What to do if your teen is procrastinating

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Advice for parents who are faced with the absolute reluctance of their grown-up child to do important and necessary things.

Find out the reason and explain it to the teenager

What does a teenager need to know about procrastination? First of all, its reasons. They may be:

• Cognitive: "I'll do it later."
• Affective: "Oh well, it's boring and uninteresting."
• Behavioral: "I will do what seems interesting, I will spit on the rest."

These factors - together and separately - can inhibit his actions, cause a decrease in activity, a substitution of priorities for performing tasks. If a teenager notices such manifestations in himself in time, the chances of stopping procrastination at the earliest stage increase.

Show empathy

Empathy is the ability to see, understand, and accept the feelings and opinions of another person. Usually we want to listen to those who understand us and offer sensible ideas. For a teenager who is often at war with the outside world, empathic parental support is especially important.

Do not stand on the other side of the barricades. Talk to your teen like a friend with procrastination problems. You don't lash out at your friends with condemnation and angry denunciations, do you?

Parental empathy reduces stress levels in adolescents, increases self-confidence and positively affects academic performance.

Empathy is especially important in the first and perhaps the most important step towards eliminating procrastination. It is important to recognize and accept the teenager's problem. So you will become a support for a grown child, his reliable understanding friend.

Help him develop self-control

The road to self-control and knowledge assumes that a person takes responsibility for himself and for all significant events in his life.

Self-mastery is based on realistic perspectives supported by sound thoughts that lead to responsible action. For a teenage student, this is a conscious desire to get high scores and study in the desired specialty, choosing a career taking into account interests and skills, and gaining a variety of emotional experiences, including through interaction with other people.

A high level of self-control ensures high productivity and protects against procrastination. Youth is the perfect time to level up this quality.

Be a team

Your empathy will help your teen develop self-control skills. Start with a little experiment, supporting each other all the way.

First, set specific goals for yourself. They must be important, meaningful, measurable and achievable. For example, your goal is to get back in shape or lose a few pounds. A teenager can choose something from his studies: an A in a quarter, an excellent exam, or a prize in an important competition. This is the goal of the child, his challenge.

Next, make a plan of action. Your plan is a nutritional correction and exercise program for weight loss. In terms of a teenager, there are training courses, a list of books to study and a schedule of practical classes. Complete a certain small portion of the task each day.

Most importantly, be consistent and don't be lazy. Your experience, your involvement, your union to combat procrastination is an example for a teenager.

During the experiment, freely exchange emotions, opinions and experiences: what was the most difficult thing, what did not want to do at all, or at what stage the ease came. The experiment ends with the achievement of the goal: in your case, weight loss, in the case of a teenager, excellent grades for a quarter or semester.

You don't have to be perfect. Progress is a struggle between old methods and new ways of achieving goals. Small errors are natural along the way. This is what empathy is all about: you don't judge, you accept and support.