Life Skills Your Students Should Master – Part 2: Time Management [Episode 166]

Lauren 0:00
Welcome to this week’s episode, where we’re continuing the conversation about life skills your high schoolers need before they graduate. This is coming from a place of practical wisdom and a dream counseling program. You’re noticing what your students need, or you’re probably doing needs assessments, which if you’re not I can link to past episode about that, but you are the one who is determining what the students on your caseload in your school actually need. But I’m here just talking about some general life skills that I’ve noticed are helpful as my students launch out of my school and into the, quote, real world, or just things that I have reflected back on that I wish I had a greater understanding of when I came out of high school.

Lauren 0:42
So if you haven’t listened to the first episode of this series about money management and budgeting, head back to last week’s episode and then come back here to this week’s episode. It truly doesn’t matter what order you listen to, but you know, if you’re gonna binge them all, why don’t you just go in order? That’s my suggestion, at least.

Lauren 0:58
Before we get to the episode. I told you last week that sharing the episode with a friend is a truly impactful way that you can help me get this High School Counseling Conversations podcast show in the air pods of more high school counselors just like you. I want every high school counselor to know about it, so that is where you come in. You are a listener who is dedicated, and I want you to share this show with a friend. Leave a review if it’s been helpful for you.

Lauren 1:23
Let’s read a review from a listener to kick off this episode, just like we did last week. This one is from opinion lady 25, love that username. The subject of this review is called a must listen. This five star review says, “It’s clear that Lauren wants school counselors to thrive in their role and be equipped to do the best work they can. I appreciate that Lauren ensures her episodes are educational and applicable to her audience. I’ve learned so much from listening.” Well thank you for that very positive opinion, opinion, lady, I appreciate it, and I’m happy to read wonderful five star reviews like this on air. So go ahead and leave your review after listening to this week’s episode.

Lauren 2:07
You got into this profession to make a difference in your students’ lives, but you’re spread thin by all the things that keep getting added to your to do list. I can’t create more hours in the day, but I can invite you into my counselor clique, where you’ll finally catch your breath. Come with me as we unpack creative ideas and effective strategies that’ll help you be the counselor who leaves a lifelong impact on your students. I’m Lauren Tingle, your high school counseling hype girl, here to help you energize your school counseling program and remind you of how much you love your job.

Lauren 2:40
I think when I set out to do this series, I was picturing in my mind just talking to seniors because they’re about to graduate. That’s what time of the year it is. But I truly think that these skills are valuable at every grade level, and our students probably stand to need the information over and over again, like they have to hear it over and over to be able to put it into practice in their lives. I think if I were looking at a comprehensive program, a high school counseling program, and trying to plan out something intentional over those four years, I’d sit with my team, if I had team. I’ve always had a team, so that’s why I assume you do too, but I know not everyone does. And I decide on some skills that would be important based on the needs of my school, and then plan out what I wanted to do long term to make that happen.

Lauren 3:25
Life skill number two is time management. Can you think of anyone who wouldn’t benefit from some more help with time management and self advocacy around this topic? There are students who are going to need more intentional individual help with this, but it’s a skill that you can get out in front of a lot of your students at once to educate them. When your students leave your halls, you’ll want them to be independent and be able to advocate for themselves, and so that’s why we’re focusing on these life skills.

Lauren 3:51
And this one specifically, because it relates to a couple different ASCA mindsets and behaviors, specifically BSMS1, and that’s the behavior standard that addresses the self management skill of responsibility for self and actions. And time management is definitely a skill that proves that someone is responsible once they get on track to mastering it. Another mindset and behavior that’s addressed when we help students with their time management is BSMS2, it’s literally the next one down in the same column of the mindsets and behaviors, which is self discipline and self control. And maybe those words sound like kind of aggressive and rigid. I don’t know. It’s just like the vibe they give off, but I think someone who can show their ability to manage their time shows that they’re disciplined.

Lauren 4:37
If you’re anything like me, sometimes you would like to spend your time doing something different from the thing that you need to spend your time doing. So we want to spend our time doing one thing, but there are things that we have to get done. So mastering this to a level of self control without others having to do it for you is a level of mastery that we want our students to get to to facilitate their independence before they leave us. So for them to be able to manage with self control and self discipline their own time, I think, is a huge and meaningful life skill.

Lauren 5:15
Now, I know we all have our own personal ways to tackle time management, and for some of us, it comes easier than others. So I want us to keep a mindset of grace as we teach time management to students. For some of our students, it’s going to be really hard. For some of us, it’s really hard. Not everyone will fall into a cookie cutter way that they process this and find success immediately. Personality types, level of overwhelm, previous practice and expectations from others, like, was this expected in your family, maturity and responsibility levels, all of these will affect how a student takes your leadership on this topic and runs with it, or doesn’t and does nothing with it.

Lauren 5:51
For all of them, though, I think when you’re teaching time management, the best place to start is start small. Assume that they know nothing about time management, that they know nothing about blocking their time or batching their tasks or checking things off lists, even the most basic of basics, don’t rule anything out. And again, assume that they’ve never been taught anything time management and they have zero practice with these skills. And then I think you’ll find yourself in a good place to start.

