Kids can benefit a lot from time management! Kids are a lot busier now than they were when their parents were the same age that’s for sure. Excluding sports and a little homework at night, I never felt particularly stressed during high school. But I look at my daughter and see that has changed. She’s got sports, clubs, homework, volunteering and a part-time job and I wonder not only how she does it but why she does it!
Preparing for college and the future is so competitive I’m convinced that simply “going to class” and doing what’s expected is no longer enough. Students could probably benefit from their own personal secretaries (oh wait – they already have them – they’re called parents).
Good, bad or indifferent a lot of what parents have their children do and a lot of the children elect to do is self-directed. At the very least some scrutinizing is in order. Couple that with some common sense scheduling tips for kids and you’ll find that both you and your children (but especially your kids) can squeeze a whole more out of a day. And who knows, you both might find that packed schedule wasn’t as intense as you originally thought.
Good Habits at an Early Age
Kids (and their parents) are never too young (or too old) to learn good time management skills. If your children start early they will have developed habits that will last them throughout their school-age years and far beyond.
Oddly enough, the same time management skills that are so helpful to adults are just as helpful to kids. What’s more, if you put a fun spin on time management and goal setting you children won’t feel like it’s work.
Daily, Weekly and Monthly Goals
With a calendar or agenda have your son/daughter map out their daily, weekly and monthly goals. This should be a fun exercise. It should also be done in “real time” because your kids will certainly have tangible things to write down already. The typical day stock full of homework and activities is made to order for a daily/weekly/monthly planner.
Here’s another tip: mom and dad should be writing down their goals as well. What a concept: you both get organized and actually spend some time together doing it!
Now that the day’s activities are starting to pile up on your calendar you can add even more by subdividing the categories for example homework, activities, personal and family.
Prioritize
There are different ways of doing this but prioritize your goals and the categories of each. A simple “A”, “B” “C” to define importance can easily do the trick. For example:
A = Hot! (due tomorrow)
B = important (but not crucial).
C = Cool (fun stuff. It gets done after the A’s and B’s)
And don’t fall victim to making everything an “A” or “Hot”. We all know everything is critically important. But take a step back and be objective.
Assign Time Limits
This one may be a bit tricky but it’s worth a try. After you have developed a daily list of goals and “to do” tasks, try assigning time limits. If you have homework in 4 subjects give yourself 40 minutes for each and try to hit those times. That doesn’t mean rush but time limits create a sense of “get it done” urgency. It also frees up time to so something else on your list.
Your kids know and probably so do you to an extent how log it takes to complete specific tasks. Time limits just underscore the need to finish “on time”.
One final tip: allow yourself the flexibility for changes to occur. Every schedule needs a bit of a fudge factor. Anticipate that things can and do go wrong.
Your daily goals and to-do list can be as detailed as you and your kids want. But over time, these time management skills will become habits that will last a life time.