Time Management – Staying Ahead of the Game

EF Beyond the Classroom: Why Some Unstructured Summertime is Good

Evan Weinberger — Tue, 14 Jun 2022 16:45:05 +0000

Summer presents an interesting opportunity disguised as a dilemma. Students wrap up final exams, releasing themselves into a vacuum of unstructured time. Freedom in moderation is wonderful, especially after nine grueling months of homework, tests, and projects. However, too much freedom often creates problems. Without the metronomic force of the school routine, many students fall out of rhythm. They sleep way too much or way too little. Videogames and social media soon dictate the schedule, as many students watch their summer days dwindle without growth or advancement. Decades of studies show that students fall victim to the so-called summer slide. Particularly in the areas of mathematics and verbal reasoning, students lose as much as 15% of their accumulated school year learning during the summer months. Why? Inactivity. The lack of routine and lack of academic enrichment cause students to atrophy, and it’s more than academics. Many students suffer debilitating losses in their executive function skill development over the summer months due to the lack of routine. All of the gains in organization, time management, learning skills, and impression management are too quickly forgotten when the days become a slew of pool parties, videogames, and sleep. What a pity!

There is another side to this coin, though. The option in the apparent summer dichotomy is a rigid routine. Some parents opt for a summer activities schedule that would put a Fortune 500 CEO’s calendar to shame. With standardized test prep, summer camps, family vacations, and resume-building commitments, many students remain just as overscheduled as they were doing the school year, which is pretty merciless for a student who powered through final exams with the dream of not setting an alarm during the first week of June. In a flash, June and July are over and it’s time for back-to-school shopping once again. Without an opportunity to refresh and recharge, these students start the year off at a motivation trough rather than a crest. They’re just kids after all, don’t they deserve a break – some time away from the structure and stress of a daily schedule?

As is the case with many perceived dichotomies, there’s a third option. Rather, there’s an entire spectrum of “third options” in the middle of the two extremes. Students don’t have to waste their days away in unstructured madness, nor do they need a meticulously scheduled summer calendar. There’s a balance to be struck, which walks the line between rest and enrichment. In short, it’s what we at Staying Ahead of the Game call for every year when the calendar turns to June: a summer of growth.

As a company committed to sharing the power of executive function through a research-backed EF curriculum and our flagship one-on-one academic coaching program, the summer months are peculiar. We continue to work with many students over the summer, but the topics change. With a reprieve from tests, projects, and other deadlines, we often encourage students to spot the opportunities to be proactive during the summer. For some, this means tackling learning gaps with carefully crafted review/preview work. For others, we focus on standardized test prep or admissions essays. Whatever the conduit, our unyielding focus on executive function remains. The opportunities for growth over the summer are too good to ignore, particularly in the EF department.

Organization and time management skills are truly put to the test when students have the time and freedom to plan their own days. Unfortunately, too few students have the opportunity to practice with unstructured time before they head off to college. As we explained in a previous post on succeeding in college, handling unstructured time is often what separates the wheat from the chaff at the university level. In essence, responsible use of freedom is perhaps the most important skill for adolescent students to master, yet they rarely get the opportunity to test the waters. Many students follow a rigid schedule from August to May. They wake up at the appointed time and run through their pre-school routine before their first class begins. Then, students wander from class to class, governed by the pavlovian effect of the bell. After school, students often face a blur of scheduled extra-curricular and athletic events until they get home, finish homework, and go to bed. It’s rigid and unyielding. There are only a few small windows to practice the crucial competencies we hold so dear, such as prioritization, impulse management, and focused versus diffused learning. When students matriculate from high school to college, many face an uphill battle to conquer the looming figure of unstructured time. In college, there are very few mandatory, scheduled events, and most of the learning is done outside of the formal classroom. Thus, volition, the power to choose, becomes a defining factor of many students’ college experiences. If only there was a way for them to practice this skill BEFORE the first day of college.

Summer provides a unique opportunity for growth not only in purely academic arenas (standardized test prep, conquering learning gaps, etc.) but also in the executive function department. In fact, the summer puts EF under a microscope in many ways. With great freedom comes great responsibility after all, so let’s see how your student handles that responsibility. To learn how to manage unstructured time, students need exposure. The moldable nature of the summer calendar provides the perfect opportunity to assess, practice, and enhance a student’s executive functioning skills. Give them the space to practice!

We’re here to help over the summer. Please check out our other posts for ideas on how to help your child grow and develop their executive functioning skills. Executive Function is what sets us apart. To learn more about our flagship one-on-one academic coaching program, reach out today!