Lauren 6:17
So first, help them see the big picture. What good things come out of being organized? Like if they can get a glimpse of the end result, then maybe their eyes will be open to actually realizing that this is a meaningful or important skill to master. They’ll have less stress, better grades. They will achieve goals that they actually set out to achieve. They’ll meet expectations that they set for themselves. They’ll develop rhythms and routines and structure which actually allow freedom or margin for hobbies or part time jobs or just some blank space with nothing that they have to do. I’m someone who feels bound by rhythms and routines like that feels very suffocating to me, but when I frame it to myself that if I manage my time, then I can have some margin to do the things that I want to do, that’s a lot more reassuring to me, and it makes me a little bit more motivated to get better with my time management.

Lauren 7:13
With that better time management and some structure in your students’ days, they’ll be able to make more room, have more freedom for the things that they want to do, because there won’t be these tasks looming over them waiting to get done. Their downtime will actually be their downtime, and they’re more prepared for adulthood because they know how to do this. When students launch out into young adulthood, I think it’s commonly assumed that they know how to manage their time, that they know how to keep a calendar and show up where they need to be, that they get their work done in a reasonable amount of time. Like there’s just a level of responsibility that young adults are assumed to have. But if no one has trained them on it, and no one has practiced these skills with them, then there’s going to be a real gap in their skills and their self mastery over some really important life skills. So that’s why we’re talking about it.

Lauren 8:03
Have them analyze what they’re doing right now and get a pulse check on if it’s working or not. Are they using an agenda given to them by the school? Do they use a paper and planner that they got from somewhere else? Some people swear by the paper and pencil method. It’s usually not me, but I did actually just do this for the summer, because, let me tell you, the visual immediately lowered my stress levels because I could see what our weeks were gonna look like all summer with one quick visual eyeball on these pieces of paper. Do your students use a digital planner on their phone or their tablet or their computer? Remember, the best planner is the one that you actually use. So yeah, you can use that line with them. There’s no right or wrong here. A gym membership won’t help you get stronger in shape if you never show up. The right fit gym for you is the one that you actually go to. So have your students choose their way to plan.

Lauren 8:55
Remember, I said we’re gonna get back to the basics here. This feels very simple. Okay, they chose it perfect. Check. Now let’s open up that planner and jot down the things that we already know go in there, put in the easy things. People have all different ways of looking at this. You know that. Look at the different views. Do you like to look at daily, weekly, monthly? If your students aren’t used to using planners yet, they may need an extra level of accountability to keep using it, like actually put it in place and meet those deadlines. So maybe, if it’s something digital, setting alarms for these things, that’s very easy to do in a digital platform.

Lauren 9:29
Next, have your students think about what non negotiables go in that planner. What takes up time on your calendar that has to be there? Then how will you plan to have everything fall into place around that? Have them analyze some rhythms and routines that are working for them right now. What do they wish they could add or take away? Are there rhythms and routines that used to work but now they just don’t serve them?

Lauren 9:50
So for example, during baseball season, the student always went straight to practice from school, then came home for dinner and homework and then played video games until bed. It worked for a season, but when he’s not in baseball season, he actually has a lot more free time, and he somehow neglects his homework because he has a lot more time, and he scrambles to get it turned in on time. It doesn’t make sense up here in the ether that with more time, he actually wouldn’t get his stuff done. But he needs to address his time management during baseball’s off season in a different way, because his time is slipping away and causing him unnecessary stress. Sometimes it’s just an acknowledgement that something has changed, and what we did one semester of the year doesn’t work for the other semester. And that’s okay.

Lauren 10:33
If your students are finding it hard to manage their time, I’d encourage you to either sit with them individually, run a small group of students who all have like needs, or maybe it’s like some lunch and learn sessions until we kind of get on pace together, or do whole classroom lessons where you walk them through a step by step process on revamping their time management. I just don’t think anyone has this perfectly down pat, where they can ask themselves some more invasive personal questions to see how they could get better at it. I just think that everybody has a level to get better at this, and no one’s perfect at it.

Lauren 11:08
I have an organization, digital presentation or check in to do with your students. It’s really helpful to walk through some of those big pieces of organization, like planning, structuring, arranging and reflecting on what’s working and reflecting on what isn’t working. So as you’re rounding out the year, I wanted to let you know, of course, I have resources in my TPT shop. I’m also working on a big overhaul of the Clique Collaborative membership. I closed the doors here for a few months, and I’ve been working on a major revamp inside that I hope you’ll stay tuned for. It currently has over 25 PD videos for teaching and training high school counselors, but I’m gonna be shaking some things up inside there. So if you are interested in what’s coming next, just stay tuned for that. It’s closed right now for new members, because I’m working on the inside.

Lauren 11:53
And if you’re a new counselor right now wondering what your next move should be, or you’re coming right out of internship, I’d encourage you to check out the high school counselor kickstart audio course at counselorclique.com/newcounselor for your next steps after you get the job.

Lauren 12:05
I’ll be back next week with part three of those life skills that your students should master before they graduate. It’ll be the last episode in this series of life skills, and I hope that your students have them down pat by the time they leave high school, but this will have all sorts of helpful tips for our third and final one, so I’ll see you then.

Lauren 12:26
Thanks for listening to today’s episode of High School Counseling Conversations. All the links I talked about today can be found in the show notes and also at counselorclique.com/podcast. Be sure to hit follow wherever you listen to your podcasts so that you never miss a new episode. Connect with me over on Instagram. Feel free to send me a DM @counselorclique, that’s C, L, I, Q, U, E. I’ll see you next week.