Parenting #6 – Time management

Time is a limited resource and cannot be created. Everybody has 24 hours. It is the only resource which is equal for everybody. It is up to us to decide how to utilize those 24 hours.

We have to teach our child to respect other people’s time and be punctual. When we adhere to the time committed to someone, then we are teaching our child to have a time discipline. This also helps in planning and scheduling our own activities.

Drawing up calendars and schedules helps the child to manage her time more effectively. Some amount of time discipline comes to the child from school where classes are scheduled for a time period and she has to be prepared for the class.

We can help our child in setting up a schedule by sitting along with her to understand what she wants to do with her time. The activities may include playing outdoors or indoors, engaging in some hobby, watching TV or reading apart from the routine activities like eating, bathing, studying or sleeping.

Teaching your child to prioritise goes a long way in helping the child manage her time better. In fact, prioritising is a life skill.

Procrastination causes much damage to our time management. But it has to be noted that some children (and even grow up so) can work best under pressure. Procrastinating puts a time pressure on them and they perform very well. We have to lookout for the instances when procrastinating is done due to reasons like laziness or that someone else will handle the situation for them. The perils of procrastination have to be explained.

Time management is skill that most grown up adults struggle to deal with. Teaching our children to handle their time at young age will set a strong foundation for them.