Master Time Management with These Proven Hacks

Children the world over are very busy these days with school, after school activities, extra classes, tuitions, birthday parties, and online games. Parents the world over wish for time management hacks suitable for kids. The fact is, there are very good time management hacks that are especially applicable to kids.

1. Be ready the previous night

Get the uniform for the next day ready the previous night itself. Pack your bag the previous night. Mornings are generally hectic times. Furthermore, you might wake up late. Or have a nightmare during sleep and get up in a bad mood. Having clothes to wear ready and your school bag ready saves a lot of time and effort in the mornings. It gives you a lot of positive energy to see that you are ready for the day.

2. Separate drawers for each category of clothes

If you have a cupboard with drawers, have a drawer for each category of clothing: socks, undergarments, home wear pants, home wear shirts, outside wear pants/skirts, outside wear shirts etc. If you have party wear it is best to hang them using hangers. If you do not have a cupboard, at least gather all clothing in a particular category and keep them separately in some way.

3. Label everything

To minimize time and effort in locating things and identifying them easily, label all your clothes drawers with the clothing item that the drawer contains such as socks or undergarments. Label all your books with your name, class name, school name and subject name.

4. Laundry basket for your room and laundry day

You should have your own laundry basket in your room. If you share a room with a sibling, still you should have at least a plastic bag as your laundry bag. All shirts, blouses, and undergarments should go to the laundry basket at the end of each day. Do not wear each of these more than one day because they are close to the body and absorb your sweat, so may be smelly. Pants and skirts can be worn at least three days in a row. Assign a day as your laundry day when you will wash all the clothes in the laundry bag and hang them out to dry. It is best to dry your clothes in an airy and sunny place if you don’t have a dryer. If you have a dryer, things are easy. Once the clothes are dry, fold them and put them away in their assigned places.

5. Iron clothes on Sunday

Many people do not like ironing. Children, when they are small, will have their clothes ironed by adults. But children above 8 years can learn from an adult how to iron their clothes. Iron all your clothes on Sundays at your preferred time. It may seem like a tedious chore, but you will feel so much more ready for the week this way. You can listen to your favourite songs or podcasts while ironing.

6. Get the calendar with space for notes and stick on the wall of your room

In the beginning of the year in January, get one or two big manila cards or get several A4 size foolscap papers. Draw the calendar of the year with space for writing notes. If you can print this out, it will be great. After the calendar is ready, write down the events of the year such as examination dates if you know, birthdays of friends and family, tuition days if any etc. in the relevant space. Fill in more as the year progresses and you have more information about examination dates etc.

7. Stick your timetables on the wall

You will get your school timetable in the beginning of the year. As soon as you get it, stick it on the wall of your room. You can use cello tape for this. One month before each important examination, you should have a revision time table assigning revision time for each subject. Follow the timetable diligently. Finally, you should have a timetable for your daily activities, such as time of waking up and going to sleep, time for playing outside or exercising, time for watching TV or playing on the computer etc. Stick this timetable also on the wall. Follow it every day.

8. Get a whiteboard for your room

A lot of things get registered clearly in your mind when you write them down. This includes the subject matter you study. Get a white board for your room. As you study, draw diagrams and mind maps, write notes and reminders and even doodle when you feel like it on the white board.

9. A file for each subject and all answer papers for each exam

Get a file for each subject and file all loose papers in this file. Get another file for examination papers once you get them back marked from the teacher. Label each file with the name of the subject.

10. Cleaning and organization every day

Clean and organize as you go. Do not procrastinate and push cleaning and organization indefinitely. Every day assign ten minutes for cleaning and organization. It will save you a lot of time and effort.