Time management is one of those essential life skills that often gets overlooked—and yet it can make a huge difference in a student’s success both now and in the future. In this episode, we’re continuing our life skills series (listen to part one HERE!) with a focus on helping high schoolers understand and practice effective time management before they graduate. You’ll hear how this skill connects to ASCA Mindsets & Behaviors and why it’s a game-changer for building independence.

I’ll share simple, practical ways to introduce time management through your counseling program, from identifying schedule non-negotiables to exploring planning tools students will actually use. You’ll also get strategies to help students build routines, increase self-awareness, and approach it all with grace and empathy. Be sure to check out the resources below to put these ideas into action!

Resources Mentioned:

• Resource: High School Counselor Kickstart Audio Course
• Resource: Organization Digital Counseling Activity 
• Resource: Life After High School Classroom Lesson
• Resource: Transition to College Digital Presentation 
• Resource: End of Year High School Counseling Bundle
• Podcast: Episode 166, Life Skills Your Students Should Master [Part 1: Budgeting Basics]
• Podcast: Episode 83, How to Use Needs Assessments Strategically This Year in Your High School Counseling Program
• Resource: ASCA Mindsets & Behaviors
• Leave your review for High School Counseling Conversations on Apple Podcasts

Connect with Lauren:

• Sign up for the free, 3-day prep for High School Counseling Job Interviews https://counselorclique.com/interviews
• Visit my TpT store https://counselorclique.com/shop
• Send me a DM on Instagram @counselorclique https://instagram.com/counselorclique
• Follow me on Facebook https://facebook.com/counselorclique
• Send me an email mailto:lauren@counselorclique.com
• Join the Clique Collaborative http://cliquecollab.com

Full show notes on website: https://counselorclique.com/episode166

Welcome to this week's episode, where we're continuing

the conversation about life skills your high schoolers need

before they graduate. This is coming from a place of practical

wisdom and a dream counseling program. You're noticing what

your students need, or you're probably doing needs

assessments, which if you're not I can link to past episode about

that, but you are the one who is determining what the students on

your caseload in your school actually need. But I'm here just

talking about some general life skills that I've noticed are

helpful as my students launch out of my school and into the,

quote, real world, or just things that I have reflected

back on that I wish I had a greater understanding of when I

came out of high school.

So if you haven't listened to the first episode of this series

about money management and budgeting, head back to last

week's episode and then come back here to this week's

episode. It truly doesn't matter what order you listen to, but

you know, if you're gonna binge them all, why don't you just go

in order? That's my suggestion, at least.

Before we get to the episode. I told you last week that sharing

the episode with a friend is a truly impactful way that you can

help me get this High School Counseling Conversations podcast

show in the air pods of more high school counselors just like

you. I want every high school counselor to know about it, so

that is where you come in. You are a listener who is dedicated,

and I want you to share this show with a friend. Leave a

review if it's been helpful for you.

Let's read a review from a listener to kick off this

episode, just like we did last week. This one is from opinion

lady 25, love that username. The subject of this review is called

a must listen. This five star review says, "It's clear that

Lauren wants school counselors to thrive in their role and be

equipped to do the best work they can. I appreciate that

Lauren ensures her episodes are educational and applicable to

her audience. I've learned so much from listening." Well thank

you for that very positive opinion, opinion, lady, I

appreciate it, and I'm happy to read wonderful five star reviews

like this on air. So go ahead and leave your review after

listening to this week's episode.

You got into this profession to make a difference in your

students' lives, but you're spread thin by all the things

that keep getting added to your to do list. I can't create more

hours in the day, but I can invite you into my counselor

clique, where you'll finally catch your breath. Come with me

as we unpack creative ideas and effective strategies that'll

help you be the counselor who leaves a lifelong impact on your

students. I'm Lauren Tingle, your high school counseling hype

girl, here to help you energize your school counseling program

and remind you of how much you love your job.

