For the next installment of our 6-part series: Time Management Skills to Help You & Your Child Today, we’re going to focus on goal-directed persistence and sustained attention, which in simpler words means skills that help you to stay focused.  These skills are essential for students to stay on topic, especially during long work periods, and to finish a long-term goal. 

With so many distractions around them – screens big and small, multitasking multiple subjects, extracurricular clubs and sports, etc. – students tend to have trouble keeping their attention focused on what they’re working on, even if they don’t have a diagnosis of ADHD.

I can relate! Wondering if you can too? Do you notice, as I do, that you’ll often have a variety of unfinished tasks going at once as a way to distract yourself from doing the items you dislike doing? I notice (in myself and my students) that we struggle to finish one project before we’re pulled into another. It takes a concerted effort (and much practice!) to stick with one task to completion. It’s increasingly difficult to stay focused in our busy technological age, so these are skills we all need to practice and strengthen. 

So, let’s dive into our fancy-schmancy-sounding terms and how they can help your child (and even you) with your time management. 

Goal Directed Persistence

We see goal-directed persistence appear often in sports, academic achievement, and personal development, for example, being better at keeping in touch with friends. You have a goal, and in order to ensure that you see that goal through from start to finish, not only do you need systems in place to support you, but you also need to exercise consistent determination and focus throughout.

For example, if your daughter’s softball team wants to compete for the championship this season, everyone on her team needs to show up to every practice and give their all during every practice. Any shortcomings on the field need to be improved, both individually and with the team as a whole.

Perhaps your daughter is not the best batter. She’ll need to work every week to improve those skills specifically, in addition to regular practice.  She might even need to spend some time going to the batting cages or working with a pitcher/trainer.

These extra steps require persistence until the goal is achieved. Visually documenting these goals, i.e. keeping track of her progress on a whiteboard, on her bedroom wall can help to keep her consistently focused on her progress, as the championship game approaches. 

Sustained Attention

It’s entirely possible to go through the motions of working toward your goal without moving the needle any closer to the end result you desire. To prevent you (or your child) from just going through the motions of studying (without any real understanding of the material), you’ll want to study in a way that not only works with your learning style, but also makes it more likely you’ll be better equipped to recall the information later.  This is where sustained attention comes in…making sure you keep your eyes on the prize and are working in ways that sustain and enrich your progress towards a specific goal.

For example, let’s say your son is studying for an important chemistry exam that’s happening tomorrow. We can all agree it’s not the greatest idea for him to be texting with a friend simultaneously. It would be best for him to be creating flashcards with the vocabulary and asking you (or a friend) to quiz him, i.e. engaged in only one task that has him actively engaged with the material. 

Or if he’s studying with a peer, each of the students has to work to ensure the conversation stays focused on the subject matter, not what happened in school that day or their weekend plans. In other words, keeping the task in mind and finding ways to stay focused and appropriately absorb the material for later retrieval, perhaps by writing test questions for each other.

Timers are an effective tool to utilize in these types of situations. For example, you could employ the Pomodoro Technique. Set the timer for 25 minutes of study. When the timer goes off, it’s time for a 5-minute break, stretch, quick text, or to get a snack. Then, when that 5-minute timer goes off, it’s back to the books. It also helps to be in a place that’s conducive to studying, where there are no distractions like TV, video games or other loud conversations. You want to be somewhere comfortable, however, not so comfortable that you could zone out or take a nap. 😉

I hope you found these new terms helpful so that you and your child can start thinking about how to better focus on the task at hand and achieve your short and long-term goals. 

What systems and tools have you used in the past to help you or your child stay focused on their goals? What questions do you have about how to fine-tune these practices? 

Be sure to let me know how it goes by posting a comment in our Facebook community, My Learning Link. You’ll also connect with other like-minded parents and educators who support children who struggle with learning. You can access helpful videos and posts, share resources, and participate in live Q&As inside this group. The goal is to support you as you work with your children and students.

If you haven’t already, click here to request to join now. 

See you next week for another edition of this six-part series: Time Management Skills to Help You & Your Child Today.