Tip of the Week
5 minutes? 2 hours? You have no idea!
“It’s only going to take me 5 minutes.” And 30 minutes later, frustration sets in because it’s taking longer than expected.
“That’s going to take me two hours!” And after sitting down and reviewing the directions, it takes a mere 15 minutes to complete.
Accurately estimating how long a task will take makes planning and managing time significantly easier. It can help students feel more in control of their schoolwork and free time.
To get a better handle on how long tasks generally take, create a time tracker template with your child to start collecting data. Over the course of the next week, ask your child to estimate how much time they think they’ll need to spend on each assignment and use a timer to track the actual time it takes to complete them. It can look something like this:
“That’s going to take me two hours!” And after sitting down and reviewing the directions, it takes a mere 15 minutes to complete.
Accurately estimating how long a task will take makes planning and managing time significantly easier. It can help students feel more in control of their schoolwork and free time.
To get a better handle on how long tasks generally take, create a time tracker template with your child to start collecting data. Over the course of the next week, ask your child to estimate how much time they think they’ll need to spend on each assignment and use a timer to track the actual time it takes to complete them. It can look something like this:
With this data in hand, students can far more accurately predict how long they will need to spend on various assignments which will make planning their day and week far more manageable.