We can’t control time but we can control how we plan to use it.

How do you get the most out of the next, or in the case of our Year 13 students the last 35 weeks at Secondary School? Over the last two weeks I have shared with our year 13’s a few ideas and techniques to support them in taking care of themselves and keeping a focus on the W.I.N. What’s Important Now.

It’s about focus, staying on task and in the long term achieving what you wanted and feeling good about it.

It is about planning and taking control of your time left.

• Where do you want to be in 35 weeks’ time if you are reaching for the stars? Have a goal.
• My goal is for you to have enjoyed the final year of your time as part of the Kotuku. The goal is to be happy in 2019 and to be able to step up on to the next rungs of the ladder, with some great memories and a strength of character that will serve you well.
• Remember either you run the day… or the day runs you. Simply put this requires some prior thought and planning. If you are always in reacting mode, your brain will get unnecessarily fatigued. We only have so much willpower to give out. So be smart and use it on the agreed priorities you made with yourself when you were goal setting. This helps establish habits which then reduce the need for willpower.
• Remember that not all stress is bad. There is good stress and poor stress. Poor stress leads to overwhelm, whereas good stress can help keep you focused.
• Poor STRESS affects memory – “Simple tasks can become difficult… Difficult Tasks Become SOMEWHAT Impossible. This is in your control.
• For you to not to live in a state of overwhelm or stress, learn to make time weekly to plan what needs to be done. This will also leave you the headspace to deal with things that can’t be planned for. Don’t overfill and promise too much of yourself, when the reality is that is not possible to get it all done and room needs to be left for the what ifs.
• Things that lead to poor stress are a lack of planning and then having so many things to do. You kid yourself that the only way to get them done is to multi-task. Multi-tasking is at best half-tasking or task switching. So be mindful of the promises you made to yourself about what is important now, keeping in mind what you agreed with yourself was a priority. Take one thing off your list and give it your full attention. It will probably take half as long.
• The key is staying true to what you said you were going to do, long after the mood or emotion you were in when you said it, has passed.