I think when I set out to do this series, I was picturing in

my mind just talking to seniors because they're about to

graduate. That's what time of the year it is. But I truly

think that these skills are valuable at every grade level,

and our students probably stand to need the information over and

over again, like they have to hear it over and over to be able

to put it into practice in their lives. I think if I were looking

at a comprehensive program, a high school counseling program,

and trying to plan out something intentional over those four

years, I'd sit with my team, if I had team. I've always had a

team, so that's why I assume you do too, but I know not everyone

does. And I decide on some skills that would be important

based on the needs of my school, and then plan out what I wanted

Life skill number two is time management. Can you think of

to do long term to make that happen.

anyone who wouldn't benefit from some more help with time

management and self advocacy around this topic? There are

students who are going to need more intentional individual help

with this, but it's a skill that you can get out in front of a

lot of your students at once to educate them. When your students

leave your halls, you'll want them to be independent and be

able to advocate for themselves, and so that's why we're focusing

on these life skills.

And this one specifically, because it relates to a couple

different ASCA mindsets and behaviors, specifically BSMS1,

and that's the behavior standard that addresses the self

management skill of responsibility for self and

actions. And time management is definitely a skill that proves

that someone is responsible once they get on track to mastering

it. Another mindset and behavior that's addressed when we help

students with their time management is BSMS2, it's

literally the next one down in the same column of the mindsets

and behaviors, which is self discipline and self control. And

maybe those words sound like kind of aggressive and rigid. I

don't know. It's just like the vibe they give off, but I think

someone who can show their ability to manage their time

shows that they're disciplined.

If you're anything like me, sometimes you would like to

spend your time doing something different from the thing that

you need to spend your time doing. So we want to spend our

time doing one thing, but there are things that we have to get

done. So mastering this to a level of self control without

others having to do it for you is a level of mastery that we

want our students to get to to facilitate their independence

before they leave us. So for them to be able to manage with

self control and self discipline their own time, I think, is a

huge and meaningful life skill.

Now, I know we all have our own personal ways to tackle time

management, and for some of us, it comes easier than others. So

I want us to keep a mindset of grace as we teach time

management to students. For some of our students, it's going to

be really hard. For some of us, it's really hard. Not everyone

will fall into a cookie cutter way that they process this and

find success immediately. Personality types, level of

overwhelm, previous practice and expectations from others, like,

was this expected in your family, maturity and

responsibility levels, all of these will affect how a student

takes your leadership on this topic and runs with it, or

doesn't and does nothing with it.

For all of them, though, I think when you're teaching time

management, the best place to start is start small. Assume

that they know nothing about time management, that they know

nothing about blocking their time or batching their tasks or

checking things off lists, even the most basic of basics, don't

rule anything out. And again, assume that they've never been

taught anything time management and they have zero practice with

these skills. And then I think you'll find yourself in a good

place to start.

So first, help them see the big picture. What good things come

out of being organized? Like if they can get a glimpse of the

end result, then maybe their eyes will be open to actually

realizing that this is a meaningful or important skill to

master. They'll have less stress, better grades. They will

achieve goals that they actually set out to achieve. They'll meet

expectations that they set for themselves. They'll develop

rhythms and routines and structure which actually allow

freedom or margin for hobbies or part time jobs or just some

blank space with nothing that they have to do. I'm someone who

feels bound by rhythms and routines like that feels very

suffocating to me, but when I frame it to myself that if I

manage my time, then I can have some margin to do the things

that I want to do, that's a lot more reassuring to me, and it

makes me a little bit more motivated to get better with my

time management.

With that better time management and some structure in your

students' days, they'll be able to make more room, have more

freedom for the things that they want to do, because there won't

be these tasks looming over them waiting to get done. Their

downtime will actually be their downtime, and they're more

prepared for adulthood because they know how to do this. When

students launch out into young adulthood, I think it's commonly

assumed that they know how to manage their time, that they

know how to keep a calendar and show up where they need to be,

that they get their work done in a reasonable amount of time.

Like there's just a level of responsibility that young adults

are assumed to have. But if no one has trained them on it, and

no one has practiced these skills with them, then there's

going to be a real gap in their skills and their self mastery

over some really important life skills. So that's why we're

talking about it.

