Incline Education Fund founder Mary Danahey emailed a snip on managing “screenager” procrastination recently… Boo found it so relevant I’ve pasted it in its entirety below, along with a link to additional Teen Tips on studying. But first a few quick updates (For IHS events always check the School Calendar for current timing):
- WED 5/27 All Day – CAP & GOWN DELIVERY – takes place today, details here, follow the action on the IHS Facebook page.
- WED 5/27 1:30PM – NEVADA BOUND Next Steps Clinic For Seniors Attending UNR in the Fall. Here’s the Zoom link
- WED 5/27 5:00PM – Boosters Online – Meet the next Assistant Principal – Mr. Scozzafava!! Here’s the Meet link
- WED 5/27 5:30PM – Spring Sports Awards Virtual 2020 – Details here
- THURS 5/28 5:30pm – Navigating Remote Learning: A Webinar for IMS/IHHS Families – Register Here
- Wed 6/10 4pm – SENIOR FAREWELL PARADE– Route throughout Incline (not on highway 28) neighborhoods for other students, families, community members to view. 1 student per car driven by a parent if possible. Start / End at Incline HS. (more details to follow)
- Wed 6/10 5:3PM – Boosters Annual Meeting and Elections
- Wed 6/17 5:30pm – SCHOLARSHIP NIGHT, Zoom Invitations to follow for the seniors who submitted scholarship applications in February.
- Thurs 6/18 4:00pm & 7:30pm – INCLINE HS GRAD SPEECH BROADCAST KOLO – Main Speeches & Senior Slide Show (WCSD initiative). This is the backup Graduation + Diploma handout date.
- Tues 7/8 6pm – (TENTATIVE) GRADUATION CEREMONY, Football Field. *2 guests per graduate or immediate family, date subject to change based on state guidelines and potential spike in confirmed cases
PROCRASTINATION
I have 10 suggestions for improving study habits that I would love to share. It is a top priority to engage our kids in conversations in which they become aware of the challenges they face in having good schoolwork and homework habits, particularly now with Covid-19.
Explaining the science of procrastination and the reasons for jumping into the hard stuff first can help. During my son’s senior year in high school, he came across an online course called “Learning How to Learn” where he discovered that the brain experiences physical pain from simply the thought of doing work it does not want to do. He told me how much that rang true for him. He learned that is why it feels relieving at the moment to distract oneself with something else — known as procrastination. But just a few minutes into the feared task, that sensation of pain dissipates. He said that learning all of this helped him get better at jumping into a hard mental task rather than avoiding it.
If your kid tends to avoid hard homework (i.e., if you have a normal kid), suggest this little experiment. Have them say on a scale of one to ten, how much they are dreading doing it,10 being extreme dread, and one being mild dread. Then have them do the assignment for five minutes. Then, an hour later, have them do the 1-10 scale again and see if it has gone down. Hopefully, it will be closer to one than before. If your teen does not want to do this, then you can always do the experiment about what you are dreading and share the experiment in real-time with them. With my teens, this is an approach I often do because I know how much they don’t want to be pressured by me to do something, but they will engage with me about the things I am testing out on myself.
Spoiler alert: Here’s the full 10 Tips For Improving Study Time During Covid-19; click here for more detail.
- Explain the science of procrastination and why jumping into the hard stuff first can help
- Empathize
- Help them devise a plan to fight back against their biggest “time wasters”
- Ask them to reflect on their strategies for studying
- Discuss the difference between external distractions versus internal distractions
- Physical activity
- Prevent late nights of studying with a tech curfew
- Put the phone out of site for time periods
- Experiment with a timer
- Consider using tech tools to help limit tech distractions