TIP #6: SET SMALL GOALS
To go off of the previous tip, help your
student prioritize their assignments
and tasks and set goals! And make
sure they celebrate each small win.

Then, the better they become at setting
small goals and accomplishing them,
the easier and less scary those big
goals will seem in the future. It will
also help them get better at estimating
what they can achieve and planning
ahead accordingly.

TIP #7: WRITE IT OUT
For many students, just getting
their plans down on paper can do
a number of positive things.

First, it helps them get organized
by getting all of the information
out of their head. When everything
is written down in front of them,
it’s easier to see how much they
have to do, and whether they’ll
have enough time to do it all.

Second, as mentioned earlier,
it helps “lower the barrier” to
getting started. All they need to
do is go to their planner where
they wrote it down, and pick
out the first thing on the list to
get started on.

And third, it facilitates the
goal setting process. Having
to write down tasks that have
to be done requires them to
start thinking about how
20 September 2018 washingtonFAMILY.com
they will do it, how long it will take
and when they’ll get it done. As your
child realizes what is and isn’t able to
be accomplished, their predictions will
get better and better over time.

TIP #8: ENCOURAGE “TIME
TRAVEL” Researcher Fuschia Sirois from Bishop’s
University identified a mindset
approach called “time travel,” which
can be beneficial for students. She
studied 4,000 people and found that
those who could project themselves into
the future and think about how great
it would feel to finish a task were more
likely to ward off procrastination.

They were also trained to imagine
how awful they would feel if they
chose to put off their work, to anchor
them against a future negative
emotion. This type of visualization
proved to be an effective strategy,
and it may just work for your
procrastinating student as well.

TIP #9: USE 80 PERCENT
POSITIVE/20 PERCENT NEGATIVE
FEEDBACK Finally, kids generally don’t like to do
things they feel poorly about. And one
of the most reliable predictors of how a
child will feel about their performance
in any domain, is the ratio of positive
to negative feedback they receive.

As it turns out, kids with weak
executive functioning, ADHD and
other academic struggles receive
negative feedback about 80 percent
of the time they are at school. This
doesn’t bode well for feeling positive
about their schoolwork.

So try to flip the script and give
positive reinforcement 80 percent
of the time when they’re at home.

Don’t avoid pointing out their
mistakes, but do make sure to
balance that by pointing out all
of the good things they’re doing
as well. Slowly but surely you’ll
shift the balance of their attitude
towards their work if you
maintain this practice over time.

Ann Dolin is a former Fairfax
County teacher and current
founder and president of
Educational Connections
Tutoring, which serves the D.C.

area. She has over 25 years
of experience in education,
teaching and tutoring students
from kindergarten to college.

CLOCK: ISTOCK / GETTY IMAGES PLUS/THEPALMER
to finish (a common method among
procrastinators), encourage your child
to simply write the first sentence right
before dinner. It might seem too little
of a task, but it has a big impact. Just
getting the first sentence down is often
the hardest part, but if it’s the only
task for the moment, your child will
see it as an easy accomplishment. Plus,
it will get the process going, and more
than likely, your child will continue
working on and completing the essay
much sooner than usual.