Work Life Balance: Back To School Goal Setting

Summer’s over and it’s time to get back to school! This gives you an opportunity to set some goals with your kids.

Many people think of January 1 as the New Year. However, I think the back-to-school season is a much better time to get some perspective on kids’ lives and what we’d like to change in the coming school year.

What are some of the objectives you have, both for yourself and your children? How can you as a parent help them learn to be more productive and help them achieve success? One of the best gifts that you can give your children is the opportunity to grow and to learn. You have to help coach them, counsel them, encourage them, and sometimes discipline them.

Before school begins, take the opportunity to sit down and have a family meeting. What are some things that your family wants to accomplish? What does each child want to accomplish? Maybe you’d like to spend more time together eating as a family. Perhaps you want to go on a vacation this year. Maybe your child wants to be more involved in more activities or try a different sport. Maybe the homework grades weren’t quite as good as they should be.

If you know, for example, that homework skills are sliding, decide to help you child get on top of that! To see a change in that area, what would need to happen? Do you need to get a child a tutor? Do she need to go in early to get extra help from the teacher?

As adults, looking back, what habits did you form that have impacted you as an adult? What formative behaviors will be critical to your children as adults? Did you procrastinate a lot on term papers, and now you find yourself doing that with work assignments?

Encourage your children when you see these behaviors that you know will impact them later. Tell them, “It’s the start of a brand new year. Let’s look at those long-term papers and projects together. Let’s break them down. Let’s create some milestones. How can you be proactive and plan those various deadlines so that when those items are due, you’re going to be stress-free?”

Use this as an opportunity to make a fresh start. Take a deep breath and figure out how you can be a good role model to your children and help them be as productive as they can be.

To find out more about The Productivity Pro®, Inc. or have Laura Stack speak at an upcoming meeting or event, please visit at www.theproductivitypro.com.

Make it a productive day! ™

© 2010 Laura Stack. All Rights Reserved.

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