Productivity and the Future of Our Kids
I came across this graph last week and felt compelled to write a short blog about it. The data shows that our children spend, on average, 10.45 hours a day involved in activities that are not productive. In essence, our kids spend more time playing on the computer, watching TV and movies, etc. than they do anything else in life including sleeping.
As parents we have been given the responsibility to manage the behavior of our kids. One of our goals should be to mold our kids into productive adults, and lead them to a life defined by achievement and contribution. Our habits have a direct correlation to how our lives play out. If we abandon productivity in our early years, then we will in turn abandon it in our adult years. Instead of earning our way, we will gravitate toward entitlement. If you are of the opinion that these behaviors don’t matter, this data may be of interest:
“The three-yearly OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) report, which compares the knowledge and skills of 15-year-olds in 70 countries around the world, ranked the United States 14th out of 34 OECD countries for reading skills, 17th for science and a below-average 25th for mathematics.”
I have now been in the work world for over 25 years. I was raised in a manner where hard work and going the extra mile was the standard set by my parents. Today in society, it is too often the exception. I see people every day that have big dreams but lack the true desire and work ethic is takes to achieve them. As parents, it is important to remember that we are examples for our kids. That is why it is so critical to live your life as the adult you hope your kids will grow to one day become.
There is a reality in society today that economics are having a negative impact on the value of our kid’s education. As budgets tighten, education suffers. I doubt this trend will change in the near future. Sadly, these are issues that are out of our control to some degree. However, controlling our kid’s behaviors and setting a good example is 100% within our control and the responsibility of a good parent.
To me, the graph above was a huge wakeup call that I need to pay attention to how society and peers are impacting my kid’s choices. Both my wife Jackie and I place huge value on productive activities. Our kids don’t have Facebook accounts. Both play sports and both are great students. We have meaningful, thought provoking conversations as a family. As parents, we know what productive behavior looks like but also have a keen awareness that other factors impact our kids thinking and their time management. That is why we pay so much attention to how they spend their time. We are of the opinion that time utilization is one of the most critical factors we need to monitor with our kids.
As Paul J. Meyer was quoted,
“Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort.”
8 Responses
Thanks Valerie. I have sent your request to my tech staff to make the change you suggested about emailing my blogs. Thanks for the suggestion.
Gordon
I am a kids doc. You have met me (the guy who said hello to you when you were heading off in your MB at the Gaylord Orlando, NSA last yr Oct)
Great work….
Have tweeted it and facebooked it
Look after your health
Your wisdom means didley squad if you are not healthy
Peter
Hi Peter. It is nice to hear from you. As a person that has been struggling with some health issues recently, your words of wisdom ring loud and clear to me.
Thanks for writing this. I will say that it’s a double edged sword, as children in this generation are indigenous to technology. Their future depends on their technological abilities. You have pointed out here, it also depends on their abstaining from technology.
Learning technology has a huge value and can really increase anyone’s value to the marketplace. The question is how much of this time is producing that type of a result. In my observations, kids seems to watch too little TV that actually teach them (i.e. history channel, Discovery ,etc) and when I see them on social medias sites they are sharing with friends but not necessarily in a manner that most would consider productive. I think our culture continues to create too many choices for kids and managing their words fuels chaos not order. As a parent, I am always aware the fueling productivity is often accomplished by getting rid of some of the chaos and choices so my kids can properly focus on what is important.
Hi Gordon,
Thank you for sharing, my children are all in their middle to late twenties and the technology was there for them but my husband and I did not want them to be glued to a video game and TV, and we did not at the time feel they needed a cell phone until they went to college, they were very much involved in sports, and a concept of sitting around the kitchen table having dinner together as a family and actually having converseration with one another. My daughter a senior in high school, even though she had a desk in her room she would sit at the kitchen table doing her homework while I was cooking dinner. I find that alot of the teens and young adults in their twenties only know how to commuicate by texting, in ten years we may have the lost art of speaking to each other. Oh, by the way my kids didn’t have TV in the car either but we learned to play games for the long car trips together.
Thanks for sharing again and I hope what you have shared will make a difference in people’s lives.
Lisa
Gordon,
your wisdom and focus and personal conversations with me over the 22 years I’ve ben with NSA have always been insightful. I am thankful to you for increasing my business belief in certain areas, I hope we can have more personal conversations.
Dan
Hi,
I loved your article on the time kids are spending wasting time on media activities. I wanted to email the article and graph to my son, but there was no email button to share it. Can you have an email button added?
Thank you, Valerie