Time Wasters

Students will find and compare strategies that they can apply to reduce wasted time.

6 envelopes

36 index cards

Brainstorm and vote to find the four major time wasters in your class. (E.g. browsing social media, waiting for the bus, etc.)

Write down each time waster on the back of an envelope.

Divide the class into 4-6 teams.

Add as many blank index cards to each envelope as the number of teams.

Issue one envelope to each group. Point out to the groups the time waster written on the back of the envelop and the index cards inside.

Ask each team to come up with as many ideas as possible to handle the time waster written on their envelope and write that on one of the index cards. (Do not read what the other groups have written on their index cards!) Place your card inside the envelope and pass the envelope to the next team.

Each round has a time limit of three minutes so once time is up in each round, every team has to pass the envelope to the next team.

Ask one person from each team to read out to the whole group  the proposed solutions/ strategies to the time waster that they received in the last round.

Hold an evaluation round of voting which of the proposed strategies works best in terms of practicality and usefulness.

Ask them to choose and try to apply one/some of the strategies in the upcoming weeks.

If possible, in a couple of weeks ask the students if – in the meantime – they have tried to use the strategies to reduce wasted time and what was their experience.

https://www.trainingcoursematerial.com/free-games-activities/time-management-activities/