How to Teach Kids to Manage Their Time: Tips and Tricks for Parents

Time is one of the most valuable resources we have, yet many of us may take it for granted. Time management is especially important to develop from a young age, but there's so much more to it than simply helping your kids get their Math homework completed on time. If you choose to teach time management skills, you're also choosing to nurture your children's independence and freedom, empowering them as they grow into adults.

Here's what effective time management looks like for children, why it's so important, and how they can carry it with them for the rest of their lives.

What Does Good Time Management Look Like?

Many people may believe that good time management just means getting things done on time or completing tasks as quickly as possible. However, there's so much more to it than that. Good time management skills can help your kids manage overall responsibilities, giving them more freedom in their personal lives for the things they want to do. When they know the best ways to manage their time, they have the autonomy to choose how to spend their time.

Good time management in kids might look like:

• Completing homework before playing video games.
• Waking up with enough time to get ready for school without rushing.
• Knowing how long it takes to clean their room.
• Using a checklist to keep track of daily chores.

Why Is It So Important For My Child to Learn Good Time Management Skills?

Here are just some of the ways teaching children time management skills from a young age can benefit your child:

• Helps Children Be More Independent: Our time is our own. If kids can manage their time well, you as a parent don't have to keep reminding them to complete chores or homework. Without these constant reminders, they have the freedom to complete tasks in their own time.
• Reduces Stress: Even adults can experience a high level of stress when they have a lot of tasks to tackle. A study by the University of Madrid found that strategic time management helped reduce stress in students. Just like with adults and students, when children can plan for their tasks, they’re bound to feel more in control.
• Improves Academic Performance: If your kids have good time management skills, this often means they put more thought into preparing for school assignments.
• Gives Them More Responsibility: Children can learn to take ownership of their commitments by managing their own schedule. This means they'll turn into responsible and reliable adults.
• Supports Future Success: We all need good time management skills in adulthood. When we know how to manage our time better, we're more likely to excel in the workplace and dedicate time to work on personal projects too. Teaching young people how to manage time early on will provide a foundation for this.

Time Management For Kids: Tips, Tricks & Tools

Just like any other skill, time management can be taught, practiced, and improved. The following time management tips will help.

1. Set Goals With Your Kids

One of the biggest ways to know if your kids are managing their time well is by setting and completing goals. They can be any type of goal, whether that's personal or school-related. The main thing here is to encourage kids to create specific and measurable goals that they can use to track progress.

Some examples include:

• Finish reading 2 nonfiction books this month
• Practice piano for 20 minutes a day
• Spend 30 minutes on homework a night
• Build a Lego set this weekend

Goal setting teaches kids to think ahead and make intentional decisions. They have something tangible to work towards. However, it's important for any goals you set with your kids to be realistic. It may not be viable for a child to practice piano for two hours a day, especially if they have other tasks to complete, but 20 minutes is a much more realistic and manageable goal.

Tip - If your child has a big goal to complete (such as finishing a novel by the end of the week), break it down into smaller steps. In this case, the smaller steps or mini goals may be: read 10 pages a night, or read a chapter a night. This will make it easier for your child to tackle bigger and more daunting goals.

2. Teach Your Kids How to Estimate Time

When they're just beginning to develop their time management skills, most kids won't be very well versed in estimating time. They might think a task takes 5 minutes when it actually takes 20. Knowing how to estimate time accurately is an important skill – it will help them plan their days in the future.

Estimating time doesn't have to be boring. Make it into a game: ask your child to guess how long different tasks will take, and then time them. This will help them understand better how long different types of tasks will take.

3. Explain How to Prioritize Tasks

Not all tasks are equally important, and this is true for personal, school, and work life. It's important to teach kids that not all the tasks have to be completed right now. Some can wait while your child gets those most important ones out of the way.

Using the "Must-Should-Could" Framework:

• Must: These are things that absolutely have to get done (e.g., homework due tomorrow).
• Should: These are important but not urgent tasks (e.g., studying for a test next week).
• Could: These are nice-to-do items (e.g., organizing toys).

4. Create Routines and Schedules

Kids thrive on predictability. In fact, a study from researchers at the University of California at Irvine found evidence that having a “predictable” early life can be beneficial to a child’s brain development. This is why it's so important to set consistent routines for mornings, after school, and bedtime. Here are some quick tips:

• Ensure your kids complete their homework before dinner.
• Encourage children to be awake and ready for school by 7 am.
• Ensure kids are ready for bed by 9 pm every night.
• Use a calendar or a whiteboard where they can see their day at a glance.

5. Teach Time Blocking

Time blocking is a popular time management technique where you assign specific blocks of time to specific activities. For example:

• 4:00–4:30 PM: Snack and free time
• 4:30–5:15 PM: Homework
• 5:15–5:30 PM: Chores

The idea of this technique is to give your child structure without being overly rigid. They can choose how and where to block their time. It also helps kids see where their time goes, giving them more control over their day and more independence. They can block out time for important tasks like homework, household activities like chores, and also personal things. For example, if they want to watch TV for a few hours before bed or on a weekend, they can block out time for this. Teach your child that this is their time, and having periods to do things they enjoy is as important as making time for school work and other responsibilities.

