Time Management for Teens
Time is a problem for most people. Learning how to manage your time as a teenager can make life a lot easier as an adult. It also gives teens a sense of ownership over their time.
Time can get away from us easily. This is particularly true for teens. You used to keep your son's social and school calendar, ferrying him to play dates and reminding him of project due dates. He has to begin to accept that responsibility. Your son should start by making a list of all the things he must do, including school and home responsibilities. Then he is to make a separate list of things he wants to do. This might be playing a sport, hanging out with friends, or playing on the computer. Then he needs to add in time for sleep, eating, and hygiene. He should figure out how much time he needs to do each of these. This can be overwhelming. It might be helpful to use a pie chart and break it up into a twenty-four-slice pie to represent each of the twenty-four hours in a day.
E-Fact
As if you need another reason to tell your son to clean his room, working in an organized environment is a key way to maximize efficiency. He'll be able to work much more quickly if he knows exactly where to find everything he needs.
Writing down a schedule is a good way to help your teen get a handle on prioritizing. He will be able to see how his schedule will be affected if he makes last-minute plans or accepts additional responsibilities. Make sure he knows he cannot simply commandeer his sleep time to make room for more activities. It might sound like a good idea, but functioning on too little sleep means he will accomplish even less.
The truth is that many teens are overscheduled. Between school, social life, homework, and after-school activities, your son's life is full. As he learns to juggle all of these, he can also learn the importance of choosing what he will and won't do in the interests of time and sanity.
Essential
Buy your son a teen-friendly calendar. Some calendars have spaces to write little details. If such a calendar feels overwhelming for him, buy him a very simple calendar. Also add a family calendar to your home, where people can easily check for conflicts.
The teen years are a great time to show your son respect by giving him some control over his schedule. But in doing so, he also needs to be respectful by checking his schedule with the family's schedule. One of the hard lessons to learn is that sometimes other people's business supersedes your own.
