Start The Day Right

Jedi mind tricks to prevent procrastination

By Chris Thurber
Photos: ????

Admiral William H. McRaven, who now serves as the University of Texas System Chancellor, is well-known for saying, “If you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task, and another, and another. Making your bed every day will also reinforce the fact that the little things in life matter.” (If you’re interested in how he expands on this last point, you can find some of his best commencement speeches on YouTube.)

But what about those mornings when you don’t feel like making your bed? I don’t know about you, but for me, that’s pretty much every morning. My focus on not feeling like making my bed kicks off some hearty procrastination. I used to delay bed-making so much that I could completely forgo the task with a simple rationale: I’m getting back into bed tonight, which will just mess up the covers again. Sound familiar? Closer to home for most camp professionals are rationales such as, I’ll just leave this equipment out because another group is coming to use it this afternoon or I can be late because everyone else trickles in or I’ll keep whispering or texting during this staff meeting because someone will remind me what to do later, and so forth.

Psychiatrist David D. Burns, adjunct professor emeritus in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Stanford University School of Medicine, offers a solution. He writes, “Individuals who procrastinate frequently confuse motivation and action. You foolishly wait until you feel in the mood to do something. Since you don’t feel like doing it, you automatically put it off. Your error is your belief that motivation comes first, and then leads to activation and success. But it is usually the other way around; action must come first, and the motivation comes later on.”

It may seem odd for a mental-health professional to recommend ignoring feelings, but Dr. Burns’s action-precedes-motivation idea turns out to be one of the most powerful anti-procrastination strategies ever. And when combined with Admiral McRaven’s notion of starting the day with a small accomplishment, you have a fighting chance to establish some healthy habits.

Whether day, overnight, or parks and rec, summer-youth programs run more smoothly and safer when staff members are conscientious. Within camp, mottos and mission statements transform words to actions and actions to habits. Outside of camp, these healthy habits serve as examples for others to follow. Living purposeful lives that contribute to the betterment of society is, after all, our ultimate, shared goal. But can all this really start with campers and staff members accomplishing one small task at the start of the day?

Pride In Ownership

Owners and directors sometimes object to giving campers tasks, such as cleaning up after meals, restocking bathroom supplies, and picking up after activities, because these young participants are also paying customers. Technically, parents are the people responsible for tuition—whether out-of-pocket or through a sponsorship. Either way, the argument I hear against contributing is the same: “Kids are here to have fun, not work.” And if the program hires helpers for various tasks, l also hear, “We have custodial staff who take care of that” or “That’s why we have a kitchen crew.”

I’ve written about the problems with the fun-only approach to camp and of the many benefits to campers’ sharing in daily maintenance tasks (“The Beauties of Camp Duties: Seven Tips to Make the Camp Gleam and Campers Beam,” Camp Business—Jan/Feb 2011). Kids’ enhanced pride in ownership—even in one small part of the operation—motivates them to take better care of all parts of the property, facilities, and equipment. My emphasis here is how healthy camp habits can teach young participants, and their college-age leaders, how to prevent procrastination.

In my clinical practice and classroom, I work with students each year who struggle with procrastination. The downward spiral typically follows a predictable sequence. Notice how emotion-driven the sequence is:

• Not feeling like doing a mundane, difficult, or unpleasant task, such as homework.

• Doing something else that feels better, in the short term, such as watching videos.

• Feeling anxious and guilty about delaying the work, knowing that deadline-sensitive assignments are not being completed.

• Coping with these unpleasant feelings by avoiding the task altogether. Students may spend hours cleaning their rooms, engaging in creative hobbies, watching videos, playing video games, or hanging out with other students who are also procrastinating.

• Feeling more anxious and guilty, as deadlines come and go. These negative emotions morph into shame, which leads to more avoidant ways of coping, such as socially withdrawing and/or skipping class.

Of course, poor grades and/or spotty attendance eventually spark the involvement of teachers, administrators, caregivers, and mental-health professionals. Fortunately, these four supports can help students reset this pernicious cycle, but not before some damage to pride, self-esteem, and GPA have been done. Believe it or not, camp can prevent this from happening by having everyone start the day by accomplishing one small task and by teaching—throughout the day—the principle of action before motivation.

A Halo Of Momentum

At day camp, for example, campers can move directly from drop-off to assisting with the set-up of certain activity areas, the restocking of paper supplies in bathrooms, and the redistribution of the previous day’s lost-and-found. At overnight camp, campers can move directly from wake-up and wash-up to making their beds, cleaning their cabins, and bringing in dry items from the back line. These contributions to the community are excellent ways to start the day, for all the reasons McRaven gives.

For their part, staff members can set a good example by participating in these acts of unselfishness, rather than simply narrating them as they supervise from a distance. Moreover, when the complaint I don’t feel like doing this surfaces (which it invariably will), staff members can respond with wisdom and compassion, by saying something like, Yeah, I get it. You’d rather be doing something else right now. You’re not alone. I think most of us don’t feel like doing this. What’s cool is that once you start, it’s easy to keep going. It’s kind of cool actually. The hard part is starting, and then it gets easier. And the best part is that now we _____________________. In the blank, of course, staff members can insert all of the benefits of task completion, from the abstract gratification of completing a worthwhile job to the concrete convenience of having enough toilet paper for a whole day.  

Best of all is the halo of momentum that quickly forms around these practices. Campers and staff members discover the validity of “action-precedes-motivation,” and everyone’s motivation to help run and maintain the camp spills over into other areas, simply because a minor “mission accomplished” has set the tone for a productive day. Campers will start picking up equipment at the end of activities without complaining. They may even pick up without being asked. Campers and staff members will unclog their own toilets, bus their own dishes, collect trash on the field, and return a lost-and-found item to its owner. And when the session or season ends, these life lessons come home to roost in the form of less academic procrastination and more productive school-based initiatives that inspire peers to act in healthy ways.

Camps have always been in the business of complementing traditional, school-based education. Teaching young people how to start the day right, dismiss maladaptive feelings, and boost motivation is one way that camps can directly contribute to school success.

Dr. Christopher Thurber is a thought leader in positive youth development. He has dedicated his professional life to promoting social and emotional adjustment for young people who are spending time away from home at boarding schools, summer camps, and hospitals. Most recently, he co-founded Prep4Camp and Prep4School to share homesickness-prevention techniques and academic success strategies with the world. Thurber has been invited to present keynotes and workshops on five continents and is an award-winning contributor to international conferences, magazines, radio shows, and television broadcasts. Learn more, download resources, and subscribe to fresh content by visiting DrChrisThurber.com.