Kaizen Method Against Children’s Laziness

With children we become more tolerant of laziness than adults. However, there comes a time in childhood when we are concerned about the low level of activity, something that happens especially with teenagers.

To improve this situation, the Japanese present us the Kaizen Method, a recipe for the little ones to be more willing to work.

Sometimes it’s not just too lazy to do household chores or tidy up their room, it may also cost them to finish schoolwork quickly.

In any case, it is possible for them to show laziness even to carry out activities that should be to their liking. Therefore, it often happens that they lack motivation and are given too much to do without the option to refuse.

Why are children lazy? How can you help them turn this laziness into energy? The Kaizen method seems to meet our requirements. The technique practiced by the Japanese in this scheme works and is applicable in most situations.

How does the Kaizen method work?

We’ve already seen how laziness works in children. They linger on daily activities, math problems, or a simple favor for Mom.

It also makes them lazy to get up early or go brush their teeth, not to mention pick up toys. For all this, there is the rule of the minute, let’s see what it is.

The Kaizen Method, or the rule of the minute, works in a positive way. In Japanese, the name of the technique means the wisdom to change.

It is considered a very effective method to overcome laziness and neglect. In general, it helps us not to leave things unfinished and to be more persevering when dedicating ourselves to some task.

Fortunately, this method is effective for both children and adults. So it can help improve ourselves if we need to. The process for carrying it out is as follows.

Procedure

• With constancy and dedication, we schedule a daily task, which must be done at the same time every day. For this, we put in a one-minute timer, the exclusive time to finish the objective.
  • As it is a minute, the child cannot complain about the activity assigned to him. The clock, however, allows time to motivate and indicate that it should hurry.
• Remember that the scheduled task must be the same every day at the same time. In other words, if it costs you to keep your toys, every day you will have this schedule on your list. For a minute, the child will devote himself to guarding his mess.
• It is important that we are constant, that we stay with her while she does her job.
  • We also shouldn’t forget to actually put a clock with a one-minute countdown. This is the time she has to make sure she does it without delay.
• For children, the Kaizen method is effective because they have internalized it and see it as a game. It will be fun to race to finish in the estimated time. We don’t ask for much, just spend 60 seconds on a task.

• In the case of homework, the minute rule is applied in scales. One minute for this operation, one to complete this reading, another to color this map. Keeping time for each job allows for greater concentration and makes it possible for the time devoted to this job to be minimized.
• When the child gets used to it, he will do it without pressure. Maybe she doesn’t worry about time anymore and will do everything automatically.
  • Once we see their improvement, we can increase the task time to 5 minutes and later to 10. Soon this will become a habit that can’t be controlled by laziness.

The Origin of the Kaizen Method

Japanese Masaaki Imai created this technique taking into account the reasons why we are lazy.

Although it is also applicable for adults, in the case of children, they try to avoid tasks that are complex from the start. They also face laziness when they know that the activity that goes with them can take a long time.

Lack of motivation and thinking that you are unable to finish successfully also affect delay in your work. Sometimes, the absence of consequences is the main reason that laziness exists.

If we’re not very firm in ensuring that children stick to something and at the same time nothing happens if they don’t, they will avoid it in different ways.

Masaaki Imai believes that the process of gradual adaptation creates very deep habits. According to the method name, the idea is to gain internal knowledge in order to change.

At the same time, change should not require a lot of effort, so there can be motivation and resistance.

Cover image courtesy of kwanchaichaiudom