oung people are often juggling a social life, academic work, extra curricular activities, multiple social media accounts all along with trying to make enough time for family. These busy and overwhelming schedules often lead to school deadlines not being met, untidy rooms, things being left at home and being a disorganised student in general. Here at Tutor Doctor we know that students need to learn to be ‘on task’, organise their time and prioritise their activities to ensure they are successful in all aspects of their life. That’s why we developed our X-Skills program which helps students from 12 years plus develop these crucial executive skills they need to succeed and stay on track.
What are X-Skills and how can they help students?
X-skills aren’t something easy to acquire as they aren’t always taught at school and are often only learnt formally when students finally enter the work place. That’s why we developed the Academic Game Plan to help students learn these skills sooner rather than later.
When students practice these executive functioning skills early on, they are more likely to be retained and become a habit they practice for the rest of their life. This means your child will be equipped to excel in all areas, not just academic pursuits.
X-Skills include the following areas:
- Task initiation and follow-through
- Working memory (holding information in memory while performing complex tasks)
- Sustained attention
- Performance monitoring
- Inhibition of impulses
- Goal directed persistence
- Planning and prioritisation
- Organisation
- Time management
- Flexibility
- Self-monitoring and self-evaluation
Having a grasp of all of these vital skills will help make students feel in control and as if they have a lot more time on their hands. This means no more excuses for being a disorganised student or missing important deadlines as they’ll finally have all the tools they need!
Put these X-Skills into practice now
(This part is for students to read)
Planning and prioritisation
Start every week by planning out (on paper) each day and prioritising your tasks and workload. It’s vital that you always put important tasks such as homework or academic commitments first and then allocate time for other activities that might not be so important. By planning out your time it will give you the freedom to get more done, feel on top of your studies and do more of what you love.
Remember tackle difficult tasks head on and try not to avoid something that might not be so enjoyable; the sooner you complete it the quicker you can move onto something fun like socialising with friends and family.
Organisation
Organisation is the key to being successful. A great way to start practicing this is by investing in a diary and penciling in what you have going on each day, what homework is due when and other important events. This will initially help you see what you’re doing, when it’s happening and where it’s taking place. Make sure you write everything in your diary no matter how big or small. It will soon become second nature and a very helpful organisational tool.
Secondly, always make sure you are keeping all of your school notes written up neatly and stored in an orgainised manner. This is important for revision and homework tasks. We guarantee you will be amazed at how much easier it is to find information and complete your homework quickly and efficiently, meaning more time to chat with your friends, read your favourite book or spend quality time with your family.
Time Management
Managing your time is a really easy task to start today. Firstly, always remember to allow enough time for each task and be realistic when doing so. For example, if you have a big homework project that you are working on try and dedicate 2 or 3 nights to it. Even though this may take up a large chunk of your free time, it will be a much more effective use of your time, rather than giving yourself 1 hour and feeling stressed as you won’t be able to complete the task in hand.
If you are juggling multiple important tasks and don’t know how to manage your time, begin by giving yourself a deadline a few days before your real deadline. Now all you have to do is simply dedicate an hour or two a day to each running up to your ‘first’ deadline. This way you will ensure you are working on all of the tasks equally as well as completing them. By giving yourself a slightly earlier target you are allowing extra time if you need it or if something else crops up.
We believe that building up this unique skill-set is the key to success and will help your child achieve their academic goals and beyond.
For more information about our X-Skills program head over to our website or download your free sample now here.
