Improve My Business

As we are gearing up for back-to-school, sports, and activities, do you find that your child is having trouble getting all their interests, and homework, fit into the day?  Is it becoming a source of stress rather than a source of joy, relaxation, or accomplishment?

What can you do about it as a concerned parent?

We’ve heard this comment, time after time - some variation of “Little Johnny/Susie really enjoys his/her soccer/violin/dance lessons; but the days (s)he has practice, it’s just a madhouse! We are eating dinner on the go (or through the drive-thru), and (s)he’s up until all hours of the night getting homework completed…”

The good news is, with a little help, you can get your child’s calendar, and the resulting stress, under control. There are several solutions:

1) Limit your child’s involvement in after-school activities. I’ve heard many parents say that they limit their child to 1 sport and 1 other activity, such as scouts; or they are limited to 1 activity if that requires significant lessons/practice. The child is allowed to pick what the activity is; but they know that they are allowed to pick only one during the school year.

If this is your choice, consider enrolling the child in something different over the summer months, so they can experience something that they may be interested in, to find out if there is a passion there…

2) Identify projects, assignments, etc. that can be worked on ahead of time - and then help your child to block out time to work on the project in advance. I’ve found this to be particularly helpful for my procrastinating child… (s)he tends to wait until the night before for most assignments. To combat this (and the inevitable 3 am bedtime unless (s)he wants to get a failing grade), I’ve asked their teachers to let me know which websites, papers, or assignments I should be aware of. Then, if I know that the teacher hands out long-term assignments on Mondays, I can proactively query what that week’s assignment is, and have a relaxed discussion about what we can do each day to chip away at that assignment. Our weekly schedule may look like this:

- Monday - think about what we want to research and write down some ideas

- Tuesday - research our idea and start to capture sources. Cut/paste info into a document.

- Wednesday - do an outline of how the info should be organized, start writing a first draft.

- Thursday - write final draft including all spelling, punctuation, and source citing.

- Friday - hand in completed assignment

You can lay it out on the family calendar, a whiteboard, etc. - wherever it makes sense for your family. The important thing is to help them do what they want to do, without stress, or missing deadlines.

Technorati Tags: Family, managing your time, preparation

I recently gave a presentation at a well-known conference in my industry - something that I enjoy doing.  I get to share new ideas (or ideas combined in a different way), interact with folks, and get a conversation going.  Most gratifying to me was to hear a colleague whose opinion I admire and respect say, “Mary gave me such food for thought - I had never thought to combine these two techniques before, and she not only showed us how she did it, but gave us some ideas of how we can do it ‘back at the ranch’ “…

The presentation went well according to feedback (did it have anything to do with the fact that the presentation included lunch?), and I’ve been able to hear some interesting talks on diverse topics, as well as meet some great new business contacts.

What are YOU doing to improve your skills/business? Please comment on how you ensure that you’re staying on top of your particular market… is it

- reading trade journals?

- attending seminars? conferences?

- in-house training?

- online webinars? teleseminars?

- etc.

Do tell - I’d love to hear how you’re staying on top of your game!

And, if you’re not doing anything right now - take a minute to search online for some form of professional development; type some keywords into a search engine and read some relevant articles; find and bookmark / RSS some key websites or blogs and set aside 30 mins every week to read (may I suggest improveyourbusinessnow.com, blog.efficiencydr.com, or blog.sustainabilitydr.com ?)

Technorati Tags: Add new tag, Business, communication, mcdonald consulting group, preparation, training