As parents, we are constantly overwhelmed and stressed. We need to juggle between our hectic work schedule and family life. Too many things to be done in too little time. This applies to our children too. They need to divide their time for school work, tuition classes, talent classes and even extracurricular activities.
I bet this might be a common scenario for some families. You have to spend time daily waking your children up for school. You get frustrated when you see your children procrastinating and distracting from their work. And that’s what you say to your children, “Can’t you focus on your work?”, “Why do you keep on wasting your time?” and “Don’t you know time is precious?”.
So, how can we eliminate this urgent issue for both you and your children? Here’s how.
Both you and your children need to master time management. Time management is mainly about leveraging our time to complete our tasks and to achieve our goals. However, do we really maximize our time daily to accomplish what we intend to do?
How can we offer a better choice for our children on time management? Read on and I believe you will get the answer for your doubt.
I Have Taken Time Management On The Wrong Track!
Since young, I have been writing a daily to-do list and completing all the tasks listed. During my school period, I listed out the daily homework that I needed to accomplish for submission.
During my current work life, I had also listed out urgent matters that I needed to attend to or submit. I thought I was working effectively. To make the situation even worse, I thought I was working productively if I clear off my daily to-do list.
In spite of everything that I had done to manage my time, I realised that I was not happy with what I had achieved daily.
I bet you have a similar experience as mine too. We are feeling busy every day. Yet, we do not get any satisfaction or sense of achievement after the hectic work schedule.
As others might just move on with what they are comfortable with daily to-do list, we hope for a better solution for both you and your children.
You Need This Time Management Saviour
This is what saves me from the time management trap – Stephen Covey’s Time Management Quadrant. It works so well for me that I wish that I can share it with everyone, especially you who are still reading on this article.
If you are doing a daily to-do list, you will often fall into the third quadrant. You will only spend most of your time in dealing with urgent tasks that do not bring you any importance or benefits in the long run.
Let’s break this quadrant down to understand time management better. Believe me, you and your children will manage your time better than never with this time management strategy.
Quadrant 1: Manage Your Urgent and Important Tasks
As an employee or an employer, you will have deadlines for projects and tasks. At the same time, you will have sudden situations that require your immediate attention as a parent. These situations are what we include in the first quadrant – the urgent and important tasks. It is therefore important for us to be proactive in dealing with these urgent matters.
For instance, instead of completing your work at the last minute, you can try to break down the tasks into small, manageable chunks so that you can finish on time. This applies to our children too. They also need to be aware that they need to complete their homework on time before their homework pills up.
If you do not take this quadrant seriously, you will realise both you and your children will constantly feel stressed and burnt out. However, you should not focus too much on matter in the first quadrant too as you will turn out to be a reactive individual.
Quadrant 2: Focus on These Not Urgent but Important Tasks
This is the quadrant where most of us neglect – pursuing our goals and passion. In fact, this is what we should focus on. It is about achieving your personal and professional goals. We should allocate some parts of our time daily to constantly improve our strengths and to do weekly and monthly planning. We can also looks into ways to find opportunities.
On top of this, you need to spend time with your children to determine their interest and strengths. Put them into action by planning on the time to develop their strengths and interest weekly. With this, I am sure that your children will be motivated to complete the homework that requires their immediate attention. This is because they have a definite goal that they are eager to achieve.
Quadrant 3: Manage Your Urgent and Not Important Tasks
Activities in the third quadrant are the most detrimental to our time management. Yet, we keep pouring our precious time into this quadrant. Can you guess what these activities are? You are right, they are emails, reports, messages and calls that you think you need to attend to immediately.
If the first thing you do once you wake up is checking on your phone, then you need to stop doing it NOW. This will cause you to constantly react to urgent and short-term focus. In the long run, you will feel that your life is out of your control. This is because you are spending your time based on others’ expectations and priorities.
I believe most children fall into the third quadrant trap too. They are sent to classes that they are not interested in. They attend the classes because their parents want them to.
As parents, what we should do is to discuss with our children about the extra classes and the benefits that they will gain the long run. They will then free themselves from this quadrant they will learn to see plans and goals are essential.
Quadrant 4: Avoid These Not Urgent and Not Important Tasks
When we feel tired and burnt out, we will eventually fall into the fourth quadrant. We feel the urge to procrastinate and go to distraction. We feel the urge to escape and exit. We will end up going for easy and pleasant activities such as looking at social media, eating and shopping.
What we need to do instead is to notice the urge and reflect on whether these activities worth us spending our time on. Never act on this urge instantly or ignore them. Educate your children on this quadrant too, instead of playing their phone during the break, they can opt for a short nap or a short walk around the house to replenish themselves.
You will able to save so much time if you can prevent these activities in the fourth quadrant. We understand how time slips away when we are on our phone.
So, take action now with the Covey’s Time Management Matrix.
Don’t Let Go Any Seconds For Effective Time Management
Everything is hard during the first steps. It is the same for time management too. However, both you and your children will become opportunity-minded individuals if you start practising this time management strategy.
Be more proactive in achieving your goals through the activities you plan in the second quadrant. You will be amazed by how your effectiveness is increased drastically as you apply this strategy.
You will never “find” time for anything. If you want time, you must make it.
– Charles Bruxton –