Time Management Strategies for Gifted Students
Helping Gifted Children Streamline Activities and Meet Deadlines
Sep 17, 2009
Many gifted children have an additional gift for procrastination. They tend to procrastinate because they know they can get it done in much less time that it takes others. Some see this procrastination as a challenge and revel in the chase to finish a task in time. At other times, the child may be so obsessed with something else that he pays little attention to his assignments until the last possible minute. Help the child to learn that procrastination often leads to negative feelings like anxiety and self-doubt. Reinforce instances wherein the child achieves the desired result without resorting to last minute heroics.
Helping the Gifted Child Manage People
Evaluating where the work or assignments are generating from is often the best way to start a time management effort. If several teachers are giving assignments and the child is working with a mentor, private tutor or other professional, there may be an over abundance of inputs generating work for the child and he cannot stay on top of things. The parent has a responsibility to ensure that the demands on the child are within human bounds.
Meeting with teachers, staff and professionals on a regular schedule to discuss assignments, progress and issues is time well spent. Certainly if she is falling behind, losing interest or exhibiting signs of frustration, this is the time the parent needs to step in and evaluate the workload.
Managing Tasks With Gifted Child
When it can be ascertained that the work is within reasonable expectations, setting up a project management timeline may be a good tool. The child can learn how to use project management software and may find this a fun and rewarding endeavor. Realistically speaking, setting aside a set number of hours for each major subject, work product and flexing this according to weekly demand may be all it takes to get tasks under better time control. A simple calendar is a good starting point for mapping out planned efforts.
Time Management Strategies for Gifted Students
Prioritization and some level of compartmentalization are tools that can effectively allow the gifted child time to do all the things she wants to accomplish. Working with her to decide which things are necessary, which are desirable and finally, which are fun if they can be squeezed in after the rest is done, will give her a sense of satisfaction when she achieves her goals.
Care should be taken to ensure that the gifted student gets as much down time as he needs to recuperate and refresh for the next set of assignments. This might involve keeping one or two nights free per week without any scheduled activities. Give him a chance to play and be a kid, too. He has so many different stimuli coming at him each day, he needs that freedom from planned tasks on a regular basis.
Eventually, as the planning aspects of the child’s behavior are reinforced time and again, he will come to appreciate the concept of planning for the sake of achieving the desired results. Help him get started by managing his inputs in order to achieve the right outputs. Provide tools like a day planner or project management software if possible. Most importantly, treat his downtime with as much importance as his uptime. He will thrive on the order created where chaos had been the norm.
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