Time management is an important skill for a variety of reasons. First, managing our time well decreases our overall stress and increases our productivity. It also helps us to achieve goals and enjoy our free time more. Time management is also a highly coveted skill for employers. If your teen can learn it now as a student, they will excel in the future workforce.
There are lots of reasons that some teens struggle to develop good time management techniques, but some of the most common are low motivation, being overscheduled, perfectionist tendencies, or lack of rest. Parents, caretakers, and teachers can help teens develop good time management skills through goal-setting, task prioritization, distraction management, helpful apps, and schedule structuring. When teens learn the techniques that help them better manage their time, they will likely improve their academic performance, develop better decision-making and problem-solving skills, become more independent and responsible, and reduce their stress levels.
What is Time Management?
In essence, time management is a skill that empowers individuals to take control of their schedule and make the most of their day-to-day activities. It is making deliberate choices about how to effectively allocate your time based on the importance and urgency of tasks. It encompasses the process of planning, organizing, prioritizing, and controlling your schedule to maximize productivity and minimize wasted hours. It involves setting clear goals, breaking them down into smaller steps, and then allocating specific time blocks for each task or activity. Additionally, time management encourages individuals to identify and eliminate time-wasting habits, such as procrastination or multitasking, to make the most of their available hours.
Tips for Teens
Offer your teen these tips to better manage their time:
Create a routine. Developing routines can be very helpful in managing your time. Establish patterns that help you move through daily tasks quicker. For example, if you have an established morning routine for getting ready, you can more accurately gauge how much time you need to get ready to leave the house. You could establish a routine for bedtimes, mealtimes, screen time, etc. Teens with consistent routines at home report higher levels of emotional well-being, more likelihood of enrolling in college, and tested for lower levels of stress hormones.
Create a schedule. Outline your daily tasks and responsibilities. By creating a schedule, you can block off time for specific tasks. This can help you determine how long it will take to get something done and how your day will be structured. By creating a schedule for when things get done, you will stop wasting time obsessing over what to do next. Here are key points:
- Your schedule should include time for all daily tasks like classes, homework, studying, chores, activities, and even free time. Make sure you identify everything you’re doing now and figure out how much each activity realistically takes.
- Leave some margin in your schedule for unexpected tasks and/or invitations. If every moment of your day is jam packed, you have no flexibility to respond to things that pop up.
- Knowing exactly when your chores need to be done or when your sports practice is every week will help you to spread tasks out over the week properly.
- If you struggle with getting homework done, choose a specific time of day that works for your schedule and preferences. You might want to get it done as soon as you get home so that it’s not hanging over your head all afternoon, or you might be burned out after a long day and are more efficient after dinner. Determine your best time and then stick to it.
- Consider your personal rhythm. If you typically start your day energized, plan to study or accomplish chores early and take a guilt-free TV break in the afternoon. If you’re a night owl, save tasks for later in the day.
- Build regular study time into your schedule. Most tests are scheduled well in advance, and 15 minutes of review each night will produce much better results on Thursday’s exam than pulling an all-nighter on Wednesday. Work to determine what study methods work best for you so that you are more effective during your study time.
- Free time is vital for your mental well-being. You will actually be more productive the rest of the day if you have daily free time built into your schedule. Consistently including time for yourself in your schedule helps to keep your life in balance.
- Avoid overscheduling. While you may want to say yes to all opportunities, this can lead to burnout. Practice saying no to some invitations so that you have more time to prioritize what needs to be done. As you complete your tasks, you will find that you end up having more time to do other activities you are truly excited about.
Prepare Ahead. If you know that you tend to run late for school or appointments, then prepare in advance. For example, if school mornings are hectic, pull everything together the night before: pack your backpack, pick out an outfit, make your lunch, etc. If you have some downtime before an appointment, such as a break between school and an extracurricular activity, get changed, put on your shoes, and gather everything you need for the activity before you start getting distracted on your phone or start some other diversion.
Set Goals. You should establish goals, both short- and long-term. Consider what you want to accomplish and create goals that are specific, actionable, realistic, and measurable. Examples of goals might be to improve your grade in a specific subject, learn how to play a new instrument, get on a sports team, or land a part in the school play. It’s good to have a variety of goals! If you need more help in learning how to set goals, please read our previous blog, Teach Teens to Set Goals.
Break down big projects into small steps. Big projects feel overwhelming, which leads to procrastination, which wastes a lot of valuable time. Instead, consider what small steps you need to take to accomplish the big assignment and make the first step so easy that there’s no risk of failure. For example, if you have to write a 10-page research paper, then make small action steps. You might say: pick a research topic, find 5 sources for my research, take notes from sources, develop thesis for project, write outline of paper, write introduction paragraph, and so on. Give each of these action steps a deadline that you place on your schedule.
Prioritize Tasks. Based on the goals you set and the action steps you create, prioritize all of your tasks according to their importance and urgency. If you struggle with knowing how to prioritize your to-do’s, try using the Eisenhower Matrix. Divide a piece of paper into four quadrants. They will be labeled as so:
- Urgent and Important: These are high-priority tasks that have deadlines, meet important goals, and need immediate attention.
- Important, but not Urgent: These are tasks that contribute to long-term goals.
- Urgent, but not Important: These require prompt action, but may not contribute to long-term goals.
- Neither Urgent or Important: These are low-priority tasks.
Categorize all your tasks into these lists, so that you can clearly see what needs to be done and what is a priority. Over time, this will help you improve your time management skills and track your accomplishments.
