Time Management Hacks for Students Time management—organizing and planning how to use your time on a task or activity—is an issue for many of us, from childhood to the workplace. The effects of poor time management can manifest in a variety of symptoms, regardless of age, including: • Decreased quality of work • Poor punctuality • Constant rushing • Frequent missed deadlines • Procrastination • Being easily distracted • Frustration and shame from regularly missing goals • Burnout Luckily, there are some tips and tools you can use to improve your time management skills. Talk to your student about ways to implement some of these ideas to maximize their efforts on tasks and projects with specific time limits and deadlines. 1. Evaluate your current use of time and set goals. How does your student spend a typical day? Have them write down a list of “time-wasters,” such as social media usage or time spent watching TV or movies. Are there places they can cut back to gain more hours for homework, studying, projects, or other tasks that should take priority? Encourage them to identify areas where they can “borrow” time and create goals around cutting back on activities that don’t serve them well. 2. Make a calendar with upcoming deadlines. Being able to visually scan a calendar for chunks of free time can help your student create pockets to allocate to schoolwork. This includes long-term deadlines for papers and projects, which can be broken down into earlier short-term deadlines (for outlines, research, editing, etc.). Be sure to schedule breaks for meals, naps, exercise and “down” time—either alone or with friends, to avoid burnout. 3. Create a list of color-coded checklists by subject. Start each week with a list of assignments and create a checklist for each to ensure that no component is missed. By using colors assigned to each subject or class, your student will begin associating that color with specific folders and notebooks to help ensure they’ll have the correct materials when they leave their locker or begin a project. Consider using the linked colors on the physical or online calendar. 4. Invest in time-management technology. There are countless free and low-cost apps, such as calendars and timers, that can even send alerts and reminders about upcoming deadlines and appointments. Other tools to consider include password managers, online storage and file synchronization files that let users access work any computer, website bookmarks, text-to-speech technology, temporary website blockers, and smartphone scanning apps that upload handwritten class notes. 5. Create a distraction-free work zone. Noise-canceling headphones, a sign on the door or a doing work at the library can all help students maintain focus to use their time wisely. In addition, all technology that’s not vital for the project should be turned off during work times. The Connection Between Processing Speed and Time Management Although time management is an executive functioning skill, processing speed is not. Still, the essential cognitive skills can affect executive functions by impacting planning, organization, attention, flexible thinking, and working memory skills. Why? Because students with weaker processing speed skills often take longer to process information, solve problems, respond in a timely manner, and perform certain tasks. Look no further than smart students who need extra time to complete a test than their classmates. Or a bright teen who can’t process what a teacher is saying fast enough to add it to their memory bank. Or perhaps the student doesn’t process what a word means or build a visual image of what they’ve read fast enough to comprehend it. Reading comprehension struggles often require a second (or third or fourth) review of the material, taking away valuable time that would otherwise be used for other work. Tips for Boosting Processing Speed To work on processing speed with your student at home, consider some of these methods: 1. Add a timer to tasks. Adding a timer to any task—whether it’s cleaning up a room or participating in a scavenger hunt—can help students improve their time management skills with a bit of light pressure. 2. Play games with a speed-related element. Card games, board games, and even video games that require players to race against one another or against the clock can help build planning and organization skills while boosting processing speed. 3. Choose toys that build processing speed. There are plenty of games on the market that challenge users to make decisions and perform actions quickly. Look for toys that combine visual processing, auditory processing and motor speed processing simultaneously, such as Simon, the electronic memory game. Targeted Brain Training to Strengthen Processing Speed If at-home methods to boost processing speed aren’t doing enough, or if you’re looking for intensive training to improve the cognitive skill with a science-backed intervention, consider one-on-one brain training. At LearningRx, we start all personal brain training sessions with a Brain Skills Assessment to determine which brain skills are strong and which could use some work. That’s because weak processing speed is often accompanied by other cognitive skills challenges. The assessment only takes about an hour and the results are often an “Aha!” moment for families, providing answers to the questions about cognitive challenges that have been impacting academics, behavior, and grades. With the results of the Brain Skills Assessment, LearningRx’s team of experts can create a plan to help anyone—from 5 to 95—think faster, remember more easily, read more fluidly, improve in math, and strengthen their executive function skills (including time management). Students are paired with their own personal brain trainer for the duration of their training. LearningRx’s programs are based on 35+ years of testing, research and practice and the personal brain training company has helped more than 100,000 kids and adults with learning differences and learning disabilities bring their brain skills to their full potential! To schedule your student’s Brain Skills Assessment, visit https://www.learningrx.com/atlanta-buckhead/ today. You have nothing to lose and stronger brain skills to gain!