Tips on Time Management for Teens
As teenagers start to have a more active social life and their classes become more complex, not to mention, working part-time jobs and doing house chores, time management for teens becomes a necessary skill.
With a mountain of things to do, time management for teens can be difficult. The best way to start is to set priorities straight. Look at the tasks that needs to be accomplished and identify which has to be done first, perhaps based on which deadline is nearest or which is more urgent. Give more priority to projects or tasks that will take the longest to finish or those that are the most difficult.
Oftentimes, just looking at the activities you have for the day you can easily decide which should be a priority but this would often require maturity and honesty. For example, priority tasks include doing homework but just hanging out a friend's house is not although this activity is important to most, if not all, teens so being honest in prioritizing is crucial in time management for teens.
Once the high-priority and low-priority tasks are sorted out, the next step is to create a daily schedule, which is the backbone of any time management plan. In the case of time management for teens, a daily schedule should start with waking time, preparing for school and then leaving for school, followed by a schedule of classes, other extra-curricular activities, and then the time of arrival at home, time for homework, chores and etcetera.
When you have a schedule of things to do, it will be easier to see if there is slack time left for anything else that needs to be done during the day. It will also be helpful to have to-do list aside from a daily schedule. A to-do-list can serve as a reminder when tasks are finished early or just whenever there is free time that can be used productively.
Whether handling a small or large task, it always best to try to do it properly the first time to avoid having to re-do the work. Manage a big project better by not trying to finish everything in a day or two but rather divide the work into smaller sections and spread them out within a week. It is also a good idea to start as early as possible because procrastination would not only ruin your schedule but it almost always result to poor work quality.
Time management for teens is a skill that is not only useful at school but throughout life so the sooner teenagers learn it the better off they would be.
