Education. Children need to have it; in Australia, more than half of the days in a year are dedicated to it.
InAustralia, children attend school around 200 days per year. During that time, there are exams and more that they need to prepare for.
To get everything they need to be done, children need to learn time management skills at an early age. However, they may not know the proper time management techniques.
No need to fear. This guide will give you the five best time management techniques you can use.
1. Schedule Study Time
One of the first things you can do for your children is put them on a schedule for their schoolwork. When it comes to exams, this means scheduling study time.
If they have a lot of information to go over before they take the exam, they should dedicate at least one hour per day to study leading up to it. So, have them schedule that hour to study after dinner. Then, they can go do something else after they are done.
Scheduling the time does a couple of things for kids. The first is that it holds them accountable to get the studying done. They are putting an exact time on doing the task, so now they know it is time to get to work when that hour comes.
The second thing that is happening is that kids are getting organised. Rather than accidentally putting off studying, they now have a plan for when they are going to attack it.
2. Spread Time Out
Scheduling study time is a good start for improving time management skills. However, it is not the only thing that can help children with their schoolwork.
Not only do you want to schedule the time, but you also want to ensure that the time line is doable. Essentially, you do not want children doing all of their studying atone time. If they do this, they risk getting burned out and not processing all of the information correctly.
For example, let's say that the child has to do five hours of studying to prepare for an upcoming exam. Their original strategy might be to wait until the last minute and do all five hours the night before the exam.
This is the wrong way to go about it. You want to spread that time out to where it is more manageable. So instead, spend one hour per night studying for five nights leading up to the exam.
It allows a child to process the information better and helps break up the task so that studying does not feel like a big task.
3. Set Goals
The next thing you have to do once you have your time scheduled is set goals on what you want to accomplish in that time. Again, it is essential to do this so that a child knows exactly what they should achieve during this study hour.
For example, let's say that they are preparing for the NAPLAN exam and are tackling studying for it one subject at a time. They may want to study as much of what they think will be in the Reading section as possible.
The child should write down what they want to accomplish and then focus that time on that goal. It is an extra step of the organisation that they can take and set goals can help make a child feel like they are achieving something at every step.
4. Avoid Over scheduling
One thing that you need to keep in mind is that a child can be over scheduled. When that happens, they can get overwhelmed, feel burnt out, and not accomplish what they want to do correctly.
This is different from spreading time around because you need to make sure that a child does not have too many tasks to do in the first place.
For younger children, this can happen when they are involved in too many extracurricular activities. Things like dance class, math club, and even drama club can take up a lot of time, not leaving as much time for homework or studying.
Older kids may have a job that they work after school for a few hours per week. While it can make them money, it may take away time for studying.
Make sure children know what their priorities are and try to avoid over extending.
5. Plan Free Time
Finally, while studying and doing homework are essential, do not make them the only things children focus on. At the end of the day, they are still children, and they should have time to just play.
People in Australia spend over five hours per day solely on leisure activities. There is no reason that children should not be able to do the same. Make sure they have this time and allow them to clear their minds.
Learn More Time Management Techniques
These five-time management techniques you can use to help your children better prepare for exams, schoolwork, and life in general. Set goals with study time and put them on a schedule.
Also, remember to set goals with time spent on schoolwork, do not over schedule with other activities, and plan some time just for leisure.
Do you want to know more? Send us a message today for some answers.