Furthermore, if you want to help your child develop new skills or encourage them to start learning about a new topic (like economics or history), you can block out time for that.

6. Create To-Do Lists

To do lists are a fantastic way to outline all the tasks your child should complete that day. Even little kids can benefit from a simple checklist. Have them write (or draw) a list of tasks for the day.

Physically being able to check off tasks will give your kids a sense of accomplishment, as they can easily see what they've achieved and what's coming up. This feeling of accomplishment can also help with staying focused.

To do lists are also a fantastic way to break down bigger tasks. For example, if your child has an important science project coming up, breaking that main task up into smaller steps throughout the week can keep them focused and stop them from feeling overwhelmed.

Tip: Gamifying the process can help really young kids stay focused. Try adding points or even small rewards for every task they complete. If they complete all tasks on their to do list, you could also reward them with something bigger, like an hour of TV or online time.

7. Limit Other Distractions

Tasks can’t receive the focused attention they deserve if there are too many distractions around. Screen time, toys, or even siblings can interrupt your child while they're trying to work. To limit these, help your child identify what they find the most distracting, and brainstorm solutions together. Possible solutions could include:

• Completing homework in a quieter room.
• Moving gaming consoles or toys temporarily to another place.
• Working in focused bursts of 25 minutes, with a break (also known as the Pomodoro method).

8. Encourage Kids to Take Breaks

Part of managing time is also knowing when to take a break. Kids should understand when it's time to put away their work and rest or do something else for fun, as this will help them create a better work-life balance in the future.

A study published in the journal Mental Health and Physical Activity compared durations of classroom exercise breaks. It found that classroom exercise breaks improve on-task behavior in 4th and 5th-grade students. Ten and 20 minutes of classroom exercise breaks improved on-task behavior, illustrating the importance of teaching your children to take breathers as part of their time management.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Are the 5 P's of Time Management?

The 5 P's of time management stand for:

• Prioritization - This involves your child working on or completing the most important tasks.
• Planning - Teaching your child to organize their time for the day, week, or even the month.
• Productivity - This means limiting distractions and using the right tools to complete tasks as quickly and efficiently as possible.
• Patience - Completing tasks without rushing towards the end.
• Persistence - Teaching your child to follow through on tasks even when challenges get in the way.

What Is the 7 8 9 Rule for Time Management?

According to Priority: a Better Way to Work, the 7-8-9 rule is a time management strategy that helps to break down the 24 hours in a day into smaller, more manageable blocks.

• Use 7-8 hours to work or study productively.
• Get a full 8 hours of sleep to recharge.
• Use the remaining 9 hours for personal time.

If you choose to adopt this method for your kids, it may need some adjustments. Since they're not adults, you likely won't expect them to work 7-8 hours a day. However, you can always adjust to 3 or 4 hours a day and then increase the time for personal hours.

Why Does My Child Struggle With Time Management?

There are many reasons why your child struggles with time management. This includes:

• Lack of experience in managing time
• Poor estimation skills
• Difficulty understanding the natural consequences of poor planning
• Procrastination
• Becoming easily distracted

Other factors also have their part to play when it comes to time management. The Study Hub suggests that students who have ADHD often struggle to effectively manage their time due to executive dysfunction and differences in time perception. However, it also explains that estimating time and organizing tasks can help.

What Is the Biggest Cause of Poor Time Management?

A key study published in the Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine found that there's a significant relationship between procrastination and poor time management, emphasizing that procrastination is not only a time management issue but also strongly influenced by self-control. Procrastination is the tendency to delay tasks in order to prioritize short-term pleasurable activities over important goals.

This is why it's so important to teach kids self-discipline when teaching them how to manage their time. Time blocking, setting to-do lists, and taking breaks can all help with procrastination.

Conclusion

There are lots of factors that go into teaching your kids proper time management – and lots of reasons why you should do it. Developing your child's time management skills will empower them; it will give them the freedom to manage their own time as they step into adulthood. 

If you start teaching time management from an early age, it will also make your own job easier. You, as their parents and their teachers, won't be constantly reminding them to complete chores or tasks. They'll develop a stronger sense of responsibility, and you'll set them up for a future where they feel capable, independent, and free to pursue their own goals.

Reference List

• Erin Kaye Howie, Michael W. Beets, Russell R. Pate. (2014). Acute classroom exercise breaks improve on-task behavior in 4th and 5th grade students: A dose–response., Mental Health and Physical Activity. Volume 7, Issue 2.
• Nayana Mohan, Athira P.V. (2023) Procrastination, Time Management and Self Control Among Young Adults. The International Journal of Indian Psychology.
• Study Hub. (2025). Time management for ADHD. The University of Edinburgh.
• Matthew T. Birnie, Tallie Z. Baram. (2022). Principles of emotional brain circuit maturation. Vol 376, Issue 6597. Science.
• Ansiedad y Estrés. (2025). Impact of a strategic time management programme on burnout, anxiety, depression, and emotional regulation in university students. Department of Social and Work Psychology and Individual Differences.