Survival Guide for School Success by Ron Shumsky

Author:Ron Shumsky
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781631980039
Publisher: Free Spirit Publishing
Published: 2014-09-27T16:00:00+00:00

App Demonstration: Louise

After a long, hard, and forgettable day at school, all I want to do in the evening is play World Domination: Epic Clash of Titanic Civilizations. Unfortunately, my mom thinks this is “not a productive use of time.” She always nags me to turn it off and do my homework.

Usually I just put her off by asking for five more minutes, and another five, and five more after that. Soon she loses her patience and starts yelling. Sometimes I’ll keep playing and put off my homework for hours, or not even do it at all. Then Mom goes totally ballistic.

Eventually, Mom made an appointment with a psychologist, Dr. Whatever, to help us “work on our issues.” At first I thought this was really dumb. Still, Dr. Whatever wasn’t all that bad. When I found out that he plays World Domination, too, I actually started listening to him.

He explained about working now and getting rewards later, rather than playing now and paying the price later. It sounded good, but really, how can I do that? When it comes down to World Domination versus geography homework, why should I choose geography, even if it’s “better for me”?

That’s when we came up with my Piggy Bank plan.

STEP 1.

CONSIDER FUTURE ME

I made a list of how doing this homework would help me:

• Tomorrow: I’ll have it done, and Mom and my teacher won’t be disappointed again.

• Next Week: This stuff will definitely be on the test.

• Next Year: If I get a good grade in geography, I can move up to world history, which I actually find interesting, and it is related to World Domination.

• In 5 Years: I really want to study game developing in college, and the competition is intense. Getting good grades will help me get into the program I want.

• In 20 Years: When I’m 33, I won’t remember anything about this assignment or anything I learned in this class. But I’ll still have to do things I don’t like doing, so I’d better start practicing now.

STEP 2.

SET MY IMMEDIATE GOAL

I will be good to Future Me by doing homework first and gaming second.

STEP 3.

SET MY TIMETABLE

I decided to work on this for one month. I also decided to save money for new World Domination goods.

STEP 4.

MAKE REGULAR DEPOSITS

I planned to set aside some money from my allowance and my babysitting jobs, and my mom said she would pitch in some extra, too. Each night if I met my Immediate Goal—doing homework before gaming—I would deposit 50 cents in the Piggy Bank.

At first, I didn’t stick to the plan so well, and I wasn’t earning a lot of coins. It was just too hard to put off something I loved now just to get something else later. But each time I did earn a coin, it got a little easier the next time. I could see the payoff right there in the bank. Also, once I started doing homework, it didn’t feel quite as bad. It was still hard and boring, but I liked the feeling of taking on something hard and boring and getting it done.

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