The transition from middle school to high school, and then later to college, usually comes with a jump in academic rigor, but it also comes with something else. Students need to become more adept at managing their workload and their time. Their planning skills need to improve, and for many students this is as much or even more of a challenge that than the increased academic workload.
An interview with time management experts Laura Vanderkam and Sarah Hart-Unger, MD
Grown and Flown asked two of the best known experts on time and task management, how they would help teens to successfully make this transition. Here is what Laura Vanderkam and Sarah Hart-Unger, MD, co-hosts of Best of Both Worlds podcast, suggest:
A calendar is key for time management
For a teen who has trouble remembering time commitments, appointments, and due dates what tools do you suggest that might keep him on track?
LV: This is what calendars were invented for! The actual format of the calendar doesn’t matter so much, though there are a few considerations. It needs to be portable, so the teen can take it to/from classes/activities/work/home etc. It can certainly be electronic, but the teen needs to be able to access it, so if he/she can’t use a phone at school then that’s something to consider (though usually you could synch with a laptop).
The most important aspect of the calendar is the behavior of the person who uses it. The person needs to do three things:
*Commit to putting commitments/appointments/due dates on the calendar as soon as she learns about them.
*Do a weekly review where she looks at what is coming up in the next week in particular, with a quick glance forward to the next few weeks. This helps people plan for longer term projects and allows people to solve logistical problems ahead of time.
*Each day, look at the calendar to know what the day’s landscape will be.
Planning is a skill, and while some people grasp it intuitively, most people need at least a little instruction here. You might start helping kids in middle school to write dates on a paper calendar, and then they can start to refine the system over time.
SHU: I interviewed an absolute rock star of a high schooler (Aashna Shah — pageant winner, published author, and honors student – at 16!) who swore by her paper planner. She is also a disabilities advocate who has ADHD. I think that for those with attention issues or who find themselves easily distractible, paper may be the best option. There are so many layouts to choose from, and some brands are particularly popular with teens (Passion Planner, Clever Fox, and Amanda Rach Lee come to mind).
Agree that the important thing to any planner user regardless of age is consistency and developing the habit of capturing any future to-do item or calendar engagement. It’s also important to develop rituals of looking at said planner (or digital tool) on a regular basis, such as a daily overview to set priorities and a more detailed weekly session. Doing these things alongside your teen models the practices and you may find yourself more organized as a result!
Many teens misjudge how much time a task will take, like a homework assignment or group project, and find themselves staying up late or asking teachers for more time. How can teens better manage their schedules and assess their time commitments in an organized way?
LV: It isn’t just teens who have trouble with time estimation! It’s a challenging skill. There are adults who have driven 30 minutes somewhere, day after day, and continue to believe it’s a 15-minute drive and it’s just bad luck that they’re late again.
If you help kids establish the concept of a weekly review, they will at least see if something big is due in the next week, and not become aware of it just the day before. You can have conversations about building in a buffer in case something goes wrong. If a teen mentions planning to write a report that’s due Friday on Thursday you might casually mention “oh, what if that turns out to be the date that everyone wants to go see that movie?” It’s just nudging people to think through scenarios.
In my house, the teens have set hours that they have to be in their rooms with no entertainment electronics. If you don’t have school work you can read or relax or whatever, but because the built in time is there, I find it nudges kids to spend a little extra time on things than they might have otherwise. Once kids go out on their own, you obviously have no way to enforce this, but you might encourage thinking through a schedule and blocking out study hours as a good practice for staying on top of things.
SHU: Keeping some sort of big and prominent reminder of big multi-step projects – perhaps on a whiteboard where the teen works – could be really helpful and if there is enough space, could be used as a place to map out the various steps. Breaking down a daunting project and determining intermediate due dates for various pieces might be necessary if the student has struggled in the past with an impossible task due to having no real timeline. Totally agree that this skill set is difficult for all of us!
Time management tips for college students
For the college freshman, who is off the family calendar and keeping their own planner, what should they look for when buying a new planner?
For anyone looking to buy a paper planner, the main constraints are size, layout (daily vs weekly; days in columns vs horizontal; whether there is extra space needed for notes), and also style. Some people prefer to keep calendars digitally but still need a planner to help with list making and goal setting. Some popular brands are listed above; I’ll also note that for those wanting a less traditionally-feminine-appearing product, some of the international brands (especially Japanese / Korean / Taiwanese) have much more minimal and understated styles.
College students have far more fluid schedules than high school students, do you have any time management tips to help them when they make this transition to less class time, and less formal schedule of bedtimes and activities?
