It's all in the timing

A-One came home from work tonight grumbling 'I don't want to talk about it!' as he came through the door.  We hadn't received our usual phone call to come and pick him up at the bus stop, so his dad went out to look for him.

Some time later I asked him if he had been told tonight that he had been too slow.

A-One: Yes, I received some feedback.

Mum: This has happened before hasn't it, in your other job?

A-One: It was a one-off.

Mum: How can we fix this?

A-One: I don't want to talk about it.

Mum: OK. I'll just put one question to you - you don't have to answer me.  Do you want to fix it?

Our long experience of A-One is that even when he knows the job, he has days when his time management is just way off.  He is unwilling to let us record potential factors such as how much sleep he gets because he always insists he gets enough sleep.  I know that he rose earlier than usual today - so did he get less sleep?

Earlier tonight, as he was riding home in the car:

Dad: What if you wrote out a plan of what you have to do at work - to keep you on track?

A-One: I know what I have to do!

I don't doubt that. Yet how do I get him to understand that it's not about knowing what to do, it's about timing what to do.

Several months ago I decided to write out a very detailed plan for preparing a simple evening meal for A-One to follow when he was rostered on to cook. I was tired of coming home at the end of my work day only to push A-One to get started on his job, dealing with his resistance when I was tired too.

Specifically, I thought carefully about the tasks that needed to be done in parallel, and how the oven timer could be used to help A-One follow a time plan, even when he already knew the steps for the job.

After that, I was able to come home to a cooked meal!  I noticed that each time he was rostered on to cook that meal, he always used his meal plan.

In a couple of days I'll ask him if we could write down all the steps for his paid job - he can usually describe really well what he has to do.  If I can work with him to put times against each step - so that he has a 'recipe' to follow when he is at work - he may be able to achieve more consistency.

...

At Scouts, his nick-name was 'Turbo'.  Not.