Following on from our recent blog about how wellbeing concerns for young people is negatively impacting school engagement, we’ve pulled together 6 tips and strategies to help the young people in your life get organised and strike a better school-life balance. 3 Top tips...
Following on from our recent blog about how wellbeing concerns for young people is negatively impacting school engagement, we’ve pulled together 6 tips and strategies to help the young people in your life get organised and strike a better school-life balance.
3 Top tips for getting organised
Organisation is a skill we learn, though many well-organised parents and carers wish it was genetic! Here are some tips to kick-start that skill building for teens:
1. Speak it into existence
When young people are struggling to cope and manage their mental health, it’s more difficult for them to focus on other areas of their lives such as school and everything that comes with that – from academic performance to friend and teacher relationships and even down to the effort that’s required to simply turn up each day.
When a young person is struggling with anxiety or depression, it’s quite typical for sleep to be a problem area. This of course impacts their ability to get to school, concentration levels and mood.
Encourage the young person to discuss plans for the day or verbalise the steps needed to complete a task. Showing how you set your routines can help teens build strong organisational habits. Chatting with them in the car or in brief moments together can be enough time to ask them to talk through what’s ahead for today or tomorrow and get them to think it through – often it will remind them of exactly what they need to leave the house with, saving you a trip later in the day too!
2. Break larger tasks into smaller ones
Prioritising tasks can be a learning curve for some young people. Big tasks are often daunting and can seem impossible. Help them climb the mountain one step at a time by asking them to think about what’s the first step they can take in achieving the task or plan, and then the second step, and so on! They often avoid tasks simply because they just don’t know where to start, and that’s where the habit of identifying step one comes in really handy.
3. Maintain a clean space
You know what they say, ‘tidy home, tidy mind’. There have been lots of books written on the impact of a clean workspace on our productivity and success. The same goes for teen’s spaces – where they do their work and where they relax. Rather than make it a daily grind, try suggesting a 15-minute clear up session once a week and shut the door the rest of the time!
3 Top tips for refining the school-life balance
While we know many young people across the country are readjusting to being back at school, the age-old problem of balancing school and home life remains a challenge for a lot of teens. Here are some suggestions that can help get the balance right.
1. Work hard, play hard
Help young people to find balance by discussing their schedule and making sure they have a balance of fun time and study time – everyone needs down time and this allows young people to be more productive when they return to schoolwork, at home and at school.
2. Establish priorities
Many young people struggle to make choices because there are too many options and they struggle between what they want to do (be with their friends) and what they need to do (schoolwork). Encouraging young people to think about the whole list and only do the things that are actually a priority – like homework with deadline – can help them find a way to manage their time so they get the best of both worlds.
3. Done is sometimes better than perfect
Striving for what a young person deems as “perfection” isn’t always an advantage. This is because achieving “perfection” isn’t always possible. Remind them to aim for the best of their ability instead, this way they are likely to feel more satisfied and balanced in the end.
We hope there’s a tip or a reminder in here that you can use to support the young people in your life as they continue to navigate the path of adolescence. We’d love to hear from you at marketing@raise.org.au if you have any other ideas in this space, or if you’d like us to feature a particular area for our next article – we always welcome feedback.