How To Help Your Child Move Faster and Get More Things Done
I’ve been getting a lot of questions over the last couple of weeks about time management and that your kids just aren’t moving with any enthusiasm or hustle. In fact, we started calling it “moving like a sloth.” They just kind of meander at their own time.
One of the great things that I do here at Prestige Martial Arts is beat the clock.
Kids are naturally competitive, as you probably already know. And they love a challenge. So what we do is start from day one, whenever a student comes in for the very first time, at the end of our time together, I tell them, I want to see how fast can you put your socks and your shoes on.
I’m going to give you 30 seconds, are you ready? Go!
Just by turning it into a good challenge like that, the kids are suddenly interested. They are motivated because they are competitive. They want to win. So you see the kids racing off to grab their stuff. They are putting it on as fast as they can, and at the same time, I don’t just wait. I give them a verbal countdown as we go.
Naturally, my goal is to let them win. So I will count fairly slow. Sometimes I will even pause and stop a little bit. But at the same time, I’m not going to let them take all day. So from a 30-second count, suddenly when I started hitting 10, 9, 8, 7 and keep going slower and slower until I reach zero. If that happens, they don’t win. That’s another important component of this challenge. Make sure that it is a true contest. If you reach zero, you can say,
“Okay, let’s keep trying. Then once they are successful with it, give them a quick high five or say, “Great job!”
Now you know that they are able to do it so you can continue to give them another challenge. Parents hear me all the time in class,
“I am counting down from 10. Ready, 10, 6…” All of a sudden, all the kids are freaking out,
“You said 10!”
I tell them, “I didn’t say it was going count in a row 10 down to one. You have got to be done by the time I reach zero.”
So you are giving it that excitement, the kids are hustling, and then they all get a high five when they are successful. So try that tip this weekend. See how well it works. Just give your child a challenge. Maybe it’s putting their clothes away, or maybe it’s making their bed. Now you do want to be careful because we want things done well, not just fast.
Just because they can hurry and get it done, doesn’t mean it is done well.
You want to be careful about how you manage that and what you decide what you feel is done well, and not just fast.