I was once invited to give a talk on time management to a group of incoming freshmen participating in my school’s newly organized orientation camp in July 2012. Time management is one of the realistic issues to discuss with teenagers although there has long been an existing problem on habitual tardiness in submitting homework, or projects. What might be the root of this? Might it be that a student has a lot of deadlines to meet? Might it be that, in particular, a student doesn’t have enough resources to utilize and that he or she should take time in collating everything needed at a certain circumstance. My last assumption is for the benefit of the doubt, knowing that a teacher has always a time frame or an allowance before closing the date of “handing in”.
To teach time management to students is crucial because of a habit formed. This habit is called procrastination which is like an incurable disease that is strongly and massively distributed from one society to another. It is a virus that terminates every opportunity for an individual. There are those who have become totally devastated because they have missed the bus when going for a work interview. There are also those who have failed in a board examination due to late appearance at the testing room. The worst thing is that there are those who have just missed a minute and have lost the chance of recognition. All these situations must be fully emphasized when teaching children and when they are ready to pursue a greater level of education. Promptness or punctuality is a value caught rather than taught.
Time management is an important skill to hone among students especially when they reach college level. In high school, teachers have put more effort on providing what the students need including a structured class schedule for all. However, in college or university, the students own their time and therefore, they must know how to allocate their time wisely and how to prioritize the activities that they need to do; otherwise, they will end up cramming most of the time and will fail to produce good outcomes.
Now, in my point of view, let me share with you some simple and functional tips on how to encourage your students to use their time efficiently and effectively. If you, as teachers, are imposing such kind of time discipline, you need to practice it religiously. (1) Be on time. Don’t break the rule in order for you to establish credibility. Credible teachers are regarded as role models of students. (2) Mean what you say and say what you mean. If you say that you’ll give incentives to punctual submission of project/homework, you must close your eyes and give what is due to them. (3) Use positive motivation rather than employing negative measures such as deduction from points and punishment. Psychologically, students always think of something advantageous for them like earning more scores rather than losing some. (4) Appreciate them when they show positive behavior or quality project. It inspires the students to show the best part of themselves. (5) Teach them how to do listing of activities according to their degree of importance and deadlines. (6) Introduce to them the Gantt chart, a tabulated illustration of schedule to begin and to finish projects/homework.
In the workshop that I conducted, I asked the students to organize their activities through a “list of routines” and after that they developed their Gantt chart after a task was given to them.
Therefore, teachers, do you take the challenge
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