How to Use Personality to Overcome Procrastination In Your Homeschool

Hey homeschoolers! Perfectionism is an obstacle to getting more done and certainly to enjoying your homeschooling. In today's episode, I will discuss how understanding your own and your kids' personality can help you get past perfectionism and on to enjoying your homeschool journey again. Before I dive in, I want to encourage you to follow my Psychowith6 page on Facebook. There I will be sharing regular Facebook Live videos where I can continue you to provide you with homeschool sanity from the comfort of your couch. I can also talk with you in the comments and get to know you, and that something I love to do. Perfectionism can look different depending on your personality. In fact, you may not even recognize your struggle as perfectionism with some personalities. There are four personality types that I will discuss in terms of perfectionism. Perfectionism in the Sanguine Personality The first personality type is the Sanguine. This fun-loving personality is the least likely to have a problem with perfectionism, you may think, as you observe a messy room or school space. But it is perfectionism that contributes to the mess. Sanguines tend to believe that they must have devoted periods of time to do every bit of the work or they can't even get started. If the Sanguine doesn't have all the tools and ideas and the time, she will move on to something that seems a lot more fun. To help you or your Sanguine child overcome perfectionism, turn getting started into a game. In my book A Year of Living Productively, I discuss the randomized task list and Autofocus as approaches that can help us take action without the perfect circumstances and without the chance to finish the work. The idea is that even doing a little on a selected task counts. We can train ourselves and our kids that all we expect is for them to get started. That might mean getting out the calculator or decluttering five expired food items from the pantry. As mom, you can choose one small organizing task each day in your Organized Homeschool Life planner to develop the organizing habit apart from perfectionism. When I was a child, I believed that a clean room included organized dresser drawers. Invariably, that's where I would start. I would get lost in the items in my drawers and my room would end up looking messier than it had when I started. With a child like this, you want to clarify what you want done. Had my mother said "Get your bed made and everything off the floor put away," I might have had better luck. The Sanguine would do well to reflect on Philippians 1:6. "And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." Sanguines tend to feel a lot of shame about their imperfection and avoid it. But God is at work in us, imperfect as we are. Perfectionism and the Choleric Personality The Choleric personality likes to have control. If the Choleric doesn't get the results and especially the cooperation she expects, she may give up. If your child doesn't consistently get his work done or if the kids balk at starting school or if a curriculum you purchased isn't helping you meet your goals, you may be tempted to throw out the whole notion of homeschoolin...