Time management is a difficult thing, especially for teens. Trying to juggle school, relationships, sports and even a job can be incredibly stressful and hard. Sometimes, time management seems impossible. If anything, it can be an extremely daunting task. But nevertheless, it is an important skill to have, especially in a school environment. Managing your time is essential to success- one must be able to know how to prioritize things and carve out time for their academic work, while still keeping up with their friends. An absence of time management can lead to stress and sometimes an unfulfilling experience during adolescence. “[Success in school] is not just about how academically smart you are, but also about utilizing your time well, being organized, being able to manage multiple things for multiple classes, as well as having a social life,” said executive functioning specialist Danielle Christopherson.
Ms. Christopherson believes that some major reasons why time management is difficult for students are procrastination, an inability to balance all of one’s activities, and something called time blindness. Time blindness is commonly defined as the inability to notice when time has passed or difficulty in estimating how long something will take, according to Cleveland Clinic. “A lot of students have a lot of things to balance, and it’s tempting to procrastinate,” said Ms. Christopherson. “Not being fully aware of time could cause struggles too. I see a lot of students who will go to the bathroom, and think they’ve been gone for three minutes, when it’s actually been fifteen.”
In combating problems with time management, there are many ways in which a student can learn how to effectively juggle everything that they must get done. One helpful way to be more productive is to break tasks down into smaller, more manageable chunks. For some people, when a major project or essay is separated into little groups of work, it is more tangible. For instance, if you must make a project about topography maps for science class, you can break it down into “look up pictures for slideshow,” “outline script for slide seven,” and “ask Jake if I can borrow his dad’s atlas.” When your goal is just “finish project,” the task seems a bit more daunting. But when it is broken down into smaller bits, not only can it feel more doable, but you can also celebrate your small victories of getting a part of your project finished. Ms. Christopherson also made an infographic on Canva, detailing ways that students can better manage their time and perform better in school. It has been linked in this article.
