Time Management — An Essential Student Skill

Managing time may be one of the most important, though seldom taught, skills students learn. Too important to be left to chance development, effective time management skills must regularly be taught as part of the curriculum.

Teachers and parents influence students' attitudes toward time usage, especially during the elementary years. Waiting two weeks to grade test papers or habitually arriving late for class will not help change student procrastination or tardiness. Be a positive model by being organized, being punctual, and by setting and following goals.

Simply telling students to "get organized" and failing to show them how is of little value. The skills of time management — planning, goal setting, speed-reading, filing, study skills, and setting priorities — must be intentionally taught.

Metacognition on Student Time

Introduce the idea of time usage by assigning the class to brainstorm time-related proverbs and quotations. Facilitate discussion on the meanings of each item and whether students believe it to be true. Samples include:

• "Time heals all wounds."
• "Haste makes waste."
• "How time flies when you're having fun!"
• "To spend your time is to spend your life."
• "Time is money."

Help students recognize how they spend their time. Students should predict how they spend their time on school, homework, the telephone, sleeping, eating, playing, and home chores. Each person's prediction must total 24 hours.

Assign students to keep a time log for one week noting how they spend their time in 15-minute blocks. Merely monitoring and recording how their time is spent affects the behavior of many individuals. Students reflect on their time logs with questions such as:

• Which things did you spend more time doing than predicted? Less?
• Which would you like to spend more time doing in the future? Less?
• How many hours of free time (not committed to school, sleep, and chores) did you have during the week?

Small groups can brainstorm a list of their "time robbers," activities that keep them from doing those things most important to them. Instruct students to list as many items as possible, but not to discuss ways to eliminate their time wasters at this point. Follow-up activities can include brainstorming strategies to tackle major time robbers.

Time Management for Students

Goal-setting activities provide a valuable introduction to time management. Help students recognize that people who succeed do so because they are committed to a dream, a vision, or a goal. The autobiographies of sports heroes, historical figures, or rock stars can be used to demonstrate that success in life is more likely if one has a plan and pursues that plan.

Young people tend to focus upon short-term consequences with little attention to long-term goals. They experience difficulty projecting their actions beyond next week or next month.

As longer-range goal setting is introduced, discuss the importance of breaking down larger goals into subgoals. Use illustrations that involve students' interests. For instance, what subgoals might a race car driver develop if he or she had a goal of winning the Indianapolis 500 someday?

Emphasize the value of having a variety of goals that encompass all areas of life: career, social relationships, education, physical condition, personal development, finances, and spiritual growth.

Help students develop plans for their goals with challenging questions such as:

• What are the different steps that will help you reach your goal?
• What resources will you need to succeed? How much money?
• How much time will it take?
• Do you need anyone's help? How can you get it? From whom?
• What things may get in the way of your reaching that goal?
• Can you do anything about any of those obstacles? What?
• What will happen if you don't succeed? Do you have a plan B?

Source: Classroom Teacher's Survival Guide by Ron Partin, available from the PLS Bookstore at 800-506-9996.

Introducing the Calendar

Students can begin to plan and schedule their time by keeping a calendar. They should enter activities in order of priority: first, all the classes they have scheduled for that week, then any club meetings, team practices, part-time jobs, or other obligations.

Next, students can construct a list of goals they would like to reach in the next week. Have them estimate the amount of time required for each activity and fill in corresponding blocks on the calendar. Warn against scheduling every minute of the day. Unexpected things do occur and some planned activities take more time than expected.

At the end of the week have class members report on how closely they adhered to their scheduled calendar. What event did they forget to include? Which events took more or less time than planned? What time wasters did they identify?