As a busy parent, you may be thinking: Teach my child to manage her time? I can't even manage my own! Then it's decided. There is no better time to start than the new school year. And while teaching your child how to best manage her time, you may just learn a trick or two about becoming more productive yourself.
Time management is really just a fancy way of describing balancing more than one responsibility or opportunity at once. Like any other skill, it takes practice. But while most parents make it a point to teach their kids how to brush their teeth of show them dozens of times how to wash their hands properly, few drill them in organizing the hours in their day. By teaching your child child early on how to manage her time, you are instilling a skill she can use long after she's donned her college cap and gown. This is a skill she can use for life.
Didn't get an early start? It's never too late to teach kids how to organize their week and prioritize their "to-do" list. Time management is essential for everyone. But if you can get your child to learn the main principles, that's a tool they can use forever. Time management is a principle that impacts children's emotional, social, mental, physical, financial, and spiritual lives. It is a skill every child needs to thrive. If we don't train them in good habits while they are young, they will spend the rest of their lives trying to shake a bad habit.
Here are some tips for teaching children the importance of time management:
* Help your child make the distinction between what is important and what is urgent. Important means it will help them obtain the quality of life most valuable to them. Urgent just means it needs immediate attention. Encourage them to work on the things that are most important first.
* Help your child make a hierarchy of priorities they can use as a master checklist to make better time management decisions. For example, prioritize the following values: Family, Health & Fitness, Personal Development, School, Community, Friends. Add or eliminate values here depending on what is important to you and your child.
* Within each value, prioritize activities to perform. For instance, under School, she may have, 1) complete homework assignments, 2) study for tests, 3) work on large projects, etc.
* Have your child practice using the hierarchy of priorities when making decisions about how to use her time. Give her different scenarios and let her consider what should be done first, second, and third. For example, if she wants to go to a friend's house, but also has to read the next 3 chapters of her science textbook, ask her to weigh her options. If she does the assignment now, she may be able to stay at her friend's house for dinner. If she chooses to do the assignment later, she has to be home before dinner so she's not up late doing schoolwork. Work with her to figure out the best use of her time. I also recommend, especially for younger children, having a specific time set each day for homework.
* Each evening have your child list on paper or a daily planner everything she needs to do, and use her hierarchy of priorities checklist to her choose the top five or six priorities for the following day.
Managing time well is a learned thing. And it only gets harder as life goes on. The fact is, there are more opportunities in life then there is time to do them. Start kids early at learning how to weigh their options. Not every task is equally important and not every task is equally urgent. Help your child determine what things can or cannot wait, and then, depending upon what they choose to tackle first, discuss how that will effect the rest of her time that day. She'll start to learn how much time she needs to allocate to certain responsibilities and will improve her productivity too.
Don't forget to absorb some of these lessons yourself. Create some of your own checklists and priorities. Hopefully, teaching your child to do the same. Here is a copy of a hand-out I give my students:
Organize your week and prioritize your "to-do" list.
Use a planner and calendar:
1) Distinguish what's " important", "urgent" or "both".
2) Prioritize activities to perform. 1) homework, 2) study for tests, 3) work on projects,etc.
3) Make a to do list (write it in your planner) and prioritize what has to be done 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. If an assignment isn't due the following day be sure to also write it in your calendar.
4) Each day make a list of everything you need to do (include homework, extra curricula activities, etc.) and use your hierarchy of priorities checklist to choose the top 6 priorities and then list them in order of importance.
5) Cross off items from the list when completed. Reflect on how you feel (this is an important step).
6) Determine how much you need to allocate for each task (this takes practice and you get better at it over time).
Goal setting, prioritizing, and scheduling:
Goals---you can determine that amount of time needed by creating a "to-do" list.
Create a chart of prioritized goals with categories labeled, "important", "urgent", "both". Put tasks or assignments that will take a long time, such as a research paper under "important". Tasks or assignments that need to be done the next day, or before other tasks (maybe that need to be in the next couple days) go under "urgent". "Both", are long term tasks or assignments that are almost complete and are due in the next day or two. For large tasks or assignments break them down into smaller parts. For example, for a research project/report you need to make a plan, find materials, read, take notes, outline, write rough drafts, and then the final paper.
Calendar:
1) Prioritized tasks/assignments
2) Write tasks under the days you want to have them completed.
3) Mark off the days on the calendar and write what you have done and what you still need to do. This will keep you focused and help you keep track of how many days you have left before the due day. It also helps you adjust the time you need spend each day if needed. Sometimes things take less or longer time than we think.
4) Check your calendar each day, this helps you focus.
Eliminate distractions:
1) Turn off your cell phone.
2) Let people know the times you are available and unavailable.
3) Keep track of distractions and write down the distraction - person (or whatever) the date and the time.
4) After one week go back and check your calendar/planner and check which distractions were valid and invalid.
Although this seems like a lot of work and it's time consuming it helps you focus and become more "aware" of how you are using your time. And in the long run it will actually will help you use your time more effectively thus saving you time!
Best,
Debra
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