The Five Minute Prep

Evan Weinberger — Mon, 24 Jan 2022 21:00:34 +0000

Too often, struggling students focus on the wrong problem and thus arrive at the wrong solution. Like most human beings, students mistake busyness with productivity, but that mistake inevitably leads to frustration. Instead, we recommend a different, albeit simple, approach to righting the academic ship: enact simple systems. The art of executive function often hinges on simplicity because, at the end of the day, the best tactic to help a student improve is the one he or she will adopt and practice consistently. Because simplicity is such an extraordinary lever for growth, our unique approach to executive functioning skill coaching emphasizes ease. In other words, we encourage students to adopt minor changes that spark major results. One such minor change, the Five Minute Prep, is the focus of this blog post.

A student, let’s call him James, returns home from school around 3:30 pm with a full to-do list. Midterms are around the corner, so he wants to start on his study guides. However, he has two tests and an essay due in the next five days. To further complicate proceedings, James will miss school on Thursday for a soccer tournament, so he needs to reschedule one of the aforementioned tests while alerting several teachers of his absence and intended “catch up plan.” With this litany of action items tumbling through the ephemeral synapses of his adolescent mind, James arrives home, exchanges pleasantries with his mother, and hunkers down at his desk. He opens his laptop to start on the English essay.

He searches his email for the prompt when he suddenly remembers his soccer tournament on Thursday. He switches tasks to draft an email to his history teacher entitled “Missing Class Thursday, Make-Up Exam.” Halfway through that email, his mom pops into the room to ask about midterm preparation. James spends the next fifteen minutes showing her his review packets and laying out a battle plan. Satisfied for the moment, his mother returns to the kitchen to finish making dinner. After forgetting what he was working on before she came in, James starts filling out the biology review packet, which isn’t due for another two weeks. Twenty minutes later, his mom calls him down for dinner. He glances at the clock, which reads “6:33 pm”. Soccer practice starts at 7:45 pm. He shakes his head, wondering where the time went.

Does this scenario sound familiar? We see it every day. Every parent and educator can put themselves in James’ shoes — overstimulation rendering a promising study session ineffective. The good news is James can turn this cornucopia of partially completed tasks into solid, sustainable progress with one simple habit: The Five Minute Prep.

The Five Minute Prep is a pre-study ritual designed to help students get the right things done in an acceptable period of time. It’s akin to the NASA countdown checklist. By eliminating possible hindrances to a goal in a systemized manner, students can maximize the progress of any given work block. There are three phases to the Five Minute Prep: (1) reduce external distractions, (2) acknowledge internal distractions, and (3) chart the minimum effective dose.

Reduce External Distractions

Students can take two minutes to reduce the external distractions in their environment BEFORE it’s an issue. A clean desk makes a huge difference, as any visual stimuli will seem more appealing when procrastination strikes. With that in mind, let’s leave the cell phone in another room. As we have discussed in other posts, the danger of always-on is all too real. Decide to limit distractions at the forefront, and life will be so much simpler.

Acknowledge Internal Distractions

A decluttered desk is sure to help, but how do we declutter our minds? In the hypothetical story with James, he had plenty of non-pressing issues that just kept popping up. Soccer tournaments, social events, and the emotions from the day pull our attention away from the task at hand. Before your student starts studying, ask them to take a breath and put all non-urgent tasks on the back burner. For some, it helps to write down distractions as they pop up, vowing to return to them at a more appropriate time. For others, try unloading the five to ten thoughts running through your mind before they derail a study session. I promise it’s a worthwhile sixty-second investment.

Chart the Minimum Effective Dose

Last but certainly not least, chart a course. One of the biggest mistakes students make when they sit down to study is not setting a clear direction. Mindlessly working for the sake of working, without a plan, as James did in the hypothetical scenario, does more harm than good. One completed task is better than six partially completed tasks. Further, we pay a cognitive switching cost every time we rotate from one assignment to the next.

A better approach is to simplify, refine, and attack a meaningful action item. What is the minimum action that will have an impact? In medicine, they call this method of thinking the minimum effective dose. For our pal James, the minimum effective dose would have been a ten-minute email to his teacher and the introductory paragraph of his essay — a few meaningful goals rather than scattered struggling.

The five-minute prep is just one of many tools we teach students. We have learned that systems and habits account for more success than all intelligence in the world. To learn more about our unique executive functioning skills coaching, please reach out today! In the meantime, check our other resources for more EF-driven tools and tactics.

