You Against the
Clock
How to manage your time.
by Bill Spring
TWEENS
& TEENS News January 2007
Time. No matter how much of it you think
you have, it always seems to be running out.
That big science project that you had weeks
to work on? It’s due tomorrow morning.
The soccer game you still haven’t found
your uniform for? It starts in five minutes!
If the days seem too short to do everything
you have to, or if you’re constantly
rushing to get things done at the last minute,
you need some solutions for managing your
time.
Time management means that you:
•Consider everything you have to do
and want to do.
•Understand how much time each activity
takes in a day.
•Make a plan that helps you get through
the day, week or month without running around
like a total wacko.
If you can do all this, chances are you’ll
tame the time tiger, reduce your stress levels
and lead a happier life.
Have To and Want To
A good way to get started is to categorize
everything you intend on doing as either a
“have to” or “want to.”
A “have to” is what you need to
get done, whether you like it or not. These
activities include family responsibilities,
household chores, school assignments and tasks
related to your daily needs, such as eating,
bathing, dressing and sleeping.
A “want to” is what makes your
life enjoyable and fun, but which could, if
push comes to shove, be put off until another
day. These activities typically involve things
like sports, games, hobbies, TV, music, hangout
time with friends or just chill time by yourself.
Time Budgets
After you’ve figured out everything
you have to do versus want to do, it’s
time to budget your time. This means figuring
what things you “spend” your time
on, and how much time you spend doing different
things. You only have 24 hours in a day—
spend those hours wisely. Start by:
•Figuring out how much time each activity
or assignment takes.
•Working out a plan that lets you spend
the right amount of minutes or hours on each
task or activity.
Making a budget is as simple as considering
all the hours in a day, and determining about
how many hours (what portion of the day) it
takes to do each activity you plan on doing.
First off, it’s smart to subtract the
hours you’ll spend asleep (let’s
say eight hours), and the hours you spend
in school (let’s say seven hours). Therefore,
in a typical weekday, you’ve got nine
hours left to spend.
The next step is to list everything you need
and want to do. Estimate the time each thing
will take, and then add up the hours to see
if you have enough time in the day to do your
chores and activities. You might need 15 minutes
to walk the dog, 45 minutes to eat dinner
with your family, two hours to finish your
homework. Remember to be honest with yourself
about how much time each task takes. If studying
for a chemistry quiz takes a half hour, don’t
tell yourself that you can study in ten minutes.
What happens if you add everything up, and
the hours needed surpass all of the hours
in one day? Well, then it’s time to
sort out your priorities.
Priorities
If your time budget tells you that you don’t
have enough time to do everything on your
list, you must prioritize your activities.
This means putting them in order, starting
with the most important or most urgent, and
ending with the least important or least urgent.
With each activity, ask yourself:
•Is it important? Do I absolutely need
to do this?
•Is it urgent? Does it have to be done
right away?
If something is both important and urgent,
it should be a top priority. Things that are
important, but not urgent, should come next.
Things that aren’t important or urgent
go to the bottom, or get cut from the list
entirely. Remember: When you’re in a
time crunch, you should be cutting out your
“want tos,” and focusing on your
“have tos.”
Schedules and Planners
The real key to being a great time manager
is putting everything on paper (or on your
computer) in a way that’s easy to understand.
When used correctly, schedules, planners and
calendars help you take control of your time,
making you feel as if you have more hours
in a day.
For a daily schedule, take a sheet of paper
and divide it into half-hour blocks that add
up to your available hours. If you have nine
hours, you’ll need 18 blocks. You could
draw this as squares in a grid or as wedge-shaped
slices of a circle. Label each section with
the half hour it represents, like 5pm, 5:30pm,
and so on. Then start blocking off time for
the things you need to do, beginning with
the things that happen at the same time each
day. Once all your “have tos”
are filled in, you can look for open slots
for your “want tos.”
A completed daily schedule sheet lets you
look at your day to see how you are spending
your time. It’s also a great way to
remind yourself of what needs to get done.
A weekly planner shows you the entire week
on one or two pages. Under the day and date,
there should be lines representing each hour,
so you can write in what you need to accomplish
in a certain hour of a certain day. For example,
if you know that soccer practice is on Tuesday
at 5pm, write “soccer practice”
on the line labeled 5pm. If this means that
you won’t have enough time on Tuesday
to study for Wednesday’s math test,
then write in your studying time for Monday
night instead. Planners give you a quick view
of what your week looks like so you can plan
ahead and shift things around.
Monthly calendars also give you an overview
of your time, and are great for marking down
the deadlines of big projects. For example,
if a midterm project like an oral report in
history class takes place on May 1, circle
and label that day on the calendar page, or
use a big sticker so you can’t miss
it. For labeling, write why the date is important.
Weekly planners and monthly calendars also
help you chop the time it takes you to complete
big projects into smaller amounts of time.
Plus, they let you chart your progress on
long-term goals. For example, if you have
a book report due in a week, you can read
for an hour every night, rather than read
for five hours on the night before the report
is due. If you’re building a skateboard
ramp with friends, you could work on the ramp
for a few hours every Saturday for a month,
instead of spending one whole day on it.
If your schedule controls you, instead of
the other way around, accomplishing things
on time and finding time for yourself can
seem impossible. But by using these strategies
as part of an overall plan for time management,
you can get a handle on your days, weeks and
months in almost no time at all!
Bill Spring is a freelance writer and
the senior editor of It’s My Life, the
award-winning PBS Kids Web site for tweens.
To find out more about time management and
dozens of other topics, visit www.pbskids.org/itsmylife.
