From having perhaps one project per term in primary school, to several that have to be completed in a span of a few weeks, this is one of the challenges that the secondary school child in Singapore has to contend with. Especially for a secondary 1 student who has to adapt to a new school, make new friends and learn new subjects, the slew of projects is another reason why they may become overwhelmed.
That’s why it is critical to teach our children project management skills, to help them manage their workload, time and themselves. While our children may be in secondary school and we might think they should be more independent, the reality may not always be the case. Hence, as parents and teachers, we can come in to guide them with tools and strategies that can empower them during their school life, and when they head to the real world in future.
1. Prevent your child from being overwhelmed.
From an average of one project every one to two terms, to three or even five projects in just one term, it’s understandable that your child may get overwhelmed.
2. Enable your child to break seemingly big projects into smaller tasks
When your child sees each project as one ‘big rock’, many ‘big rocks’ make their senses go into overdrive. Project management skills help your child to break these ‘big rocks’ into smaller, more manageable ‘rocks’ or tasks.
3. Nurture the ability to think of a plan and gather the resources needed
As the ‘big rock’ is broken down, your child can think of the approach to take to execute the project. What help and resources do they think they need? With such a mindset, your child will be able to go forth and own their projects.
3. Equip your child with a life skill
As working adults, we know that project management skills are inevitable. So teaching your child these skills today will prepare them for the real world.
So you’re convinced about the importance of project management skills, but what exactly should we teach our kids? Here are 3 project management tools your child will find useful.
1. Gantt Chart
Commonly used in the working world, this chart visually represents how projects progress over time. The list of activities or tasks are on the left, while the timeline is on the right. The timeline can be broken up into weeks or even days. At one glance, it allows your child to see what has to be done and when for each project he or she has. A very simple Gantt chart can be created using Excel or Google Sheet.
2. Matrix of Urgency + Importance
Also known as the Eisenhower Matrix, this is an extremely useful way to prioritise tasks based on the urgency and importance of each task. Teach your child to assess whether a task is important and helps him or her to progress towards their own goals. Or, is the task time sensitive and requires immediate attention to avoid consequences? This matrix can help your child move away from ‘firefighting’ the unimportant urgent activities and put their focus and time on the important tasks that help them grow.
3. Planner / Online calendar
Ask your child to map out their daily schedule visually using either a planner or online calendar. Not only can they clearly see their commitments for each day, they can also have a better idea of their pockets of available time that they can use for studies or project work.
Let’s empower our kids and teach them the tools that will last them a lifetime.