Tips for Effective Time Management for Students

Evan Weinberger — Mon, 14 Sep 2020 08:00:00 +0000

Whether your student is gearing up for the new school year with in-person classes or continuing virtual learning, they are sure to need to brush up on their time management skills before the school year begins. As many us noticed during the spring, when classes and workplaces transitioned to working from home, time management can be challenging, even for those of us who pride ourselves on our productivity. If your student struggles with time management, especially while learning from home, take a look at the list of Tips for Effective Time Management for Students compiled by our Staying Ahead of the Game academic coaches.

Structure your days around non-work activities

School tasks can seem daunting without an academic schedule to provide structure to your student’s day. When days are unplanned, things often get put off until the last minute. A useful tip that many of our coaches utilize while working from home is to structure their days around non-work activities. This organizes your student’s free time into small blocks of time and allows you to plan each block of time for a specific task. So, try organizing your student’s schoolwork schedule around periods of exercise, short breaks, and small tasks. Make sure you set a time limit for each activity so that you don’t run into your work time.

Have a reward system in place

A simple self-imposed rewards system can help stir up the motivation your student may be missing, especially if your student is working from home. Whether it’s promising a small treat, 20 minutes of TV or screen time, or a bit of outside time, a reward system can help keep your student on task. Our academic coaches often use reward systems to keep our students on task for the duration of our academic coaching sessions.

Designate a proper workspace

Working from home often means working alongside a plethora of distractions like pets, siblings, and even parents. To minimize distraction and maximize productivity, our academic coaches always recommended designating a workspace specifically for homework. Preferably, this workspace will be somewhere your student can work daily without interruption. An ideal workspace has plenty of desk/ table space, proper lighting, and even a little area for breaks.

Dress for success

If your student is learning from home during the beginning of the fall semester, it may be helpful to have them dress as if they’re going to school. No, this does not mean they need to wear their school uniform to learn from home, but rather, it means they should avoid wearing PJs and sweats when learning from home. Instead, favor a slightly more formal attire. Dressing for the day is an industry secret amongst entrepreneurs and others who work from home. It’s a great way to kick start productivity and start your off on the right foot, no matter where you are working.

Utilize airplane mode / snooze mode

Technology is both a blessing and a curse for the learning process. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, technology has allowed offices and classrooms to be transported into the living rooms and home offices of millions of students and employees. However, technology also can distract us from our goals and allow us to waste time that could be spent productively. Social media, texting, Facetiming, and phone calls all require an internet connection or cell service, so while working considering setting your students devices to either snooze mode or airplane mode for a set amount of time. This method can work in tandem with a rewards system. For example, after 45 minutes of device-free concentration, reward your student with 10 minutes of device access.

Take breaks

Office days have lunch breaks, classes end every 45 minutes to an hour with a bell, and truck drivers occasionally pull over to rest. There’s no reason working and learning from home should be any different. Taking breaks allows your student to take a moment to recharge in the way that he or she chooses and will ultimately lead to a more productive work period on either side of the break. Like the airplane/snooze mode tip, taking a break from working can be incorporated into a reward system for your student. Even in our hour-long academic coaching sessions, our academic coaches regularly implement the use of small breaks to keep our students focused and motivated.

Plan ahead and hit the ground running

This tip applies more to homework than it does actual classwork, but having your student plan their work schedule the night before will do wonders for their time management. Planning should start at the beginning of each week in your student’s academic planner and then be adjusted each night for the next day based on current productivity and new assignments. Our academic coaches check our student’s planners regularly until we can ensure that our students are using their planners to the fullest extent of their potential.

Exercise regularly

Daily or weekly exercise is one of the most powerful weapons at our disposal for combating unproductiveness and procrastination. Exercise raises our energy levels, helps fight stress, reduces fatigue, and improves general happiness and well-being. If your student is restless and has trouble focusing, exercise will help reduce their unrest. If your student is lethargic and generally bored with academic work, exercise will help improve their energy levels. When we say exercise, we’re not suggesting you sign your students up for a spin class, but rather encourage outside or active play, whatever that may be.

Procrastination vs Proactiveness

Evan Weinberger — Mon, 18 Nov 2019 08:00:50 +0000

It’s Thursday evening and you’re frantically working to finish up this science project due tomorrow morning at 8am. Tired, anxious, and annoyed that you can’t watch your school’s championship game tonight, you ask yourself, “How did this happen?”

Well, let’s see. First, you spent your entire weekend indulging in a movie marathon, since you were giving yourself a break from the week. Then during the week, you spent hours watching silly videos. After watching those videos, you would share them with your friends, spending more time laughing at them and discussing what other videos are comparable in the never-ending black hole known as the group chat. Yup, that’s called procrastination, and it is one of the most destructive habits known to man.

However, if you make a habit of being proactive, it can lead to positive results if you focus and stay committed. Below are a few quick tips that you can use to transition from being a procrastinator, to a proactive student.

