When my daughter was in high school, I remember feeling panicked as the start of the school year loomed and we realized she had no idea how to manage her homework. She would flit from task to task with no real deadline and then be stressed and overwhelmed when all of her assignments were due at midnight on a Thursday. Those first few years were hard, but now that my daughter is out of school (and thriving!), I can look back and see what worked for her when it came to managing her responsibilities. As parents, we all want our kids to succeed in life, whether it’s with their studies or once they’re adults and trying to balance work and family responsibilities. Helping your teenager get organized now will give them experiences that will serve them well for the rest of their lives.
Set up a homework station
The first thing to do is set up a homework station. This is a place where your teenager can study, do their homework, and get it done on time. There are many things that go into setting up a good homework station: It needs to be in a quiet, comfortable place that allows for good lighting and easy access to the kitchen and bathroom (for snacks or bathroom breaks).
Setting up a calendar of events for each day—including when assignments are due—is also important. You can use this calendar as the central hub of information about school-related activities going on during the week so you’ll know what days will be more difficult than others.
Finally, make sure your teenager has access to all necessary supplies at their fingertips as well as an organized notebook they can take with them wherever they go throughout the day so they’re never caught off guard by unexpected questions from classmates or teachers during class time.”
Create a chore chart
Create a chore chart. You can use this tool to help your teen build self-discipline, and the chart will also give them an incentive to complete their tasks on time. Create spaces for each day of the week, and post it in a visible place so everyone in the family can see it.
When creating your chore chart, make sure that the chores are age-appropriate; if they’re too hard or too easy, then no one wins! Also, consider how often you want each assignment done (weekly? daily? monthly?).
You may want to give your teenager some say in which assignments they choose—but be careful not to let them choose all of them! If they’re doing too much around the house without any encouragement from parents like us parents would do because we love our children very much—they might get bored with what they have accomplished already after spending hours cleaning up after themselves just because we asked them nicely one time about these behaviors when things got out of hand back then when we were still young parents living life as best we could before raising kids became our biggest priority!
Encourage your teen to keep a planner
The best way to teach your teen the value of time management is by encouraging them to keep a planner. The planner should be an actual notebook, not a digital one. A physical planner helps young adults use their time more efficiently and effectively than if they were working off a computer or phone app.
If you want your teen to develop good habits around planning and tracking tasks, projects, goals, and other activities in their life then it’s important that they get used to using their planner regularly from an early age. You can help by providing them with some guidance when it comes to creating plans for various aspects of their life like school work, hobbies or social activities so that they always know what needs doing next!
Establish and enforce curfews
The first step in teaching your teen to manage time is to establish a curfew. A curfew is a time at which your child should be home, safely tucked in the arms of their parents.
In order for curfews to be effective, it’s important that you and your teen have a mutual understanding of what “safely tucked in” means. This will vary depending on who you are (adults tend to interpret this as “in bed asleep” while teens mean “watching Netflix quietly”), but it also depends on what activities they’re doing that night. If they’re playing video games or soccer with friends, then it may not make sense for them to come home early every night—the goal is just that they return by a reasonable hour so they can get enough sleep before school the next day.
In order for this system to work effectively with all involved parties (parents, teens, and friends), it needs to be clear about the consequences of breaking curfew: if your kid comes home late one night without calling ahead first (or worse yet—if he’s drunk), there should be consequences; otherwise, everyone will stop taking curfews seriously and make excuses instead of following the rules!
Make sleep a priority
The most important thing to keep in mind when setting your teen’s sleep schedule is that they need a lot of it. Teens should be getting eight hours of sleep each night, which means falling asleep by 10 or 11 PM and waking up between 6 and 8 AM. It’s also important to keep your teen’s bedtime routine consistent; this helps establish healthy habits for them as they grow older.
If your teenager has trouble falling asleep, try to optimize their sleeping environment with cool temperatures, soothing noise, and blackout curtains. And if they have trouble getting up in time for school? Make sure they set their alarm clock across the room from their bed so they have to get up to turn it off!
Limit phone time in the evenings
Teenagers are experts at convincing you that they have one last thing to do before bed, and then they’re up watching videos or scrolling social media on their phone until 2 a.m., which leaves them cranky and tired the next day. A better strategy is to set a specific time for when your teen should stop using her phone each evening, and make sure it’s out of reach from then on. This will help ensure that they don’t sneak in last-minute social media or YouTube sessions while they think you aren’t looking. You might consider adding this rule as part of an overall plan (such as “no phones after 9 p.m.”), but don’t feel like you need to keep track of every single infraction—the key is making sure there aren’t too many of them!
Helping your adolescent organize and manage their time will ensure they have the best chance to succeed in school and life
As a parent, you want your child to succeed in life. This means preparing them for the world by helping them develop skills that will allow them to be successful as an adult. One of those important skills is time management.
You may think this is a skill that does not have much relevance or value in today’s digital world, but nothing could be further from the truth! Today more than ever before, we have access to information at our fingertips and can do so many different things with it—so much so that time management has become essential for success both in school and life after graduation.
If you don’t teach your teen these basic principles now, they’ll end up struggling through college without knowing how to manage their schedule effectively or prioritize tasks while also working toward their career goals.
Time is on your side
If your teenager is struggling with poor time management, don’t fret. Helping your teen learn how to manage their time more effectively can be as easy as setting up a study station and encouraging them to keep a planner. With a little effort, you can help turn your teen into the master of their schedule in no time!