Get Organized. Don’t be caught by surprise by an important deadline! Create a calendar for yourself with all your upcoming deadlines, exams, project milestones, study dates, extracurricular activities, social events, and other time commitments well in advance so you can see what’s coming up. Devise creative ways to remind yourself of specific tasks and timelines. Different techniques work better for different people, so try some of these tools and pick the one that works best for you:
- Mount a bulletin board or a calendar on the wall and use a color-coding system to keep everything organized.
- Use a paper planner. Writing things down will help you organize your thoughts, visualize a plan, and feel in control.
- Use a digital app. Technology can help you stay on track! There are so many choices for time management apps, even choosing one can be a little overwhelming. Some apps block distractions, while others send reminders. You can search online to learn more about different apps for students. Many universities keep an updated list on their websites.
- Set reminders. Give yourself periodic reminders to stay on track. Knowing deadlines is important; however, staying on top of the micro tasks involved in meeting those deadlines is equally important. You can set an alarm on your phone, write an action step down in a physical planner, or add an alert to your digital calendar. The reminders will help to prevent things from slipping through the cracks during particularly hectic days. In addition, knowing you have a reminder set can free up your attention for more important tasks.
Identify your time robbers. Have you ever sat down to research a topic on the computer only to end up surfing the web? It’s important to know what situations and temptations interfere with your work or motivation so that you can develop a plan to overcome these obstacles and get your work done more efficiently. The most common time robbers are: distraction, overscheduling, and procrastination.
- Distraction
- Use cellphone and web blockers to prevent playing games and using certain apps during your work time. Or if you notice one of your devices is a major source of temptation, leave it in another room while you work.
- Use white noise or soft music to cancel sounds. Do not try to work with the TV on.
- Create a work environment based on your learning style. For example, visual learners may like having post-its and other items handy to doodle or draw on, to help guide their work. Social learners often benefit from completing tasks in groups or with other people.
- Overscheduling
- Practice saying “no” to taking on more tasks or committing to more activities. Recognize that when you say “yes” to something, you’re saying “no” to something else because you only have so much time in a day.
- Create a weekly schedule. Review it daily, and make a daily to-do list with your priorities.
- Work on accurately estimating the length of time each task will take. We tend to think that most tasks take less time than they actually do, which leads to stress and missed deadlines. A simple way to get better at this is to time yourself during tasks.
- Procrastination
- Consider two different strategies for tackling tasks to see which ones motivates you more. Strategy 1: Try tackling the most difficult task first. Many people are most productive when they first begin something, and it can be very motivating to get something hard out of the way. Strategy 2: Try tackling an easy task first to build your self-confidence and start off with a quick win.
- Take breaks. Dividing work into shorter periods can ultimately help you get more done. Create a habit that links work with a goal, such as studying for a certain amount of time and then taking a short break. You could reward yourself with 15 minutes of video game time for each hour of study completed. Or if you just want to get your work done as quickly as possible, try working for 25 minutes and then taking a 5-minute break to stretch or eat.
- Create artificial deadlines in advance. This allows for some time to procrastinate prior to the actual deadline.
- Multi-Tasking
- Our brains are designed to focus on one task at a time, but our culture continually pushes the myth that we can do multiple tasks well. You will actually waste less time if you focus in on one activity at a time.
Tips for Parents / Teachers
As parents, teachers, coaches or other adults, we want to support teens in their efforts. After you give your teen the above tips to empower them to better manage their time, make sure you follow these tips to be a good support system:
Don’t nag. Your goal is to help your child manage time on their own, rather than playing timekeeper for them. Constant reminders that time’s running out will not help them think and plan ahead. Studies show that offering teens repeat reminders can diminish their sense of responsibility and demotivate them. Ironically, by allowing them to figure out what they need to do, they will feel as though you trust them which will be a big confidence boost.
Don’t rescue. We hate to see our teens fail. It can be hard to bite your tongue when they miss the bus (again!), but modest failures will strengthen their awareness of time and determination to follow through. If we jump in to fix our teen’s every problem, we are inadvertently communicating to our teen that we don’t think they are capable of handling situations on their own. Rather than fix your teen’s problem, act as a coach or a sounding board to help your teen figure out how they will overcome the challenge. Ask lots of open-ended questions so that they can determine for themselves a good next step.
Role model. Parents, guardians, and teachers set the tone for their teens. Practice managing your time wisely and set a good example. Your teen will likely mimic your behavior, whether that’s staying calm under pressure or constantly running late and missing deadlines. Modeling wise time management gives your child the chance to see firsthand how these habits ease stress and promote emotional balance.
Encourage schedules. Do not force a schedule on your teen, but encourage them to develop one on their own that works best for them. Coach them how to break big goals into smaller steps. Provide time-driven chores at home to allow them an opportunity to practice time management skills. Offer them compassion when they fail and brainstorm ways they can succeed next time. Guilt and shame are less effective than reminding them that tomorrow is a new day (and a fresh chance to try again). Offer them genuine praise when they hit the deadline.
Hold family meetings. Each week, have the family come together for a meeting to go over schedules, assignments and due dates. Having these meetings regularly built into your family routine can help teens avoid feeling that parents are hovering, pressuring or micromanaging them. Meetings should be short and sweet. The goal is a balance between giving teens space and autonomy while still having some regular touchpoints with you for oversight.
Final Thoughts…
Getting the hang of time management takes practice, but it’s a skill well worth mastering. It’ll serve your child well not only during the busy teen years, but for the rest of their life. When it comes to teaching time management skills to teens, using one or several of these tips can help your teen learn how to prioritize their tasks and accomplish them. Remember, the skills you take the time to teach them today will help them grow into responsible adults tomorrow.