Time Management – for teens who do more than most! PART I

Dear Teen,

This topic would be by far the most important thing you learn that will, quite certainly, set you up for life. There are some fundamental principles that we will discuss that are transferable in whatever lifestyle you choose or wherever you find yourself over the coming years. But right now is crucial – right now is where you really need this information – and right now you can change the quality of your life whilst continuing everything that you currently do! It is not a coincidence that you are reading this NOW.

A failure to plan – is a plan to fail.

If you walk through life without a plan – quite frankly, there will come time where you will crumble. Because I’m talking to you – the teenager who does EVERYTHING! Am I right? If you try to manage as best you can, with no idea how you are going to get everything done, simply hoping it will happen, staying up till the early hours of the morning trying to complete your assignments, having sick days just to try and stay on top of everything; stressing yourself to the max because there’s homework, an eisteddfod, an exam, a performance, jobs at home, work, friends, boyfriends – then you my friend are going to crash and burn.

And we see this each and every day. We only have to look to the media to see that depression and suicide rates in teens have increased phenomenally over the past few years – and no wonder – life is stressful. And I mean STRESSFUL! But there has to be a way out. There has to be something that we can do to manage our hectic lives. I’m in the search of it – and what I will be sharing with you is the best knowledge I have at this point in time. I will forever seek ways to manage EVERYTHING that we do – not only for myself – but for my children. It is SO important.

If we continue to blindly sprint through life, getting knocked over time and time again by the masses of work and expectations that are thrown on us without a plan – we are never going to succeed. BECAUSE life is designed to be ONE BIG DISTRACTION. How easy is it to have a full day of doing ‘stuff’ but actually getting nothing done? Honestly. A full 2 hours can fly past – and even though we have intentions of doing something or we are trying to do something – it simply doesn’t happen.

I can tell you one of the main problems – phones and social media. They are literally vampires that SUCK your time away. They are a vortex that is relentless and unforgiving. If you allow it – you will waste so much precious time with your head buried in your phone – doing, if we are honest with ourselves, absolutely nothing. We know this. You would have been educated about this at school and from your parents. But we still do it! Why? There’s scientific proof that ‘likes’ from social media and interactions with ‘friends’ release certain endorphins and this feeling is addictive! Plus it has become a habit now. We have embedded this into our daily routines. If you want to learn more about this – please watch Simon Sinek’s explanation here [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hER0Qp6QJNU]. This is not to say that you should ban social media completely, or take it off your phone, or become a hermit crab that has no friends. No. But what we do need to do is recognise that it is a problem and be accountable for how we use it and how much time in our day we allow it to consume us.

But as well as our addiction to social media – there’s also everything else in life that is designed to distract us. Pets – oh my lord, how much time can you spend with your pets!! Yes it is important, but managing the time is what is crucial here. TV shows, trips to the shops, magazines, books, cleaning your bedroom – ALL important things, but also great bits and pieces to pick up and use as procrastinators from what you should really be doing. Please understand this – the brain will do anything not to work to it’s full capacity. Actually it’s like a muscle in that it will try and find a short cut and convince you to do something less draining than what you should be doing. But you know what – YOU are also in control of your brain. YOU ARE. Your thoughts are VERY powerful and you can control them. Because from your thoughts, come your feelings and from your feelings come your actions. This is an entirely different topic – but important to know and understand.

Motivation and will power aren’t simply accessible to you 24/7. They come and go. But research has told us that the brain is most motivated and able to produce its best work – first thing in the morning. Your brain, like a muscle, becomes tired too with overuse. It has a HUGE job in keeping you alive as it has to filter thousands upon thousands of information being thrown at it on a daily basis and send messages via electrons to every part of your body. It is consistently and subconsciously sifting through and processing what is in and around you, so by the afternoon and evening it basically hangs up its boots for the day. This is when you start to feel that fuzzy brain…. where you can’t quite think properly anymore. Because – your brain is tired. Motivation and will power is also at its lowest. Therefore, to get the most out of your brain and in turn, your time – do the BIGGEST and most ‘knowledge heavy’ tasks FIRST. The hardest ones must come first. Then as your brain becomes a little tired, or you start to loose that will power and motivation – you can move onto tasks that don’t require you to think as much; like cleaning your room, playing with your pets, doing your jobs around the home. All important things – but ones that don’t take up too much of your brain capacity. By doing everything in the correct order – you will have a greater sense of accomplishment and fulfilment as you are actually getting stuff done! You are using your brain and your time wisely!

Knowledge is power. Why we fail – because we don’t have the tools. Do YOU want the tools?