Stop texting your child during class! There… I said it.

I’m probably preaching to the choir today. The people who are guilty of what I’m going to talk about probably don’t follow productivity people anyway. But you can help me share the message.

The inspiration for this episode came from a post on Facebook written by Myra:

Me to my students: “Can you name a valid reason to check your phone notifications during class? What’s the absolute one thing that can’t wait until between classes or lunch to check?”

Texts from parents wins! Some kids even said their parents fuss at them if they don’t immediately answer texts, even if they explain that they were in class or even taking a test. Too many had the same story for them all to be lying about it.

Myra happens to be a friend and a master teacher. And you heard it straight from the person who deals with this on a daily basis.

I’ve Heard the Arguments

I’ve heard the arguments. I need to be able to get in touch with my child at all times. It’s my child. I have something important to tell them. It’s not hurting anything.

We have taken a tool that could be very productive for students and turned it into the biggest headache for teachers and principals and we’ve done it to ourselves.

So now, schools spend time taking up phones every morning and returning them every afternoon or buying pouches that lock and make the phone unusable during the day.

Let’s face it. If your child really needed to get in touch with you, there’s a phone in the main office. And if you really needed to get in touch with your child, there’s that same phone in the office and the urgent message will be delivered to your child.

The real problem…

But what’s at the root of all of the interruptions? It’s simply disorganization. I have something on my mind I want to tell my child, and I need to message them before I forget what it was.

Actually, if you realize you’ll probably forget about it and AND you want to get it off your mind right now, you’re on target. But if your solution is to interrupt someone else who is doing something important just so you can get something off your mind, that’s where the ox is going in the ditch.

What parking place do you have where you can put these things now? It could be a memo pad on your desk or a task management app on your phone. Put it there and you CAN forget about it. When Junior comes home in the afternoon, you can go over the 7 things that came to mind during the day instead of the 7 text messages you sent in the middle of classes.

In the morning, look at the list. See what Penelope needs to know before heading off to the bus. Extra credit if Penelope also has a place to record things she needs to remember.

Some years ago, I was presenting a workshop for high school students. I asked if they were allowed to have their phones at school. Two students sitting side-by-side attended two different high schools only a few miles from each other.

The first student said, “No, we’re not supposed to have phones at school. We get in bad trouble if we get caught.”

The second student said, “We’re encouraged to use our phones. We just have to keep them on airplane mode.”

Two schools. Two philosophies.

Never have we had better tools than today. And it’s not that principals just lay awake at night dreaming up rules to make life harder for students. Believe me. I was a principal. Every rule you make is one more rule you have to enforce.

So, the Genie is out of the bottle in lots of places. The best of tools is on the “naughty list.” But if your school is one where there is some trust that students will use them wisely, be the model. Don’t text your child during class. He’s trying to learn. And could you please not text him between classes either Hopefully, he’s talking to his friends.

Do this instead

Help your child to use a digital calendar, a digital task list, and a notes app. That’s the “three-legged stool.” The places you need to be, the things you need to do, and the information you need to have. Those three places give you a home to put any information that comes your way. These aren’t the things they’ll generally learn in school because so many of our teachers were never taught to use them personally, let alone know how to teach them to someone else. That’s why I do what I do. Be the model. Use the best tools in the best ways.

And as schools start back all over the country, I hope this year is your child’s best one ever.

An interesting coincidence

Coincidentally, after I recorded the video and scheduled the post, Seth Godin published this in his daily blog. I hope you’ll take a moment to read it. It perfectly sums up the tremendous tool we have in our hands and the stupid ways in which we use it.

Stop texting your child during school and pass along the message. Be the model. Use the best tools in the best ways.

Life is too short and time too precious to waste one more day. If you are someone who stumbled upon this site for the first time, let me help you take a major step forward right now. When you join my email list, I’ll give you two free gifts. The first will get your desk clean. The second will put everything you have to do in one place. Plus, each week you’ll hear from me with nuts & bolts tools and strategies to make life easier and more productive. You’re one click away from making it happen.