Executive Functioning Skill: Time Management
This particular skill is easy to identify and define but difficult to develop. I’m talking about time management, which is being aware of the amount of time it takes to complete tasks or to get from point A to point B. There are all kinds of different time management techniques including the Pomodoro Method, Time Blocking, and my favorite in name The Eat the Frog Method. Each one of these has a different trick to them. When Eating the Frog you do the task you want to do least first. The Pomodoro Method you set a time and work for about 25 minutes and then take a 5 minute break. The Pomodoro Method can be problematic for kids who have transitioning issues (moving from one task to the next). The quickest way to develop time management skills is to stop multitasking. Mainly because your brain can’t multitask. It cannot do something that requires the same cognitive output at the same time (like learning math and writing an essay). With students with ADHD they do well when tasks utilize more than one sense. For instance, reading a book while listening to the same audio. This has actually been found to improve attention and focus. I also highly recommend doing cleaning tasks while listening to music to break up the monotony. It’s also important to work on time awareness, meaning being mindful of how long a task is going to take you. Routine homework shouldn’t be more than an hour while a project is going to need several hours of time. This skill also pairs well with prioritization and planning which means if you are weak in one area it affects the other two. The other thing that affects time management the most in a negative way is procrastination. The word is from the Latin word pro meaning “for” and cras meaning “tomorrow” which means the word literally means “for tomorrow”which makes it the opposite of discipline. With students this is why I like the Eat the Frog Method because it gets out of the way of the task that would be the most likely to make you procrastinate. As a kid I always would eat my vegetables first to get it out of the way to enjoy more of my meal. This is an effective strategy that helps you have more time for the things that you want to do. Starting out with this when working and later building this into long term planning tends to work well for most people. Play around with knowing how long tasks take you to do and then start implementing planning. Time blocking is a more advanced skill but tends to work well for adults especially those who are self-employed. This week pay attention to how long things take you as the first step towards building this skill. Happy Learning!
