a successful, quality life. As a parent and teacher, I hope that work ethic improves in today’s youth and that everyone has a better understanding of how we can be role-models and offer assistance to those in need.
