Stephen Covey says that the goal is not to prioritize your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.
What does he mean? Simply put, he means, start with the end in mind and adjust your schedule accordingly. That is exactly how we should lead our middle and high school students in developing life long skills in time management.
STAGE ONE : THE DESTINATION
A map is no good if you have no idea where your destination lies. Thus, the first step to creating a successful roadmap for your student is to find the destination. Here are some questions to ask your young adult (we refrain from the term teenager in my home) as you start this conversation:
- What do you love doing?
- What are you really good at?
- Out of all of the courses you've taken thus far, which was your favorite and why?
- If you were given a single day to do whatever you wanted, what would you do?
- What skill are you interested in developing?
- Do you have any interest in going to college? If so, what would you study?
- Who is your hero?
- Why are you pursuing an education?
- If you could do any job in the world, what would it be?
- What knowledge and skills do you need to have in order to do the job?
- Do you hope to get married some day?
- Do you plan to own a home?
Out of the answers to these questions, comes the destination.
STAGE TWO : THE PATH
Once the destination on the map is set, we now create a path in which to travel. Keep in mind that more than one path may lead to the same destination. Think through all of the possible pathways for a given destination.
It is important to keep your young adult engaged in this conversation. If at some point she steps out of this process, then she won't take ownership of the path laid before her. Also, in this second stage, a general mission statement for her high school years can be formed. Keeping the mission statement visible can help reground her when she has rough days.
Here are some questions to answer in order to create a good path:
- What additional schooling or training does my destination require?
- Are there requirements that I can complete now?
- Are there additional requirements needed to gain access to the schooling or training necessary for my destination?
- What is the focus of my destination?
- Who can help me on my path?
- What tools do I need?
STAGE THREE : MILESTONES
Once you've mapped out the basic path to your destination, it's time to create milestones. Milestones are smaller requirements that are needed to be completed as you travel on the path. We could consider them stoplights. As you travel on the path, you reach a stoplight that will remain red until you complete a specific milestone, then it will turn green and you can advance.
You cannot predict all of the stoplights on the pathway, but you can predict some. For example, most likely your student will need to obtain his license to drive. Until the license is obtained, he can't drive himself to college. He can't get his license until he obtains a learner's permit, and he can't obtain a learner's permit until he takes a course. Therefore, he needs to take the driver's course well before he is ready to attend college.
To predict upcoming milestones for your student, look for prerequisites and skills needed to reach the destination. Here are some questions to help predict these milestones:
- Does his destination require a certain college education?
- Do they require foreign language credit in high school?
- Does he need to drive?
- Does he need to take the ACT, SAT, or CLT?
- What types of programs should he be applying for?
- How many community service hours do they require?
- Is his destination one that would benefit most from working with youth or working a job?
- Is there an internship to help develop some skills?
These are important milestones on their way to their individual destinations.
STAGE FOUR : GOALS
Now you've assembled a map, and it's almost complete. The destination is set. The path is worn. The milestones are addressed. To fully walk the path goals need to be set. Goals are scheduling when you will complete each milestone and how you will travel from one milestone to the next. Once the path and milestones are clear, creating good concise measurable goals is easy. Here are some questions you can use to create good goals:
- What must be completed in order to pass the next milestone?
- How much time does this milestone require, and how much time do I have?
- What courses are required in order to pass these milestones?
- Is the focus of my destination being integrated into my weekly work?
You may have noticed that in order to create these goals, you are actually walking this path backward. Thus, we come to Mr. Covey and his effective people: Begin with the end in mind.
STAGE FIVE : REPEAT
Depending on when you first created the roadmap with your student, you will most likely need to do it again. Follow up with your student to ensure that any missed milestones are added to the path and to help your student continue to work towards his destination.
Taking the time to walk our students through setting a destination, creating a path, seeing the milestones, and setting goals to complete them, is a tremendous gift. Not only does it model for them how to plan well, but it also gives them a logical sane roadmap to look back on when they are having a rough day and need focus.
- Want more help creating a roadmap for your student?
- Don't know what milestones are needed and when?
- Join Scio Academy to receive access to all of our great resources in the educator's toolbox designed to help you lead your student through the middle and high school years.