How does a teenager understand time?

Currently, parents of teenagers are more and more often wondering how to increase the independence and resourcefulness of their own children. Nowadays, they face the difficult task of keeping an eye on a teenager's time, both when he is at school and when he is doing homework. Parents also have to organize extra-curricular activities and screen time when a young adult communicates with his peers via social media. Parents, when observing what teenagers do in their spare time, often have a different approach to their children's time use.

In this article, we will try to answer the question of how to start goal planning and time management in our homes. Especially in those where there is a teenager among the household members. The text will introduce considerations on how we can effectively support time management methods for our children, also as students. We will also consider what our teenager's needs in relation to spending free time are.

What teenagers do in their spare time?

Free time is the time devoted to all activities that we devote to because of some need, e.g.

• rest;
• entertainment;
• discovering the world;
• as well as participation in social life apart from professional and school duties.

Especially in the case of adolescents, it seems that the most important need is the need for a relationship, participation in a peer group.

It is important for the proper social and emotional development of a child to meet other needs in a group of people of a similar age. Hence the idea of ​​dividing into age groups in educational institutions.

Time management methods and the upbringing of children

The degree of free time organization among adolescents, as a rule, varies greatly and depends mainly on how their parents contribute to the development of knowledge about methods of managing time spent by the family. Therefore, our child may often use phrases such as: Maja can spend time at the computer until 2 a.m. and I can't. However, we have no influence on the parents of our children's friends and the role models their children get.

The only thing we have influence as parents is relationships with our children and the moments we spend with themto accompany you in discovering the world and the rules that govern it. One of them is undoubtedly time. In the following paragraphs, we will try to present a few important assumptions that should be followed in order to carefully and effectively organize the time for learning and free time of our teenagers. We will also suggest examples of time management techniques.

Planning goals and time management: what do we need to know before we start planning?

Science goal planning and time management it is a difficult issue that not only adolescents, but also adults cannot cope with. Planning goals requires taking into account the fact that a certain number of activities that we are able to perform may fit in a small period of time.

Especially teenagers who do not yet have to control many household duties, having more freedom in managing time, may have difficulty understanding that we - adults may not have enough time for many tasks that we would like to include, e.g. driving a teenager to a concert his idol, in another city, during the week. This is why the process of planning goals and time management is often also learning to face failure and disappointment for our children.

Time management for students

Example: time management for students while learning material from the textbook

If a child reads 10 pages per hour on average, and during the learning process notices that half of the time spent on learning is "melting" and "running out", it is worth considering how much time is really needed. If the child is to learn 30 pages of the textbook, he should reserve the time counted in action: 2 × (number of pages: 10). In this way, the child will be able to monitor the effectiveness of the time he uses. If your child completes the pages in less than the expected time, we can congratulate him on his success.

Time management techniques

Both adults and children feel much safer when they can function on a constant and recurring schedule of the day. It is important due to our needs such as:

• self-efficacy;
• self-determination;
• and development.

Thanks to time planning, we have a sense of having an impact on what is happening around us.

Examples of time management methods

One way to teach planning is to teach action patterns and activity planning. One of the most used time management methods for teenagers, there is a "circular plan of the day".

The circular plan of the day 

This method teaches young adults to do one thing at a time to prevent an action from starting until the child has finished the previous one. The name of this time management method also suggests that many of the events of the day plan will repeat itself, which can be seen when locating the events on the hourly circle of the day.

Home graphic designer

Another, equally important among management methods partthe ace is the home artist. It's a good idea for the whole family to make plans with each other for the coming week, right before it starts. This method is an excellent training to shape the child's sense of responsibility for the course of his own time, as well as effective techniques of coping with interpersonal contacts: taking into account the needs of others, observing the effectiveness of one's own actions for the benefit of the household members.

In the schedule of the day, family members can share their regular duties - the times of their pet's walks, cleaning, and shopping. A day plan in the form of a schedule will also work as a plan for time management for studentsbecause children going to school will be able to learn that in addition to their timetable, they can also organize other activities, thanks to which they gain, for example, more free time.

Not only science, but also relationships and emotions

When teaching a teenager good habits and patterns of action, we must remember that this is a task that requires a lot of dedication on our part, i.e. parents. Especially at the very beginning, when we decide to choose an effective method of supporting children. We must take into account the fact that a lot of time should be set aside to monitor the progress of our child. We should also be prepared for the moments when the teenager, however, will need our help.

Do not fall into the trap of being perfect, that is, constantly raise the bar for your child, e.g. Today you went smoothly with our plan, so why not catch up on next week's nature material. We should also not give the child extra responsibilities when we see that he is already coping with his own schedule of the day.

Time management techniques and conscious rest

When working with the time management methods described above, it is also important to plan time for conscious rest - both ours and our children. If we don't, we may fall into the trap of procrastination - that is, the tendency to procrastinate in taking some action to gain some respite. In fact, however, we do not rest mentally, because we are constantly aware in our head that obligations await us.

The second important thing becomes planning time spent together with our teenager. The free time that we spend with our child gives him the opportunity to feel positive attention from the parent. During the time spent together, we should be open to the teenager's suggestions and observations. In this way, we allow our child to show us what teenagers do in their free time, and even partially take control of the time spent together.

Source:
Kołakowski A., Pisula A. (2022) A way for a difficult child. Friendly behavior therapy. GWP publishing house