Ep 32: Productivity for Teenagers

David Allen, the author of "Getting Things Done", one of the
best-selling business books of all time, explains how to get
teens excited and motivated about their goals and productive as
they pursue those goals. If you have a "lazy" teenager, you won't
want to miss this one.


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Full show notes


If your child isn’t living up to their full potential because
they waste too much time on distractions, just imagine how much
harder life will be when they have to manage adult
responsibilities! Teens today must content with YouTube,
Facebook, and other social media platforms that constantly vie
for their attention. Activities like sports practice, club
meetings, school applications, study time, and more can really
add up. Fortunately, though, having a busy schedule prevent you
from dealing with lazy teenagers if your teens learn how to
manage their schedules effectively.


Teens with an abundance of hobbies and responsibilities have more
opportunities to explore their interests. However, it can be
difficult to distinguish distractions from tasks that are worth
pursuing. When teens get confused by this distinction, they may
neglect their responsibilities and are often written off as being
immature or lazy. And stress and distress for teenagers is on the
rise, which can take away their motivation to complete even basic
tasks.


Without the right approach to balancing their workload, kids
become easily overwhelmed in their developmental years and leave
their parents dealing with lazy teenagers. First, they start
staying up late at night doing work and might skip a few homework
assignments to get some sleep. But poor time-management practices
can easily snowball into a reoccurring bad habit. Without a
dependable initiative to reach their goals, your child could
resort to shutting down. They might even lose their vocation.


To better understand dealing with lazy teenagers and boost their
productivity, I spoke with David Allen, founder of the Getting
Things Done (GTD) methodology and author of Getting Things Done
for Teens: Take Control of Your Life in a Distracting World.
Here, he’s teamed up with two terrific co-authors and a handful
of graphic designers to make his powerful productivity method
more accessible to lazy teens.


Imagine taking all the time-management skills you’ve learned
through trials as an adult and apply it to a modern-day
teenager’s perspective. That’s exactly what David has done here.
HIs book has sold over a million copies, and its predecessor
(geared towards adults) has sold 1.6 million copies, making him
one of the most sought-after mentors for parents, teachers, and
business owners.


In this interview, David runs me through the super simple
five-step method developed in his book for dealing with lazy
teenagers. It’s shockingly easy to follow for such a robust
system!


To navigate the pressure of being overscheduled and overworked,
David explains that dealing with lazy teenagers involves getting
the stress (literally) out of the brain. Basically, it’s the
practice of pushing information outside your brain so things
don’t get so chaotic and overwhelming inside your brain. This
allows teens to focus on what they’re doing without having to
think too much about failing the test they’re studying for or
being judged too harshly during their upcoming presentation.
Here’s how it works:


The first step in the GTD method is to immediately capture any
incoming ideas or actionable thoughts that catch your attention.
It could be that you have to send an email to a teacher, or you
just remembered that movie recommendation you were supposed to
look into. The point is, you need to get the idea out of your
head and write it down so you don’t have to think about it
anymore. This way the thought won’t distract you while you’re
working on your current task. This is great tactic for dealing
with lazy teenagers.


By being present and making good moment to moment choices, teens
can create time for the fun things they want to do. That’s why
this first step is so valuable. Anyone can get bogged down
without sufficient motivation to complete a task, but if your
interests influence what you’re doing in the moment, you’re more
likely to pursue the task with increased enthusiasm.


According to David, dealing with lazy teenagers isn’t about
magically getting your teen excited to do something they hate.
It’s about how to help them figure out what they really want to
be doing. If teens are able to organize their workload into
manageable pieces, they’ll be able to get things done
expeditiously.


Let’s say your teen is interested in hosting a Halloween party.
By using the first step of capturing ideas, they can create a
list of things they need to do without dwelling on the pressure
of a successful event. While completing their homework, they
might jot down a quick reminder to pick up cups and streamers and
then get back to the assignment at hand. When it’s time to
address the Halloween party, they’ll be able to organize their
ideas with more attention and detail.


I was so lucky to talk with David about his methodology because
he succinctly demonstrates how to apply it when dealing with lazy
teenagers who don’t even know their interests yet. He says you
can start by observing what your teenager is already doing. You
can prompt them with questions like “Do you enjoy what you’re
doing now? How can do more of that? When would you like me to
check to see if you’ve reached your goal?” These questions, along
with David’s other techniques, can help shift the scale of
confrontation so that your teen takes control of their actions.


David explains that by letting teens set the standard for what
they want to achieve, they’ll be redirected to confront
themselves about not meeting their goals. This helps parents
dealing with lazy teenagers to affirm their child’s autonomy,
letting them set the standard for what they want to achieve. This
technique of redirection allows parents to motivate their teens
without getting into a confrontation.


In fact, a lot of our conversation had to do with this topic of
redirection. Redirecting passions into careers. Redirecting
wasted time into our personalized vocation. Redirecting hard work
into being engaged and taking on a role in the driver’s seat.
These kinds of exchanges can even shift your parenting approach
to dealing with lazy teenagers so that it’s conversational and
engaging.


When people are gifted with a myriad of opportunities to explore,
David’s five-step method is perfect for dealing with lazy
teenagers. This is the time for your child to explore as many
interests as possible so that your child can begin to invest in
them. That’s what I find so encouraging about David’s approach:
it’s inviting, and that can be especially useful during teenage
years and early adulthood.


Both parents and teens can benefit from David’s work and he’ll
tell you exactly how you can implement his method today! In our
interview, we also cover topics like:


How to handle the stress of opportunity and manage the volume
of possibilities

How the GTD frameworks goes beyond organization to give your
teen purpose

Engaging teens and their distractions vs. confronting them

Balancing what you know with how to take on new interests

Helping your teen set some goals

How to reduce risky behavior and build autonomy



Talking with David was absolutely inspiring. His approach t...