learning for individual minds

Particularly when students are making transitions to new or higher levels of work or learning environment, it is natural to be concerned about their time management skills.

What is crucially important is to look at energy management both before and alongside time management (typically, when people talk about energy management in this context, they are referring both to managing the energy we have and to increasing our overall capacity). We can know perfectly well what we “should” be doing when, but if our motivation is not cultivated, if our health is sub-par, if the balance of work-rest cycles is off, if we treat ourselves overly mechanically rather than acknowledging our ups and downs , then we are unlikely to be able to follow through on any challenging plans or intentions with any useful consistency.

Some fresh attention on personal energy management is showing up in business and other arenas. One good resource worth using with students as well is the collection of energy management tips at http://www.theenergyproject.com/

The Energy Project’s website includes very clear, very short (approx 1 minute long) videos on aspects of energy management that increase productivity, and also provides a sortable list of quick tips for energy management, and an awareness-increasing self-quiz they call an Energy Audit. For students and families struggling with the demands of special needs, The Energy Project’s deceptively simple reminders of the value of basic self-care may be life-changing.

For more on energy management and related approaches, see also:

http://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2006/07/14/energy-management/

http://preview.tinyurl.com/2ad9r4s