Organising My Time
How Will This Session Help Me??
Between schoolwork, revision, sports, hobbies, family time, and spending time with friends, life at 13 can get super busy! Managing your time isn't about filling every minute with work or never relaxing; it’s about taking control of your day so you can get things done without feeling stressed. By learning to prioritise what matters, build simple routines, balance your workload, and be on time for things, you will develop the self-control needed to handle your commitments at school, at home, and in future jobs!
Questions to get started
"Think about a typical evening after school—how do you usually decide what to do first between homework, jobs, hobbies, family time, or chilling out?"
"Have you ever left a piece of homework or project until the night before it was due? How did you feel, and what happened?"
Focused Virtues
The Focused Virtue for this session is Self-Control.
Self-Control gives us the power to manage our distractions, stick to our plans, and make smart choices about how we spend our time.
Ask Yourself: "Can I grow in self-control to prioritise my tasks, balance my daily routine, and stay on top of my commitments?"
Master your moments, build your future.
Skills Development:
Learning to manage your time and out-of-school commitments takes practice, clear strategies, and genuine self-control. Managing time well helps you stay relaxed, keep your grades where you want them, and still have plenty of time for fun.
First, prioritise your tasks. Prioritising means looking at everything you have to do—homework, revision, sports practice, chores—and deciding what needs to be done first. Self-control helps you resist the urge to do the easy or fun tasks first, focusing instead on urgent deadlines or important priorities before relaxing.
Second, use systems thinking to build a routine. A system is just a set of regular steps or tools that helps you manage your daily life. Creating a simple system—like using a planner app, a visual wall calendar, or setting reminders on your phone—helps you see how all your commitments fit together so nothing gets forgotten.
Third, balance your workload. Trying to do all your homework in one massive marathon session leads to bad quality and stress. Self-control means breaking large projects into smaller chunks spread across the week, ensuring you balance study time with proper sleep, exercise, and rest.
Finally, practise good time-keeping. Time-keeping means showing respect for yourself and others by being punctual. Whether arriving to lessons, sports practice, work or social events on time, planning your journey and getting ready early shows reliability and self-discipline.
Case Studies and Questions
"Can you give an example of a time when you used a simple system—like a checklist, calendar, or phone alarm—to help you remember important tasks? How successful was it?"
"How do you decide whether a task is urgent (needs doing right now) or just important (needs planning for later)?"
Case Study:
Alexia is 14 and has a busy week ahead: an English essay due on Thursday, a science test on Friday, football practice on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, volunteering on Friday after school and a friend's birthday party on Saturday. It's Monday afternoon, and Alex feels overwhelmed by everything piling up, wanting to just play on her phone all evening to ignore the stress. How can Alex use self-control and organisation to make sure everything gets done on time without missing out on football or the party?
Useful Resources:
https://www.skillsbuilder.uk/universal-framework-steps/planning-step-8-prioritising
https://www.skillsbuilder.uk/universal-framework-steps/problem-solving-step-11-systems-thinking
https://www.skillsbuilder.uk/universal-framework-steps/adapting-step-9-balancing-workload
https://www.skillsbuilder.uk/universal-framework-steps/teamwork-step-3-time-keeping
Guidance and Resources for Facilitators
At 13 years old (Year 8/9), students face a significant jump in academic expectations, homework volume, and extracurricular commitments. However, their executive function skills—specifically long-term planning, impulse control, and time estimation—are still developing. Teenagers frequently suffer from procrastination, underestimating how long tasks take, or drowning in screen-time distractions, leading to late-night panic and stress. As a facilitator, your role is to guide them using the virtue of self-control—helping them categorize task urgency, design functional daily systems, balance study with rest, and build punctual habits.
Core Concepts & Background Information
To support your group effectively, draw upon these core concepts from the underlying skills framework steps:
1. Prioritising Tasks
- Urgent vs. Important: Teaching students to evaluate tasks based on two criteria: deadline (when is it due?) and impact (how much does it matter?).
- The "Eat the Frog" Principle: Exercising self-control to tackle the hardest or most urgent task first when energy levels are highest, freeing up mental space for the rest of the day.
2. Systems Thinking in Daily Life
- Creating Time Systems: Helping teenagers view their week as an interconnected system (school hours, travel, extracurricular activities, homework, rest).
- Externalising Memory: Encouraging students to rely on external systems (planners, whiteboards, phone alarms, visual checklists) rather than trying to remember everything in their head.
3. Balancing Workload
- Pacing and Chunking: Breaking major projects or revision topics into small 20–30 minute daily sessions rather than cramming.
- Protecting Wellbeing: Emphasizing that rest, hobbies, physical exercise, and sleep are essential parts of a balanced schedule, not wasted time.
4. Punctuality & Time-Keeping
- Backward Planning: Calculating departure times by working backward from when they need to arrive, factoring in buffer time for delays.
- Respect for Others: Frame punctuality as an act of fairness and self-control that shows respect for teachers, coaches, teammates, and friends.
Overcoming Common Barriers
1. The "I'll Do It Later" / Procrastination Trap:
- Reframing: Students often mistake procrastination for laziness. Reframe it as an emotional reaction to a task that feels intimidating or boring. Teach the "5-Minute Rule"—commit to doing just 5 minutes of a task using self-control; once started, momentum usually carries them forward.
- Prompting Reflection: "When you put off a job, does the stress go away, or does it just sit on your shoulders all night?"
2. The "Screen Time Vortex" Barrier:
- Reframing: Phones, gaming, and social media are designed to pull attention away. Teach students to set physical boundaries (e.g., putting the phone in another room or using focus apps during homework blocks) as an act of self-control.
- Prompting Reflection: "How does taking control of your screen time give you MORE time for the things you actually enjoy?"
3. Classroom Activity: The Weekly Time-Mapper:
- Provide students with a blank weekly time-grid (Monday to Sunday, 3:00 PM – 9:00 PM). Have them run a 3-step time audit:
1. Block the Unchangeables: Shade in fixed commitments (sports practice, dinner, travel, clubs).
2. Prioritise & Chunk: Map out 30-minute homework/revision blocks before gaming or TV.
3. Buffer Check: Ensure there is at least 1 hour of guilt-free relaxation/rest scheduled every evening.
Delivery Tips for the Session
- Keep Systems Simple: Discourage over-complicated schedules. Emphasize simple, actionable tools like 3-item daily to-do lists.
- Normalise Adjustments: Remind students that schedules don't always go to plan. Self-control includes adapting calmly when an unexpected task pops up.