Have them analyze what they're doing right now and get a pulse

check on if it's working or not. Are they using an agenda given

to them by the school? Do they use a paper and planner that

they got from somewhere else? Some people swear by the paper

and pencil method. It's usually not me, but I did actually just

do this for the summer, because, let me tell you, the visual

immediately lowered my stress levels because I could see what

our weeks were gonna look like all summer with one quick visual

eyeball on these pieces of paper. Do your students use a

digital planner on their phone or their tablet or their

computer? Remember, the best planner is the one that you

actually use. So yeah, you can use that line with them. There's

no right or wrong here. A gym membership won't help you get

stronger in shape if you never show up. The right fit gym for

you is the one that you actually go to. So have your students

choose their way to plan.

Remember, I said we're gonna get back to the basics here. This

feels very simple. Okay, they chose it perfect. Check. Now

let's open up that planner and jot down the things that we

already know go in there, put in the easy things. People have all

different ways of looking at this. You know that. Look at the

different views. Do you like to look at daily, weekly, monthly?

If your students aren't used to using planners yet, they may

need an extra level of accountability to keep using it,

like actually put it in place and meet those deadlines. So

maybe, if it's something digital, setting alarms for

these things, that's very easy to do in a digital platform.

Next, have your students think about what non negotiables go in

that planner. What takes up time on your calendar that has to be

there? Then how will you plan to have everything fall into place

around that? Have them analyze some rhythms and routines that

are working for them right now. What do they wish they could add

or take away? Are there rhythms and routines that used to work

but now they just don't serve them?

So for example, during baseball season, the student always went

straight to practice from school, then came home for

dinner and homework and then played video games until bed. It

worked for a season, but when he's not in baseball season, he

actually has a lot more free time, and he somehow neglects

his homework because he has a lot more time, and he scrambles

to get it turned in on time. It doesn't make sense up here in

the ether that with more time, he actually wouldn't get his

stuff done. But he needs to address his time management

during baseball's off season in a different way, because his

time is slipping away and causing him unnecessary stress.

Sometimes it's just an acknowledgement that something

has changed, and what we did one semester of the year doesn't

work for the other semester. And that's okay.

If your students are finding it hard to manage their time, I'd

encourage you to either sit with them individually, run a small

group of students who all have like needs, or maybe it's like

some lunch and learn sessions until we kind of get on pace

together, or do whole classroom lessons where you walk them

through a step by step process on revamping their time

management. I just don't think anyone has this perfectly down

pat, where they can ask themselves some more invasive

personal questions to see how they could get better at it. I

just think that everybody has a level to get better at this, and

no one's perfect at it.

I have an organization, digital presentation or check in to do

with your students. It's really helpful to walk through some of

those big pieces of organization, like planning,

structuring, arranging and reflecting on what's working and

reflecting on what isn't working. So as you're rounding

out the year, I wanted to let you know, of course, I have

resources in my TPT shop. I'm also working on a big overhaul

of the Clique Collaborative membership. I closed the doors

here for a few months, and I've been working on a major revamp

inside that I hope you'll stay tuned for. It currently has over

25 PD videos for teaching and training high school counselors,

but I'm gonna be shaking some things up inside there. So if

you are interested in what's coming next, just stay tuned for

that. It's closed right now for new members, because I'm working

on the inside.

And if you're a new counselor right now wondering what your

next move should be, or you're coming right out of internship,

I'd encourage you to check out the high school counselor

kickstart audio course at counselorclique.com/newcounselor

for your next steps after you get the job.

I'll be back next week with part three of those life skills that

your students should master before they graduate. It'll be

the last episode in this series of life skills, and I hope that

your students have them down pat by the time they leave high

school, but this will have all sorts of helpful tips for our

third and final one, so I'll see you then.

Thanks for listening to today's episode of High School

Counseling Conversations. All the links I talked about today

can be found in the show notes and also at

counselorclique.com/podcast. Be sure to hit follow wherever you

listen to your podcasts so that you never miss a new episode.

Connect with me over on Instagram. Feel free to send me

a DM @counselorclique, that's C, L, I, Q, U, E. I'll see you next

week.