8 Time Management Strategies That May Be Helpful for Students in High School

As students get older and take on more responsibilities, their schedules get a bit more complex. They still need to eat, get enough sleep and do homework. In high school, they may have more after-school activities, social engagements or even a part-time job competing for their time. For many students, this means doing more with less time, which can be stressful. 

A recent study showed that many high schoolers are struggling to manage their time. The average homework load is 2.8 hours per night, and the average student spends over 10 hours per week on extracurriculars. More than half (55%) of high school students surveyed identified "procrastination or time management" as a major source of stress, and 81% admitted to multitasking when they do their homework — 36% are on social media, and 28% are watching TV, Netflix, YouTube or some other video platform.

In this blog post, we’ll share eight time management strategies that may be helpful for students in high school.

8 time management strategies that may be helpful for students in high school

Time management is about organizing the work you need to do so you can get it all done in the time you have — without getting too overwhelmed or overworked. It takes several smaller skills to manage your time effectively, including focus, organization, prioritization and goal-oriented persistence. Some of the time management strategies on our list can help students get a better sense of how much time it takes to complete certain tasks or how much they can get done in the time they have. Others will help them create boundaries for work time and break time or set reminders so they’ll stick to their plan.

The following strategies may help students in high school manage their time more effectively:

• Budget vs. actual — Students can use this strategy to block time for different activities and then check to see how much time they actually spend on each task. On a sheet of paper, they’ll need to create columns for the task, the amount of time they think it will take and the actual amount of time spent. They can use the stopwatch on their phone to time themselves or set a timer to get an alert when it’s time to move on to something else. As they keep monitoring themselves, they’ll get better at making accurate estimates.

Beyond BookSmart’s original image from previous blog on time management 

• Calendar app — High school students can use a calendar app on their phones to balance after-school activities with homework time, social events and other responsibilities. This can help prevent scheduling conflicts and help them remember to bring any equipment or supplies they may need. You can help them experiment with different color coding strategies or the task function.

• The unschedule — The unschedule helps students get a realistic idea of what they’re doing with their time and make sure they have breaks to socialize and relax. Before scheduling their work, students should set aside time for meals, social activities and breaks. This way they can plan to “fill their cup” first with activities that help them relax. It will also help reduce procrastination by helping them make the best use of their time on a daily basis.

• Five-minute goals — Five-minute goals can help students get started on difficult tasks or use a short amount of time to make progress on something. They can simply set a timer for five minutes and see how much they can get done before it goes off. The idea is that they can choose to move on to something else after their time is up or continue working if they feel motivated.

• Phone reminders — Phone reminders can help high school students give themselves enough time to get ready in the morning or ease the transition from one task to another. They might create a reminder to start gathering their things or one that signals five more minutes before they need to get going. These reminders may go unseen if they have a lot of notifications from other apps popping up on their phone, so it may be helpful to limit notifications. 

• Pomodoro technique — Students can use the Pomodoro technique to maximize their homework time and manage brain breaks. They’ll need to set a timer for 25 minutes of work, then set another timer for five minutes of unstructured break time and repeat as necessary. 

• The Eisenhower matrix/Covey Quadrants — This prioritization technique can help students determine what to work on first and what can wait. They’ll draw a large + on a sheet of paper. The left-to-right axis represents what’s urgent and not urgent. The top-to-bottom axis represents what’s important and not important. Students will sort tasks by what’s urgent, important, both or neither. 

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• To-do list — A to-do list is a helpful way to keep track of the tasks that need to be done in a single day. Students can decide the order of the tasks as they go as long as they have enough time “budgeted” to get everything done.

At Beyond BookSmart, we help students of all ages learn time management

Though every student needs time management skills, they usually aren’t taught in the classroom. Each person has a slightly different relationship with time, so many students benefit from one-on-one coaching for Executive Function skills like time management. These are the skills we need to carry out our everyday responsibilities for success in different areas of our lives. 

There’s much more to Executive Functioning than time management. Some other Executive Function skills include working memory, decision-making, and attention or focus. These are all things that can be taught, learned and applied for success. At Beyond BookSmart, we offer Executive Function coaching services to help students develop and improve the skills they need to create an effective and workable study routine.

If you know a high schooler who’s struggling to manage everything they need to get done, our coaches can help them see what they’re capable of. Download our time management infographic to share some of these strategies with a high schooler in your life.

Do you have questions? Contact our team today. Let’s talk about some new ways to meet time management challenges.