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– Concerns and Strategies –

Time Management

Time Management

Managing time can be tricky in a very busy world.  Often, every member of the family has a very busy schedule.  We find that we must manage our time for the day, for the week, and even more long-term.

We have found a website that we consider to be thoughtful and thorough in its approach to time management.  It provides the information and tools necessary to be successful at time management. The site can help you set and specify your goal and establish a strategy.

But, as noted on the site, developing time management skills requires time and effort to create and ongoing vigilance to maintain.  We recommend that you put in the forethought to commit to this effort as described in the planning tool. In particular, decide whether you and your child are committed to this change and if you can both commit the time and energy necessary to be successful.  If you are ready to make that commitment, it is time to follow the link below and get started.

General Concepts for Time Management

  • Plan Backwards:

  • Look at your long term calendar and first put in the final deadlines for each of your large projects, tests, etc... Then you should work backwards. If ______ is due by May 1st, and there are five major components to this project then ____, should be finished by _____. By doing this, it you prevent yourself from getting into a procrastination jam. 

  • Break your tasks down into smaller, more manageable tasks.

  • As you can see in the example to-do list. I have 3 blanks for each larger "To-Do" item. Sometimes starting a task can be daunting or you may feel that you are not making progress, but if we break our work down into smaller and more manageable chunks it can help us not only get the motivation to get started and working but also get a better idea of how much work / time will be needed.
     

  • Estimate how much time you will need for each task

  • People tend to underestimate how much time they will need to complete a task, ESPECIALLY kids who struggle with time management. Estimate how much time you will need for each smaller task and then compare your estimate and actual time required later to determine if you were accurate or pretty far off. This comparison task builds very important "metacognitive knowledge."
     

  • Make it a routine

  • Do homework in the same place.

  • Do homework at the same time.

  • Same time. Set aside the same time each weekday for your child to do homework. That way your son or daughter knows that that time is set aside for homework. Same props -- Homework/Message Folders. Some students purchase different colored folders for each subject. Then, they cover their texts in the same color. The result is a certain color means a certain subject. Color-coding makes it easier to find material. More props - Calendars/ Planners/Date Books. Students should write homework in their date book or calendar as soon it is assigned. In addition, they should note when tests and quizzes are scheduled.

Strategies for Time Management

  • General Recommendations from Studygs.net

  • To-do Lists

    • To do lists are a common strategy, but sometimes we seem to forget to do them when our work load gets the highest. By reminding us what we need to get done, To-do lists both help us avoid forgetfulness but also induce an optimal amount of stress to get some work finished. In addition, to-do lists provide a great deal of satisfaction when we finish a task and get to scribble it off the list.

    • Here are some resources for making your own to do lists

    • A website that provides on online tool for creating a to-do list can be found at: http://www.studygs.net/todolist.htm

    • A set of printable tools is also available for you to modify and use to fit your situation. The tools are set up to work for most situations but can be modified to meet your particular needs. You can access these tools by following the link below.

    • Here is a to-do list that we created which incorporates multiple concepts such as breaking tasks down into smaller chunks, scheduling, and estimating the time needed for each task chunk:

  • Calendars, schedulers, and Planners

  • Time Estimation Tool (Guess and Checker)

  • Avoid Procrastination

  • Planning and Prioritizing

    • Planning and Prioritizing

    • Many children have trouble creating plans to accomplish all of the tasks expected of them. Some of our kids like to do things as they come to mind. They may not finish all they need to get done; but they do accomplish what most interests them, what is most pressing, or what they are told to do when someone is standing over them. Prioritizing requires them to think more broadly about and thoughtfully organize their tasks and commitments. Taking the time to set priorities is also an opportunity to learn about how they use their time and how much time it really does take to do a good job on a task.

    • How to Prioritize Resources

    • The basic components of prioritizing requires the following steps:
      1. Establishing all the major tasks that need to be accomplished
      2. Determining which are the most important to complete
      3. Clarifying when the tasks must be completed
      4. Estimating the time commitment necessary to accomplish each task
      5. Scheduling that time commitment into a schedule, calendar, or other organizer

    • Prioritizing tasks should weigh in several factors such as the due dates, the amount of work needed, the difficulty of work needed, the amount of stress induced by the work, the value of the task (both intrinsic value and extrinsic value), interaction between tasks and other events that may limit time.

    • Large projects shouldn't be left until the night before

    • Very stressful work can be spread across a longer time frame.

    • Encourage your child to list the steps needed to complete long-term projects.

    • And before starting to put those steps in a logical order

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