When kids move from primary to secondary school, workload increases, academic requirements become stricter and extra-curricular activities can be more demanding. At the same time, classes typically shift from one main teacher in a single classroom to a schedule rotating through many teachers, rooms and even separate buildings, leaving it to students to manage a much more complicated schedule.
As children leave behind an environment where parents and one trusted teacher often led the way, they are expected to take more responsibility for their performance in class and extra-curricular activities. This can be tricky to navigate in tandem with the onset of puberty, peer pressure and major shifts in their social circle. As they become aware of their growing independence, children in their pre-teen and early teenage years can swing awkwardly between the desire to be taken care of like a little kid and trusted to handle things for themselves like adults do.
Put it all together, and time management for kids starting secondary school can quickly feel overwhelming. But with a better understanding of adolescent development and age-appropriate organisation strategies, parents and caregivers can lessen the stress for everyone.
Signs your child is struggling with time management
If your child is struggling with organisation, this can be reflected in wider issues with what is known as “executive function” – the ability to manage time and attention. Practical issues such as a messy rucksack or homework planner are some of the red flags you might observe – but look out for less obvious signals, too. If your child appears generally stressed, whether verbally or physically, with regular unexplained symptoms, this could indicate difficulty keeping on top of things.
If you’re unsure whether it’s time to step in and help your child with time management and organisation, here are a few more red flags to consider:
- Missed assignments
- Homework your child seems to have no idea how to complete
- Finding no record of assignments written down anywhere
- Lower grades
- Staying up late to finish school work
- Avoiding school or certain classes
How brain development is linked to time management
Children starting secondary school are entering their second biggest period of rapid brain growth after early childhood. Between ages 10 and 15, children progress from concrete to abstract thinking – an important factor affecting time management and organisation. This relates to the ability to predict how what you do today will affect the outcomes of tomorrow.
While this notion may seem simple, it isn’t for a child in their pre-teen or early teenage years. In fact, it’s not until around age 12 or 13 that adolescents begin to be able to think abstractly and hypothetically – key elements of organisation skills. The lack of abstract thinking skills during the majority of the pre-teen and early teenage years is critical for caregivers to take into account when supporting children and young people. It’s important for adults to manage their own expectations of how capable their kids should be with regard to organisation and time management.
Time management tips for young teens
Finding the right strategies to help kids manage their time has less to do with navigating the specific demands of their school education and more to do with their developmental phase and particular needs. If they learn skills to equip them for the future, kids will move onto later, higher-stakes stages of education with the ability to understand their learning style, ask for help and manage their time in a way that suits their own specific organisational style.
Here are a few useful time management tips for kids starting secondary school.
1. Write down everything – yes, everything!
One of the simplest ways to reduce stress and overwhelm in early secondary school is with good old pen and paper. In a process known as “cognitive offloading”, kids are encouraged to make space in their heads by purging all the to-do lists, tasks and ideas on their mind onto paper, reducing the need for mental processing. Tackling the to-do lists they produce will give them an enjoyable dopamine hit from ticking off their achievements and empower them with the confidence to move on to more complex tasks.
2. Keep reminders visible
Some kids may do well with electronic reminders, but some may be better keeping their organisational systems offline to minimise distractions. To take reminders offline, buy them a monthly planner and teach them how to use it.
If a monthly planner is visually overwhelming, break it down further – i.e. by week – to create clearer visual reminders of tasks. If time management is still proving to be a challenge, it’s worthwhile having kids break it down even further to daily to-do lists that can be carried over to the next day.
3. Create a peer support group
Kids tend to overestimate how well they will remember material from class, so some may resist writing things down. If that’s the case with your child, it’s a good idea to get the names and numbers of at least two classmates for every class who they can call in case they are absent or simply have a question. Regular check-ins with teachers to make sure they’ve actually understood learning content or assignments can also be helpful for some students. External support and accountability can be instrumental in helping kids focus and achieve their best. Take the opportunity to help your child learn how to reach out and tap into that support network, rather than shaming them for needing assistance.
4. Identify big vs. small priorities
Students also tend to underestimate how much time it takes to complete a task, so they’re susceptible to running out of time or staying up too late to finish big assignments. Helping them learn to prioritise can ensure they get to the most important things first.
