Teaching kids to manage time.

I was sitting in my youth team's meeting last week with a group of intensely dedicated volunteers. We were chatting and catching up a bit and a good number of them were talking about how their teenage children were busier than ever. I mentioned that a good thing to teach kids is time management. I felt that this was a good answer. After all, teaching kids time management is a good thing. I wasn't prepared as a mom replied, "How?" I hadn't thought that far ahead. I asked for a week or so to think about it and I would post it on here. So here goes.

Teaching Kids Time Management- (or at least try)

1. Set Priorities- When we get over busy our priorities get blurred. My wife and I have noticed this as we quickly approach our child's due date. We are incredibly busy to the point of frustration. Our first thought is to bail on our Tuesday night Bible Study. Each week we lament about how tired we are and how we couldn't get through it. But each week that we go, we are rewarded immensely. When your teen gets busy, you need to sit with them and develop what your priorities are. Maybe it is family time mentioned in the previous post. Maybe it's church or a bible study. In setting the priorities, you are saying to your child, "These are the things that are the most important. If the world started to collapse, we would still do these things." This is an important truth for students to develop in life. If throughout childhood, a child learns what is important, they are more likely to repeat it in their adult life. This makes stronger families rooted in faith.

2. Get Organized- This one can be difficult because teens by nature subscribe to the Chaos Theory. You can do this through teaching them how to use a planner or scheduler. I know what you are thinking. I'd rather get a root canal during a Kenny G concert. By using a planner, teens begin to see their time. I've heard a lot of parents say the following; "Jimmy knew that he had to do this, he just thought he had all the time in the world." The truth is that Jimmy is still learning the concept of time. When you are procrastinating, you always have enough time. When you plan you see that you are limited in time and it presses you to go ahead and work now instead of procrastinating.

3. Have a set schedule- the best thing to help with the planning process is to have a set schedule. Students today can be on the go at different times everyday. This complicates planning because you have to plan using different times every week. Ex. I got home at 3 pm everyday from high school. My parents got home between 5:30-6:00pm every night. We ate dinner at 7. (that's when Start Trek came on) Everyday I knew that I had from 3-7 to work on homework. In later years I knew that I had from 3-7 and 7:30-10 to work on homework. My senior year I had stuff every night of the week. It kept my schedule busy and made it difficult for me to find time to do my homework.

4.Built in Breaks- A problem for setting schedules is that it doesn't allow for time to do what teenagers want to do. They want to mess around on Facebook, or play video games, or torment their siblings( flashback...shudder). If you have built in breaks, this allows the student to take a break from the mental portions of homework and just relax for a little bit. The ideal time for this is in between assignments when the students mind isn't focused on one given thing. If you cut a kid off in the middle of a complex math equation, they'll never be able to focus again. When they finish math give them a break before English. A general rule that I had for studying for a test or exam was a 15 minute break for every hour that I studied. This varies among kids though.

5.Set an example- The toughest part of being a parent is that you are constantly being watched. Although teens might not admit this, you are the biggest influence in their lives. That can be a positive influence or a negative influence. If you don't do the things above, your teens won't. If you don't do them and tell your teens that they should do them, they'll resent it. In truth, these are good practices for everyone. Myself included. I'm actually about to work on my planning processes because they need some work. Hopefully it will help me work and communicate more efficiently with you.

So until next time. I'm praying for you and your teen.

Jon