Are you a thief?  You may not realize it, but if you’re like a lot of other adolescents you are! You are robbing yourself of many minutes and hours simply because you don’t manage your time well.

TIME is the great equalizer among all of us…young and old, rich and poor, people from every region, religion, and race. That’s because all of us have no more and no less than twenty-four hours in each day. Since we all have the same amount of time, what makes the difference between those who succeed in school, and in life, and those who don’t? The answer is how well you USE your time. The name of this skill is TIME MANAGEMENT.

Here are some hints for helping you get what you have to get done easier and on time.

PLAN AHEAD:
Don’t wait until the last day or week to work on that long-term report your teacher assigned. Write in your notebook the dates you plan to work on it, and follow through. It’s like climbing a mountain. If you’re foolish enough to try to make the climb all at once or without leaving enough time to do it, you probably won’t make it to the top.

ORGANIZE:
Write what you need to do in a carefully kept assignment book. If you just write what you have to do on a piece of paper, you’ll probably lose it by the end of the day or at least, waste a lot of time looking for or trying to figure out what you scribbled on it.

MAKE A DAILY SCHEDULE:
Look over what you have to do that day or week, and start with the more difficult assignment. Once these are done you will feel good enough to start work on the easier tasks. Even if you don’t have a particular assignment in a subject that’s hard for you, spend a few minutes reviewing it.

Nobody is perfect. We all get bogged down and have our poorly planned days, but try to make the best of your time and hopefully that will cut down on stress and increase leisure time. Try these three suggestions for managing your time for two weeks. Please write back to share your experience on the MANAGING TIME web page to tell us what happened.