TGI Friday

Welcome to today's issue of The Daily Dose of Motivational Medicine. The e-zine of Motivateme: Breaking the Procrastination Habit. http://www.motivateme.info.   Please note all back issues of this newsletter are available from - http://www.motivateme.info/ezine-archive/

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When do you wind down for the weekend?

 

Or perhaps the first question should be - did you ever get going again after last weekend?

 

It is now Friday afternoon, it is also the end of the school year in Australia. The kids are looking forward to a whole six weeks of - doing what exactly? Which makes me wonder why the kids started winding for the holidays on Monday. They have had 5 whole days of additional chances of learning things, but what happens - the teachers decide that to break the kids into doing nothing for the next couple of weeks - they'll do nothing on the last week as well. My daughter has watched a dozen or so movies and played frisbee all under the watchful eye of the teachers. Now I'm not saying that the teachers don't need a break (I wouldn't like to teach hormonal teenagers) nor am I saying that the kids don't deserve a break either. It just makes me wonder if we would have more motivated kids and young adults if we inspired them in new and different ways to learn new and exciting things.

 

For example, how much more excited would the kids be if they researched the history of Christmas. Where exactly did Saint Nick fit in with the whole baby in a manger thing anyway? Did the three wise men actually arrive on a sleigh being pulled by reindeer rather than the camels I was told as a child? And were they really wearing bright red suits?

 

Why do we have Christmas trees? What is Boxing day (other than another day off work?)

 

Would the children be far more excited about their school holidays if they were allowed to plan their time off? I know that as a parent a lot of this comes down to us, but teachers have a lot to give in the way of time and project management. Am I the only parent who has had to do this on their behalf where homework is concerned or are the teachers just slack where my kids go?

 

Kids learn a lot about procrastination from adults. They emulate the people they see. It is not just peer pressure we need to concern ourselves with, but how our actions are impacting on the mind set of the kids we influence.

 

They assume that because the teachers don't want to teach them anything, it is OK to do little or no work on the last week of the school term. Given that school terms are 40 weeks long, that's 12 weeks of holiday. Why do they need an additional week at the end of each term to "wind down"? So an entire year of learning crammed into just 36 weeks, that means 16 weeks of holiday in effect. Given that we don't ever start work on the first day or two back after a holiday - it takes time to get back into things after all,  we can effectively wipe off another week of schooling - so 17 weeks of wasted opportunities, and only 35 weeks to learn what we need to learn during the year.

 

Is the reason why we fail to achieve very much in the last day of every working week (and yes I know I am generalising) because we have been "taught" that it's OK to do less than we should. That it's OK to waste time that we have been given, by the well meaning adults that we came into contact with during our formative years?

 

How much more could we achieve? How much more could we learn? How much more could we earn if we actually worked on a Friday afternoon rather than treated it like an extension to the weekend? How much could we teach our kids by being fired up about projects and the things we are doing, or going to do. Get them involved in the process and you'd be amazed at how motivated they can be.

 

Given that we only have one chance to use the minute that has just arrived? Are you still happy to waste it staring into space, or making small talk - because you are bored, or should you be excited that you still have a couple of hours to get a head start on your competetion, your projects, your colleagues and the work that you have lined up for next week.

 

But do me a favour when 5 o'clock does come around. Switch off the computer and go home, because the weekend has finally arrived. Then you have 2 whole days and an evening to do what you really want to do, so enjoy every second.

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