To help students identify top priorities, it’s a good idea for them to divide tasks into what they must, should and want to do. Must-dos like sleep and school take priority over should-dos like extra-curricular activities and want-tos like using social media, and a balanced day can make space for all of them in moderation if you start with the fundamentals. Understanding this approach is an aspect of executive reasoning, which is not intuitive to children at this age and stage of life, and may need a little explaining.
5. Schedule regular check-ins
With freedom comes responsibility, and as children get older, they may stop asking for help with things like homework – and parents may stop offering that support and supervision, no matter how counterintuitive it feels. A balance has to be struck, after all, between helping your child and facilitating their first steps to independence.
Parents always asking about schoolwork can add fuel to the fires of stress, acting as a source of reduced productivity. Rather than obsessively monitoring their child’s schoolwork or micro-managing their time, parents and caregivers can set aside a time once or twice a week to talk to their kids about how school is going and identify any potential problem areas. Getting on the same page at an early stage in a non-confrontational way can help prevent time management issues from spiralling in the long run.
6. Mark important dates on a family calendar
A shared physical or digital calendar can be a good way of promoting shared accountability as a family. Parents, siblings and other caregivers can help kids keep track of important due dates and events coming up. While some children respond well to digital reminders, checking things off on a wall planner can add a pleasing tactile and visual element to time management.
7. Put devices away
Research shows that kids who have their phone visible while they are trying to complete a task struggle much more to complete it. Keeping phones out of the way when kids are involved in important tasks – and out of the bedroom when they’re trying to get to sleep – can help minimise distraction and disruption that could throw their schedule out of whack.
It may be worthwhile placing rules on technology use in general, as children in this age group are particularly prone to addictive use of social media and games because of their strong social drive. While technology in itself is not a bad thing, without guidance, this may pose another obstacle for kids navigating the world of time management.
8. Break down long-term goals into small steps
An abstract deadline, like an essay due in two weeks, doesn’t mean much to a child starting secondary school. They’re likely not yet equipped with the capacity to take a task and split it into several steps to complete on different dates. Breaking down a big deadline or long-term preparations for a performance, sports game or audition into a sequence of smaller, specific steps can be the most helpful approach.
Experts recommend visualising a long-term goal as a ladder, for instance, with different rungs for different stages of a task. Step by step, little by little, your child can make their way to their destination – and enjoy the view.
9. Ask for help from other adults
Parents should feel empowered to enlist help from other adults to support their child. Due to their developmental stage, it’s normal for kids in early secondary school to feel shyer about sharing with their parents and to seek solace in peers and other trusted adults instead. Ask those people around them – teachers, coaches, advisors and anyone else who works with your child regularly – if they’ve picked up on any signals that your child is struggling.
No-one is an island – especially when it comes to raising a child entering the teenage years. Whichever subject they are teaching your child, or whichever activity or social interaction they’re involved in with them, chances are that the other adults in their lives are also teaching them executive functioning and organisation.
10. Work with your child’s personal strengths
If you suspect your child is having trouble staying organised, start by speaking to them. They may be experiencing feelings of stress or overwhelm without the ability to name them – and talking about it can help identify the exact areas that preoccupy them. From there, you can help them formulate a plan that works with their individual traits and needs.
Tapping into existing strengths can be a great way to sustain success with children in this age group. If your child is an outgoing social butterfly, enlisting their friends to help can be key to unlocking time management and organisation. Those who struggle socially among their peers might prefer to work with a teacher to plan their schedule and achieve what they need.
A final word on time management for teenagers and how you can help
No matter which strategy works best for your child, it’s important never to have an adversarial response to time management problems. Anger and conflict are not productive starting points for troubleshooting issues with kids – supporting them to develop skills in this area is much more helpful instead.
Ultimately, the early years of secondary school should be viewed as an opportunity to learn and practise time management in a way that is more low-stakes than the period leading up to major qualifications such as GCSEs and A-levels, National 5s and Highers.
Time management for teenagers and kids in early secondary school is an important aspect of development. While the transition away from relying on parents, teachers and caregivers to help them plan and manage time can be a gradual, bumpy one, with patience and the chance to learn from their mistakes, young people can develop sustainable organisational skills to last them a lifetime.
