Time Management Hacks for Busy Teens

Do you sometimes wish you could slow down time? I do. Life as a high schooler is hectic! Between school, extracurriculars, social life, volunteering, and rest, I sometimes feel like being pulled in different directions. After experimenting in grade 9, I’ve found some time management strategies that actually work for me. I’m sharing them here, in case you may find them helpful.

1. Know Where Your Time Goes

To start, get a clear picture of where your time actually goes. We all think we know – we may not. Use a tool like free Toggl Track (It’s free, both on mobile and desktop) to log your time for a few days. You may be surprised how much time disappears into random scrolling, texting, and clicking likes. Research from the American Psychological Association shows that we often underestimate how long tasks take and overestimate how productive we are in a day (König & Kleinmann, 2007). 

Try this: For one week, track your time in 30-minute blocks. It’s like a budget of your hours of the day. Numbers create clarity, and from clarity, you get insights into where you waste too much time and where you need to focus more.

2. Create a Calendar

Make a calendar! Paper or digital, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that you can see your day, week, and month ahead: schoolwork, club meetings, social events, extracurriculars, everything. A clear outlook of the day, week, and month helps you plan ahead, prepare, and avoid missing things.

Try this: Use Google Calendar, a wall calendar, or even just a paper journal. You may consider color-coding activities by category – school, extracurriculars, personal (dr. appointments, birthdays), volunteering – so you can spot what’s coming up when at a quick glance.

3. Build a Schedule That Fits Your Energy Cycle

Our energy levels fluctuate through the day. Some people are morning persons; some are night owls. Don’t fight your biological rhythm – use it. For example, I need my 9 hours of sleep to be functional, so pulling late nights just doesn’t work for me. So, I always try to get my most important projects done before 9 p.m., because that’s when I’m sharper and more energetic. After 9 p.m.? That’s when I start winding down. I may review my schedule for the next day or relax by reading, practicing violin, or playing a quick chess game. This means I just can't afford to wait till the last minute to speed run a project. Instead, I start earlier, chunk the work out, and spread it over a period of time to avoid long nights.

Remember: According to research, aligning tasks with your natural energy levels improves both focus and performance (Kelley et al., 2015).

4. Use Your In-Between Time

I love this one! It’s one of the biggest hacks I’ve learned. Shortly after I started high school in an International Baccalaureate program, I realized I had to be creative in finding time for different tasks. So, I use the time waiting for the bus between home and school to check social media messages and reply. On the ride, I do chess puzzles – just 15-20 minutes each way adds up to 30-40 minutes a day. That’s 3.5 hours a week – not trivial at all! Guess how much time that is in a year? Over 180 hours! This helps to keep my tactics training going while I'm on the go.

The point isn't to milk every second and stress yourself out. It’s the opposite – to put in reps at your convenience without feeling overwhelmed.

Try this: Do Duolingo, solve chess puzzle, or read while waiting in line; listen to podcasts while walking to school; plan your day using a notebook or your phone, reply to emails, or send out school club announcements in Discord while riding in car or the public transit; doing a few push-ups during your lunch hour as part of your daily fitness routine…

5. Use Smart Tools

Use technology to stay on top of things. There’re so many tools out there. Find one or two that work for you and stick with them. Too many apps = confusion and more stress.

Here are the free tools for your consideration:

• Notion – great for organizing homework, tracking goals, or dumping random thoughts. Once you set it up, it feels like your own personal dashboard.

• Google Keep – super handy for jotting down quick ideas or to-do lists, and syncs with your Gmail account.

• Trello – great for track multiple projects, progress, and due dates. It’s particularly helpful if you’re working on group projects with others.

• A basic planner or whiteboard – if you prefer something tangible than digital tools.

  
  

6. Prioritize and Negotiate

Some days, there’s just too much. When that happens, pause for a minute and ask yourself:

• What’s due the soonest?

• What requires the most brain power?

• What can I do quickly to take some pressure off?

  
  

I personally like to start with a few quick wins – like submitting that short Google form or finishing a multiple choice worksheet. Knocking out easy tasks can give you momentum without draining yourself.

Also, push out things that are not urgent or less important. For example, politely say no to something social if you really need to study. True friends will understand.

Note: Sometimes, you can negotiate a deal for yourself. For example, you have a major competition coming up for an extracurricular activity that you need to prepare for, but you also have your English essay due on the same day. Try letting your English teacher know in advance and ask nicely if you could have an extension to focus on the competition first. If you’ve always been a responsible student, most likely your teacher will support you. Of course, when done with the competition, make sure you hand in a thoughtful piece of work within the extended timeline agreed on between you and the English teacher.

7. Protect Wind-Down Time

It’s very important to make sure you have time to relax. So, block off downtime the same way you block off time for schoolwork. Protect that time to recharge yourself by doing whatever you enjoy.

Try this:

• Scheduling time for some non-work-related activities every week, like gaming, sports, cooking, hiking, or hanging out with friends.

• Protecting a weekend morning to sleep in - if you're like me, who needs lots of sleep.

Just don’t lie in bed and scroll on your phone until past midnight. It might feel like you're relaxing while you are doing it, but your brain is still processing a flood of information and being overstimulated. You’ll feel exhausted the next day.

Now, do you have time management hacks to share?