Make a Plan

First things first, using a planner and making a detailed plan for the project is a must. Verifying that all supplies are present and highlighting important rubric points for various parts of the project are just a few of the many details needed. A planner helps you store all of the notes, comments and specific steps within your plan. A whiteboard is also beneficial as it can help you see the big picture when you lay out your plan. Remember, always get an overview before going through the details. It works for planning a trip, planning your week, or even studying for a history test.

Dividing Goals

Whenever any project is assigned, it is best to divide the project into multiple parts. This makes it easier to focus rather than getting overwhelmed by the project as a whole. By breaking your project into small manageable chunks, you’re able to measure the progress you’re making with each item complete.

Start Early

The earlier the better, as it will allow time to fix mistakes or enhance your project, while leaving you with more time for yourself towards the end. The best thing to do is to treat your project like any other homework and start on it immediately the day it is received. No matter how small the first objective may be, it’s a start. Procrastination is often caused by the fear of starting. By making progress, even minimal progress, from the beginning, you are less likely to procrastinate later on.

Remove Distractions

Whether you’re studying at home in a living room, bedroom, or kitchen, you are surrounded by distractions. You know what those specific distractions are and they’re part of the reason you procrastinate. Your social media accounts, your phone, your funny videos – all are in your control. When you remove those distractions, your productivity skyrockets and you’ll come to thank yourself later when you realize you that you’ve finished the project early. Next time you find it hard to focus, quickly make a list of the ten biggest distractions in your room. Then, eliminate them. The environment plays a huge role in productivity. Control it or it will control you.

Support Systems

Getting started on tasks isn’t always easy, and it’s difficult to push yourself when it’s a task that isn’t fun or desirable. Therefore, get someone to help give you that nudge! Whether it’s a parent, friend, sibling, or tutor, find a support system that works for you so that you are energized and motivated to start and finish your project. Accountability is powerful. When something is important, outsource some the responsibility to someone you trust. Younger siblings make great accountability partners. Not only are they extremely talented when it comes to perpetually reminding people to do something, they also love being included and helping out their older siblings. It’s a win-win.

The truth is procrastination plagues the productivity of people all over the world, not just students. However, students who learn how to manage procrastination by becoming proactive thrive in the adult world. These real-life skills are our bread and butter here at Staying Ahead of the Game. If your student struggles with crushing procrastination or any other executive functioning skill, give us a call.

Overscheduled

Evan Weinberger — Mon, 15 Jul 2019 12:34:28 +0000

These days, there are lots of options available for after-school activities. From sports teams and karate classes to math clubs and music lessons, there’s something for everyone. Often, kids are involved in more than one extracurricular activity, each with its own unique benefits.

When choosing which activities are good for each student, there are lots of factors to consider, such as their interests, social lives, and openness when trying new things. What some parents may not consider, however, is whether a full schedule is too much.

Kids now are growing up in an era where they are exposed to more stimuli than ever before. Many experts say that by scheduling too many activities for children, we deny them the downtime they need to keep a healthy mindset.

Before we talk about how to find that balance, let’s take a look at some of the positives and negatives associated with participating in after-school activities.

The Benefits

One clear benefit of extracurriculars is that they provide a structured routine for kids. Structure is important for developing minds, and these activities are a great way of keeping time outside of school organized. Studies have shown that students who have consistent routines do better academically. Having a consistent schedule also helps when it comes to developing productive habits as time goes on.

Similarly, having more than one scheduled activity during the day also teaches kids time management. Rather than simply having afternoons free after school ends, kids get used to budgeting their time for everything they have to do.

The most obvious benefits, however, are the skills that kids can learn from engaging in their interests, as well as the opportunity to socialize with other children with whom they have something in common.

The Risk

For all of the good after-school activities can achieve, they do have one notable drawback that some people overlook. Having too much going on can cause issues. Overscheduling takes a toll on both students and parents.

One negative effect of having too many scheduled activities is that it takes away from unstructured playtime, which is essential to children’s development. Studies have shown that open playtime allows children to develop creativity, problem-solving, and social skills they can’t get in more structured settings like classes and clubs.

Another potential issue that can be caused by overscheduling is the stress that it puts kids under. Even more so than with adults, kids who are stressed are more likely to be irritable, anxious, and disruptive. Additionally, having lots of activities to get to puts strain on parents as well. Many parents already have busy schedules, and adding events for one or more children can stretch them too thin.

Finding Balance

While these concerns are very real, they don’t mean kids shouldn’t participate in after-school programs. Like nearly anything else, the answer lies in finding a healthy balance. Each student and situation will be different, and there are ways of ensuring that they get the mix that works for them.

