Best ways to boost your child’s time management skills

Time is a non-renewable resource. So, it needs to be managed efficiently. Time management is an essential skill that parents need to inculcate in their kids in the initial years of life. Apart from making them more disciplined, timely completion of tasks will eliminate stress and boost their confidence while leaving children with more time to play, pursue hobbies and extracurricular activities. Moreover, mastering time management at an early age will go a long way in helping your little one grow up into a successful leader.  Here is how you can inculcate this skill in him.  

Help your child prioritise 
Prioritisation is something that even adults struggle with. So, it is essential to help your child imbibe this skill quite early on. The first step would be to help her differentiate between ‘must-do' tasks and ‘can-do’ tasks. The next step would be to go over the time frame within which each task needs to be wrapped up. This will help her distinguish between the urgent ones and the ones that can wait. Now, sit together and prepare to-do-list based on the deadline. Make sure that all the activities have specific time slots allocated to them. However, allowing some flexibility is necessary. While some children may be comfortable in starting their day with an easy task, others may prefer to take the tough ones first. Start with setting up daily priorities and then gradually move on to long-term (weekly or monthly) goals.  

Teach him to set goals  
Goal setting is essential for successful time management. Having log and shot-term goals benefit students in more ways than one. While completing a school project within a given time frame may be the short-term goal, pursuing music, painting or a hobby can be the long-term goal. Having a vision of what he wants to do in the near and distant future will help your child plan and prioritise better.  

Encourage your child to be organised 
Once the goals and priorities are set, it is important to have a plan in place to accomplish them. Successful implementation of a plan needs a lot of organisation. Children mostly do not have this skill. The best way to help your child be organised is to create a calendar for him. This can be a weekly calendar broken down by tasks including school assignments, screen time, play time and any other activity. Involve your child in this process and incorporate his preferences in the schedule. That way, he will feel the urge to follow it. Encourage your child to add more tasks and tick off the completed ones. Seeing the tick mark on the calendar will instil a sense of accomplishment while keeping him motivated to do more. 

Be strict about the timelines 
Your child has just begun to learn time management techniques. At the initial stage, it is essential to be strict about deadlines so that sticking to the schedule becomes your child’s habit. Be it a school assignment or any other activity that your child loves, make sure that she doesn’t overrule the time allocated for it. Even a slight deviation during the early phase of learning time management may make the her whole schedule go haywire.  

Keep it fun  
Well, it is necessary to maintain strict discipline while it comes to time management. However, going overboard on it may demotivate kids. Allow some flexibility and make time management fun. Appreciate their achievements with rewards and encourage them to use colourful stickers to mark they complete everything on time. Turning a time-consuming chore into a family competition can also be fun.