Six Tips for Managing Your Children’s Time

The coronavirus is having a disturbing impact around the world. It is affecting many school-aged children and adolescents who for the obvious reasons have no experience in studying online and digitalized lessons. The coronavirus has also shattered families’ routines and how parents manage their children’s homework and school life.

Studying online during sheltering in place

Source: Julia Cameron/Pexels

Thus, in these times of isolation and shelter in place, one of the most valuable skills you can have as a parent/guardian is effective time management. The better you help your child to manage their time, the easier it is for them to achieve their goals. And the easier it is for you to have less stress about how this school year will impact your child’s academic performance and overall emotional well-being. Here are six tips for managing your children’s time.

1. Take some time during the weekend to sit down with your child and discuss the upcoming week. Use a calendar to plan daily and weekly assignments and tasks. Use a time-tracking method to help your child get a sense of how long each assignment or homework truly takes versus how long they think it will take to finish that assignment. After that understanding is established, note the number of hours estimated to finish each task. And place each task based on priority and time.
   • Assignment due dates: Drafts and final submissions
   • Online meet-up times
   • Virtual meeting hours with teachers
2. Use a planner every night to update the calendar with assignments and To-Do list for the next day. Write down a list of the things they need to get done the following day. Organize their tasks in order of importance, putting the more important tasks first. Assign a specific time of day to finish each task. Use a checklist to cross off each task when they complete it.
3. Create a comfortable space with the right lighting for your child to work in. Have them sit in a comfortable chair and put their phones away while studying.
4. Use the Pomodoro Method to help your child with their productivity and efficiency working on 25-minute work sessions. This method will help them to optimize their time and focus on their online studies without the presence of a teacher. The best way to use this method is to:
   • Set a timer for 25 minutes of uninterrupted studying time.
   • Allow them to take a five-minute break to do something else.
   • Once they have completed four work sessions. They can take a longer, 15-minute break.
5. Make sure they get a good night of sleep. Some children and adolescents are treating the shelter in place like the holidays, sleeping late and waking up late. Encourage and help them to get 8-10 hours of sleep a night. And their bedtime during the shelter in place should remain the same as when they attended school in person.
6. It’s important to reward your child. You can simply praise your child, or you can celebrate their accomplishment on time management by doing a fun activity together, whether that’s watching a movie or playing a board or video game. Let them know that you are seeing their hard work.

These time management techniques can help your children who feel distracted and overwhelmed to focus on what matters, their physical and mental health alongside their academic lives. In addition, effective time management will not only help with their learning but can also help them to be more productive in the long run.