How Do You Teach Your Kids How to Beat Procrastination? (updated)

After reviewing the comments posted, I wish I could award the watch to everyone who participated because the tips were really useful but I had to choose 3 tips only. So here goes. The winners are:

1. Suzanne de los Santos
2. Pearlie Uy
3. Dante Ward Jr.

An email will be sent out to the winners with further instructions.

Thank you all. I hope to host another contest sometime.

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Growing up, my parents taught me not to procrastinate. Of course, that was not always easy. It's easier to push work to the last minute before cramming. But I did learn the hard way, at times, that doing this meant a finished product that was not as good as I would have wanted it to be.

As my own kids are now in school, I try to teach them how NOT to procrastinate. I think it's a lot more difficult to do so in this day and age. There are just too many distractions. Unlike before when my Mom just had to turn the TV off, now I have to deal with the internet, video games, and even when I send them to bed, there is the PSP or iPod Touch under the blanket. My kids are in high school and college and by this time, they have also learned the hard way what it means to cram things at the last minute. I'm glad that in high school, they have planners that they were taught to fill in so that they could monitor project and homework deadlines and improve their time management.

Showing your children that getting important things done right away is an essential skill that they need to grow up into responsible adults. Studies show that people with poor time management skills often face difficulties at school and at work. One study from Australia’s Victoria University cited poor time management as the cause of some students feeling pressured at school –the result of which is that they either drop out or experience health or mental problems.

Arm your kids with the proper tools against procrastination with these tips and advice from child psychologists and teachers.

1. Time your children’s tasks. It’s good to have a clock in your child’s bedroom so he knows how long certain tasks take. You can also give your child his own watch, so he can monitor how long it takes to do different activities. You can even make a pie chart so your child can visualize how much time he spends doing homework and how much time is left for TV. This will make him understand that the more he procrastinates on an urgent task, the less time he has for more enjoyable activities.
2. Help your child break down tasks into simpler ones. Sometimes, children put off homework or a project because they think that these are too difficult, so they become scared to tackle these tasks right away. Teach your child how to break these hard tasks into easier, simpler ones so they don’t feel overwhelmed. If your child has homework for several subjects, for instance, you can help him tackle one subject at a time.
3. Set habits or rituals. This is especially effective for younger kids or preschoolers. Setting a certain time for specific activities help your children develop good habits and time management skills. For example, you can set 5pm as homework hour and 7pm as free time for your kids to do whatever they want.

Have you used any strategies to effectively help your kids beat procrastination? Then this is for you.

I'm running a very easy contest to see what your own ideas are on how to teach kids to beat procrastination. My partner in this contest is none other than Kids Watch Central (KWC), a favorite place to go to for timepieces just right for your kids. With watches of their own, it's a lot easier for your kids to manage time and develop good habits and time management skills.

KWC's colorful timepieces feature many different popular cartoon characters, such as Hello Kitty, Ben10, Transformers and Barbie. Their various designs can inspire your child to finish important tasks and activities right away.

Now, here are the contest mechanics:

1. Just answer this question by posting a comment below:

How Important is Teaching Time Management to Kids and what’s the best tip that you can share with other moms regarding teaching your child time management?

2. You can join several times over the contest's duration but you can only comment once a day. If a commenter submits multiple entries in a day, only the first entry will count.

3. Commenters must include the following info: Your Name & Email Address. Anonymous commenters or those without email addresses will not be considered qualified.

4. Promo runs from June 9 to July 9, 2010. I will select the top 3 answers (an email address can win only once). The 3 winners will be announced on this blog on July 11, 2010. Choice of winners is final. Each winner gets a KWC timepiece.

5. Winners need to present an email of acknowledgment from me and can claim their prizes from Cathy Muncal at 6F Cambridge Center Building, 108 Tordesillas cor. Gallardo Sts., Salcedo Village, Makati City or at Urban Time Boutique at SM North Edsa Annex. Prizes of any provincial winners will be sent via courier. Sorry, but this contest is limited only to residents within the Philippines as we cannot send prizes abroad.

6. The watches that will be given to the winners are not necessarily those shown on this blog post (the photos are samples of KWC timepieces).