When the free time of summer fades and the school year begins, adjusting to school schedules, sports practice, music lessons and dance recitals can make the fall an intimidating time of year. Sometimes it feels like an impossibility to complete all that’s on the plate. And maybe it is impossible. Maybe there are too many commitments and something has to give. Obviously school is not an option. There is an easy system though, to help manage your time.
- Get a large month-at-a-glance calendar. I know planners are good for day to day assignments, but being able to view the month’s commitments all at once, can help you be better organized.
- Write on your calendar all the known activities for the month (i.e. long term assignments, sports, music, holidays, family commitments, etc.). If you are sharing this calendar with anyone else in your household, be sure to each use a different color.
- Plan in homework time around the commitments now listed on your calendar.
- Break down long term assignments into even parcels with interim due dates and mark those dates on your calendar. This practice of breaking large assignments down into small doable parcels eliminates the stress of managing the by whole package all at once. *See the Tip below.
- If you are unable to meet your scheduled due dates, you may simply be over scheduled and it may be time to rethink your commitments.
*Tip: If you are assigned a novel or large reading assignment to complete by a certain date, divide the total number of pages to be read by the number of reading days you have available. Mark the calendar where you are to read to each night. This helps make the whole assignment far less daunting and completable.
Good Luck! And let me know how this works for you. I welcome your feedback and questions.
Stay tuned for my next post: Completing homework in half the time!