One way of ensuring that kids don’t get overwhelmed is to add time for relaxing and unstructured play into their schedules. By making downtime part of the discussion when considering which activities to sign up for, you can keep it from getting pushed aside. Whether it’s a certain block of time each night or one or two days every week with no scheduled activities, actively scheduling this time is a great place to start.

In a similar vein, creating a calendar with all of each child’s activities and hanging it up in a central place is another way of making sure students’ schedules don’t become overwhelming. By having everything written out, it can be easier to identify if any child’s schedule is too packed and lacks break time.

The driving factor between both of these ideas, of course, is to make it easier to avoid overscheduling. Practicing moderation has as many benefits when choosing kids’ after-school activities as it does anywhere else. It can be tempting to fill up a student’s time with extracurriculars, either for the reasons mentioned above, or to boost their college applications, but it’s essential to keep in mind the unique interests and talents of each different child. Picking one or two activities they enjoy will be far more constructive than packing in clubs, teams, and lessons for quantity rather than quality.

Recovering After Being Absent from School

Evan Weinberger — Wed, 16 Jan 2019 15:07:46 +0000

Absences happen to the best of students. People get sick, must travel with their families, or have important events that they must attend. Missing school is something that must be avoided, but when it inevitably happens, it is important that students make sure they do everything they can to recover well. Being absent from school for one or two days in a row has the ability to cause a major change in a student’s grades, and a whole semester’s worth of work can be put in jeopardy if students are not careful. In a single day, students can miss a math test, chemistry lab, and an important lesson that is foundational to success in a given class. Because of these high stakes, learning how to deal with and recover from school absences is an important life skill that can save students from a lot of stress down the road. Below is a five-step plan to recover from a missed day of class:

Step 1: Be Proactive:

As Ben Franklin said, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” The best defense against falling behind in school because of absences is to go on the offensive. If possible, students should plan to talk to teachers a few days before they miss school. This is a great time to practice advocating for one’s self and building rapport with his or her teachers. By emailing the teacher in advance, students can set up an appointment to ask what they should do to stay on track in class while they are absent. Alternatively, students can build a network of peers to help in the event that they will be absent. Social capital is powerful. By helping friends when they are absent, students can create a safety net for when absences occur. Students should find at least one reliable friend in each class so that when they need to reach out to get a copy of the day’s notes because they missed class, they aren’t scrambling to find someone to help.

Step 2: Make a plan:

To leave an even better impression on your teacher, students should devise a plan. Preparation shows maturity and commitment to success. For example, if a student is going to miss a quiz while absent, he or she should be prepared with two or three potential make-up times when meeting with a teacher to determine alternate arrangements; students should also make a plan to get the notes from a friend. Teachers will be impressed when students are committed to class, and grades will benefit. The easiest way for students to avoid late work and stay on track with grades is to be proactive and make a plan when they miss school.

Step 3: Follow Up if you have questions:

When students start doing makeup work, they will probably have questions because they were not in class to learn the material. Even when the student gets the notes from a friend, there may still be questions about how to complete an assignment. Students are not expected to suffer in silence. THEY SHOULD ALWAYS ASK FOR HELP. Not asking for help when help is needed is just another way that students procrastinate when getting work done. If it is an appropriate time, students can email their teacher. Otherwise, students can ask a friend or a tutor for help.

Step 4: TURN IT IN

Once students have finished make-up work, they must make sure that they turn the work in! When a student is absent, it is not the teacher’s responsibility to hunt them down for make-up work. Because students won’t have a reminder in class to turn their work in, they need to set reminders themselves or have a system in place to make sure that they turn work in. Students can set reminders on their phones, turn in homework first thing when they get to school, or write it down somewhere they know they will see it. Assignments that never get turned in usually get buried in a backpack or folder somewhere. If a student has done all the work, they should make sure it gets in their teacher’s hands for grading.

Step 5: Make sure you have Credit

After students have done the work and turned it in, they should make sure they get credit. This may be shocking to some students, but teachers are also human beings who make mistakes. Sometimes, even if a student turns in work on the day that they return from an absence, teachers will forget to change it in the gradebook. Students should check grades a week after submitting make-up work to make sure that all credit is recorded. If the grade is not updated after a week, students should send a polite email to their teacher to remedy the situation. It is important that students advocate for themselves but always be respectful.

Using this 5-step plan will ensure that you don’t fall behind after missing a few days of school. `This is just one way to stay on top of grades and ensure success in the classroom. For more tips like these and more information about our unique one-on-one academic coaching services, please visit this page.