LV: I actually find it’s really helpful to picture the whole week with its various time commitments (a week is the “unit of repeat” in the pattern of our lives). You can download a 168 hour spreadsheet from my website, or you can create your own. Put the days of the week across the top, Monday to Sunday, and half hour blocks down the left hand side. I go from 5 a.m. to 4:30 a.m. but if you never wake up before 8 a.m. feel free to adjust!
Then block in classes so you see when lectures, discussion groups, and labs meet. You might then note any activities you’re planning to commit to, and you can block in meals if your dining hall is only open at certain times. You should also aim to block in approximately 2 hours of studying per hour of class, though you can adjust that over time based on what requires more or less intensity. I’m not saying you have to follow this schedule exactly but it helps to see that hey, my schedule feels more in control if I do manage to study for 3-4 hours at some point on Sundays, so I can try to prioritize that.
As for bedtime…it’s a good idea! Yes, as an adult you can go to bed whenever you want and stay up all night if you wish. But most of us are vastly more productive if we get the amount of sleep we need every night and if we don’t move our sleep/wake times by more than an hour or so.
For a lot of college students, it would work fine to sleep from 12 a.m. to 7:30/8 a.m. during the week and from 1 a.m. to 9 a.m. or so on weekends, but that’s just a suggestion. Feel free to choose whatever time works for you, but the important thing is to have a default bedtime. That way, you are making a conscious choice if you decide to blow through it. If you don’t have a good reason to stay up, then you can just go to bed and feel much better the next morning.
I also love the idea of setting standard ‘work hours’ in college — something I absolutely did NOT do as a student, but I’ve been fascinated to hear Cal Newport talk about this concept. His premise is that if one is very organized and proactive, most college workloads can be completed at a high level during business hours leaving the weekend more open for recreation and fun. Again — I cannot vouch for this personally, but it’s an interesting thing to try to shoot for!
What are some of the best time management techniques that parents can model for their teens and how do they impart those lessons without the dreaded lecture that teens tune out?
LV: I think it’s helpful simply to talk about your own practices — not that they’re what everyone should do, but it’s helpful to explain why you’ve decided on certain strategies. I tell my kids that my bedtime is 11 p.m. because I have to be up at 6:30 with them. And then I stick with it unless I have a really good reason not to. I talk about planning out larger projects like my books, and how I break it down into smaller chunks and set intermediate goals, always building in a buffer in case things go wrong.
If a child seems to be struggling, and they’re open to talking with you about it, definitely resist the urge to lecture (do not come charging in with “Well, I was a straight A student because I did X, Y, and Z.”). Ask them what they’re considering and you can talk about what they see as the advantages and disadvantages of each strategy. Ask leading questions. It’s the Socratic method of parenting.
Time management tips for high school students
What are the best tools or techniques that parents can share with high school students who feel time constrained and like they “can’t get it all done?”
LV: When kids express that they can’t get it all done, they are probably looking for empathy and support. Yes, you have a lot going on! And yes, I also know that you are a competent, capable person, and you will manage it with aplomb. Past that, I know that a sense of overwhelm often stems from not knowing exactly what you do have coming up, when it needs to be done, and how long it will take. So as much as possible, encourage teens to get these matters out of their heads and onto lists. An unknown, imagined to-do list is just scary. A long list can be managed.
Also, the less time you have your phone on, the more time you seem to have. Just speaking from personal experience here!
SHU: Yes, I would probably urge them to consult the Screen Time app! Sometimes kids also just put too much on their plate and may need permission to let something go. The ideal week exercise Laura mentioned above could be very useful here – if the pieces truly do not fit (including sleep!) an edit may be necessary.
More Great Reading:
Executive Function: How to Help College Kids Who Struggle
About Sarah Hunt Unger and Laura Vanderkam
Sarah Hunt Unger is a pediatric endocrinologist who she posts almost daily on her personal blog and is a prolific podcaster – solo host of Best Laid Plans (all things planning and planning adjacent) and co-host with Laura Vanderkam of the Best of Both Worlds podcast (balancing work/life/fun, time management, and career development).
She has also recently launched her own planning platform! In addition to the Best Laid Plans podcast, she offers courses through Best Laid Plans Academy. She publishes a monthly newsletter, is a long-distance runner, and a married mother of three.
Laura Vanderkam is the author and mother of five. She has written several time management books including Tranquility by Tuesday: 9 Ways to Calm the Chaos and Make Time for What Matters, published by Penguin Random House (2022.). Receive a free time makeover guide by subscribing to her monthly newsletter here. Laura’s website is lauravanderkam.com and her podcast is Before Breakfast.