taking and make adjustments. These are
the kids where if their alarm clock goes
off at 7 a.m., they’re able to shower, eat
breakfast and get out the door to meet
the bus at 8 a.m. without fail.

Type 2: Kids with a soft internal
clock. They struggle to be on time,
maintain deadlines and plan ahead
appropriately. These kids are much less
aware of passing time, and are usually
the kid you have to poke, prod and
micromanage in the morning to get
them out the door and on time.

For kids with a soft internal clock,
strong routines and strategies to help
them manage time more effectively
are needed. So here are 10 tips to help
your child with time management and
tackling schoolwork in the new school
year: TIP #1: WEAR A WATCH
Research shows that when kids wear
an analog watch (not a digital watch) it
helps them better understand elapsed
time. TIP #2: MAKE SURE THERE ARE
ANALOG CLOCKS IN THE HOUSE
Additionally, when there are analog
clocks in the area where they’re
working, that’s helpful as well. So if
they do their work in your home office,
the dining room or the kitchen, make
sure there’s an analog clock in that
space that is easily visible to them.

Instead, encourage your child to get
started the night it’s assigned. This
could be as simple as pulling it out,
putting their name on it and only
working on the first two problems.

That way, the wheels have started
turning, and maybe they’ve identified
some questions they need to ask their
teacher. And, they already have some
momentum going on that task, so
it’s smaller and more manageable on
Tuesday. In fact, the easiest thing to do might be
to encourage working on every subject,
every day (even if it’s just five minutes)
to keep this process going.

TIP #4: USE THE RIGHT TOOLS
A huge time management for teens
principle is simply having the right
tools available. And this benefits soft
internal clock kids the most. These
include: Using a planner or an assignment book
to look ahead and plan out their work
Using a to-do list to break down their
assignments into smaller pieces so they
can more accurately predict how long
they will take
Using alarms or digital calendar
reminders (if they mostly work off of a
computer) TIP #3: WORK ON EACH CLASS
EVERY DAY, NO MATTER WHAT
Now, many area middle and
high school students are on block
scheduling these days. For some
kids, this is great! For others,
especially those who struggle with
time management, it’s much more
difficult for them to plan ahead and
avoid doing their homework at the
last minute for a class they have every
other day.

For example: Let’s say your child’s
math teacher routinely assigns
homework on Monday, which is then
due Wednesday. If you have a soft
internal clock kid, chances are they
won’t start this homework until 10
p.m. on Tuesday night!
Establishing a distraction-free
study space, and organizing their
environment TIP #5: REMOVE THE BARRIER
TO ENTRY
Many times students feel overwhelmed
and underprepared. And in order to
ease this anxiety, have them break
larger tasks into smaller tasks and
make the “barrier to entry” almost
nonexistent. By setting the threshold
for getting started incredibly low so
that it is almost positive that he or she
will be successful in completing the
task, this will help get the ball rolling.

It will make the student feel a sense
of confidence that they can move
forward. Two different ways to do this
are to focus on either time or task.

To focus on time, set a timer for five to
10 minutes. Have them commit: “I’m
going to read for 10 minutes, then
I can take a short break before
restarting.” And then step though that
process, bit by bit.

Alternatively, you can choose to
focus on task. For example, maybe
it’s Wednesday and your child has a
Spanish test on Friday. Like usual, he
or she wants to put off studying until
the night before. The problem with
this method is it hasn’t really worked
out in the past. It causes your child
to feel overwhelmed, so they stay
up late cramming, and then they are
exhausted on test day.

Solution? Encourage your child to start
studying on Wednesday by tackling
one easy task that he or she knows
can be accomplished. For example, an
easy task might be to start studying
only 10 of the 30 vocabulary words,
or just one section of the material
that is the easiest part for your child.

This will help give your child an
immediate sense of accomplishment
so that the next day of studying is less
overwhelming and more manageable.

It also just gets them to begin the
studying process earlier than usual,
which is the biggest battle.

Another example is if your child has an
English essay due the following day,
but they struggle to get started right
away because they have problems with
putting their good ideas onto paper.

And most likely, they see essay writing
as an “all or nothing” process … so
they delay.

Instead of waiting until right before
bed when he or she is then pressured
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