Two Keys to Teaching Kids Time Management

It’s not just kids that need to learn time management. If you are often late or if you feel you are always rushing from one appointment or activity to another, learning some time management skills could be helpful to everyone involved.  A few key questions to ask before even developing some strategies for yourself, your students or your family might be:

What are our priorities?

Am I a planner or do I usually just wing it when it comes to my day or my week?

Is my life overscheduled?

Am I trying to do too many things?

Am I balancing the necessary things in my life with the important things in my life?

Learning to be on time so that you can just add more things to your plate, doesn’t create a more purposeful or meaningful life. If the season of Covid has taught us anything, it is to take the time to recognize what is important and valuable in our lives and to create a life around that. Determining our priorities and scheduling the time necessary to nourish our relationships trumps being busy but purposeless any day.

Watch this classic video of Stephen Covey on the Big Rocks:

Here are two key strategies for developing time management skills for kids:

Make it fun- Time management doesn’t have to be all about spread sheets, calendars and planners. Spend some time planning and dreaming. What would an ideal day look like? an ideal week. How can you build in fun along with the necessary obligations? Maybe you have until the end of a song to get ready for bed. Play the same song every night so they become familiar with the time frame and the routine. Make it a calm soothing song to prepare for relaxing in bed. Do the same thing in the morning to get ready for school but make it a peppy energizing song.

Create a family calendar- Discuss upcoming events during a weekly family meeting so everyone is on the same page. This is a good time to talk about priorities and make sure that no one is overscheduled. Build in down time as well as activities.