Time Management Graduation Gifts

One of the greatest gifts you can give someone going to college/university or entering the real world in their first jobs is the gift of learning to manage their time.  There are debates about whether you like one approach or another but the most important thing is to use a system and a method that will work for you.  I have older nieces that have been to college and one of the greatest weaknesses I saw them face was the proper use of their time.  Being on your own for the first time can be overwhelming to many.

I am an avid fan of time management tools and processes.  I was first exposed to them by a boss I had in one of first jobs.  In hindsight maybe he was giving me a hint .  All joking aside though he signed our whole department up for a Franklin Covey time management course that included training in the system and planning binders to make sure you had the tools to implement the system.  I wish I would have been exposed to these approaches earlier in life.

In those days computers were not as indispensable as they are today.  Currently I use a program called Plan Plus from Franklin Covey that is integrated with my Microsoft Outlook software to automate the process I learned way back when.  The Outlook Plug In also can sync with PDAs to take your organizational process mobile when you need to tough nowadays kids always seem to have their laptops with them.

Do your new grad and yourself a favor before those thousands of dollars are spent and school loans are taken out.  Talk to your grad about making the right choices about how they spend their time and give them some graduation gifts that will keep them on track.

This of course assumes your grad already has a computer but I guess that discussion is for the next post…