In a day, there are 24 hours and 525,600 minutes, and this goes for everyone. If everyone has the same amount of time in a day, then how come people feel they have no time?
The answer is that they do not know how to manage their lives. Managing your life is the same as utilizing your time to the fullest, since we use time to measure our lives. However, if adults have a hard time learning it, then it is much harder for children, who perceive time differently. Despite this, it is still important to teach them how to manage their lives. After all, it is a skill they need to learn so, here are some simple tips on how to teach life management to kids.
Help Them Plan Their Schedule
The first thing you, dear parents, can do to teach the kids proper life management is to help them plan their schedule. This is because they have 14 or so hours spent awake, and each hour needs to be properly managed. Make sure they have the time to eat, a time to play, either indoors or outdoors, to read, and even to play board games with the family. After all, Ecclesiastes reminds us that there is a time for everything under heaven.
Invest in a Good Planner
Another thing you can do to teach the kids how to manage their lives is to invest in a quality planner. All the kids need to do (or you, if your kids are preschoolers) is to jot down their deadlines. This is because writing was invented to make it easier to remember things, so writing things down creates a permanent record (provided the implement is not erasable). However, writing by hand is still best, especially when plotting down deadlines, due to muscle memory. Please, make sure the kids learn the value of deadlines early on, for, trust me, missing a deadline is not good. It happened to me a couple of times, and the consequences were not nice.
Teach Them How to Strategize
A third thing you can do to teach the kids how to manage their lives is to teach them how to strategize. A fun way to do this is to play Game of the Generals, since you need to expertly manage your army in order to win the game. In this aspect, it is better than chess because the arrangement of the pieces is up to you. So it is with life, for we decide how we arrange our activities and priorities. However, everyone needs to know how to arrange things perfectly so all commitments are fulfilled, especially the kids.
Inculcate in Them the Habit of Doing a Little Work, Everyday
Finally, if the kids have multiple major requirements in school, teach them how to do a little work, everyday, so they can finish on time and avoid cramming. As soon as the assignment is given, and there is a go signal to start, then help them to do a small part of the project, every day. However, if they feel more productive, then they can do more. Just make sure they do at least a little something everyday, to avoid burnout, which is the result of poor life management.
Start Them Young
In the end, it is important to start teaching children how to manage their lives while young, for they can easily develop new habits in this stage. Sure, it is possible to keep learning when old, but it is harder. So, start them young, so they can set their priorities and goals straight before life dumps its trash on them.