When I started teaching, most meetings I had with students had nothing to do with class lessons. They would come into my office, sit down, and whimper, 鈥淚鈥檓 stressed out, exhausted, and my life is all over the place.鈥� Sometimes bursts of tears would ensue. They aren鈥檛 alone: shows that students feel that society is more and more demanding of them. Mental-health issues in young children and teenagers are on the rise.
Students didn鈥檛 come to me because I鈥檓 a therapist. Neither had my course anything to do with mental health. They came to me because I鈥檓 the time-management guy鈥擨鈥檝e been doing research on time management for years. They came to me because of a simple but insidious assumption: If I can be just a little more productive, everything will be all right.
Why do students think productivity is the answer to their malaise? Because that鈥檚 what they鈥檝e been told their whole life. By parents, television, the internet, peers, coaches, and, yes, schools. Schools play a major role in instilling this productivity mindset in young children, according to , author of Beyond Measure, a splendid book on how school performance pressures harm students. This mindset, especially in excess, can make students鈥� relationship with time fraught. If being obsessed with productivity makes students tired, anxious, and depressed, then the way schools think about time is neither conducive to their well-being nor, ironically, to their long-term productivity.
What would it take to make dramatic and effective changes to how schools think about time? Obviously, much of our obsession with productivity does not start with school. Public policies, culture, parents鈥� socioeconomic background, and a host of other factors play a major role. But historically, schools have been where children learn about time, punctuality, and schedules. Maybe it鈥檚 time for schools to use that power to teach students a healthier way to use their time. Here are a few actions school communities can take at a local level.
1. Conduct time-use surveys. We don鈥檛 really know what we do with our time until we measure it. That鈥檚 why have been conducting time-use surveys for decades. These surveys essentially ask people what they do every half-hour or so over a 24-hour period. When we scale this up to a whole population, we get a clearer picture of how people use their time and whether it makes them happy and healthy. That鈥檚 how we know, for instance, that people who spend and more are happier than those who do the opposite.
Why do students think productivity is the answer to their malaise? Because that鈥檚 what they鈥檝e been told their whole life."
With time-use surveys, schools can better understand where students鈥� time goes, which is the first step toward tackling time issues. Doing this at a local level is key because time-use patterns will likely change from one school to another, especially for students with different socioeconomic backgrounds.
2. Lower the pressure. It鈥檚 far from clear whether, past a certain threshold, homework actually boosts students鈥� grades. The amount of homework assigned to students has increased a few times in the past鈥攁t one point the U.S. government feared students would be by their Russian counterparts during the Cold War. Whether homework is still increasing is not clear, but one thing is: The American public has been consistently in favor of more homework despite contrary expert opinion. Thankfully, several school districts, including in Hillsborough, Calif., and Somerville, Mass., have implemented reduced-homework policies, although not without resistance. These policies can go a long way toward alleviating students鈥� unnecessary time pressure.
Another worrying trend is the decline of recess time. The logic here isn鈥檛 that different from that of corporate employers: Reduce break times so people will spend more time working and thus boost performance. But that logic isn鈥檛 supported by science. Recovery, physical activity, and enjoyment are crucial for school performance and well-being, and that鈥檚 what recess is for. Reducing recess means reducing the break time necessary to recover the resources necessary for learning and creativity. Fortunately, many schools are now upping recess time, but it鈥檚 not just quantity that matters: How and with whom students enjoy recess time are important as well. (For instance, having more adults present during recess time increases physical play and helps conflict resolution among kids.)
3. Intentionality over productivity. Students today have more ways to spend their time than at any other point in history: watching TV, browsing the Internet, piano lessons, acting classes, community service, football, and countless other activities. We also live in a society that encourages busyness: If you鈥檙e not doing something at any given time, you鈥檙e a nobody.
Schools, parents, and peers push students to engage in a seemingly infinite number of activities, extracurricular or otherwise. These activities can be important for students鈥� well-being, but too much can backfire, as .
Not only does overscheduling kids with activities make them miserable, but it also fails to teach them an essential lesson: It is better to do a few things intentionally and deliberately than to crowd one鈥檚 schedule with activities. An abundance of activities fails to teach children an even more important skill: focus. Doing too many things inevitably saps our ability to immerse ourselves fully in whatever we鈥檙e doing.
Schools can help by talking with parents about what constitutes a reasonable鈥攈ealthy鈥攁mount of extracurricular activities. Schools can also encourage parents to think about 鈥渄igital policies鈥� to govern the use of digital devices at home and how social media and smartphones should be used responsibly. Most importantly, schools should emphasize unstructured time. The more time children spend in unstructured activities, the more they learn how to structure time on their own. Conversely, if you structure all of children鈥檚 time, they will their own time. This makes sense鈥攈ow would you learn self-discipline if you鈥檙e never given the opportunity? You can鈥檛 teach proper time management to people if you manage all of their time.
Schools are said to prepare children for real life, an often busy and hectic place. But does school conspire in making life busier and more hectic? That鈥檚 very likely. By fundamentally reassessing the way they think about time, schools stand to make future adults鈥攁 future society鈥攈appier, healthier, and more intentional with their time. Schools have been teaching us the importance of being punctual. Maybe they should now teach us the importance of healthy time management.
