I don't necessarily believe in making New Year's Resolutions. The practice of making a bunch of decisions on this random Wednesday in the middle of winter to quit bad habits and pick up good habits often doesn't lead to lasting change anyway. Nearly 2/3 of resolutions have been abandoned within the first month, so what's the point?
The one thing I do like about the New Year is that it's a good excuse to spend some time reflecting on what my goals are and whether I'm making progress toward them. Without a concrete plan, it's easy to let one day bleed into the next and weeks pile up without making much progress.
In classes, several teachers have asked students to reflect on how they spent time in 2024 or how they plan to spend time in 2025. The kids have some amazing insights about things they want to achieve and ideas for how to get there, but we often don't want to think about time we've wasted. It's in the past and there's no need to dwell on it, but it is useful to identify how and why we wasted that time. What were you doing instead of working toward your goals? By identifying that, it creates an opportunity to use time more effectively in the future.
In several classes this fall or winter, teachers have talked to kids about one enormous cause of time passing mindlessly and opportunities being lost: screen time.
Did you know that your smartphone can report exactly how much time is spent scrolling and provides a daily average for each week?
Here's a New Year's Challenge: sit down with your child and ask them how much time they think they spend on their phones each day.
Then, open the Settings app on their smartphone and go to Screen Time (iPhone) or Digital Wellbeing & parental controls (Android) to see a graph of how much time is actually spent daily.
Adults, I'm truly challenging you: can you do the same thing yourselves? Your kids may feel embarrassed by the amount of time spent and get defensive, but you can disarm that by making yourself vulnerable, too. This would be an amazing way to start the conversation with your child about how you all want to spend your time day-to-day.
Think about this: smartphone screen time doesn't include time on other devices. Working on the chromebook for school, watching TV, reading an eBook, all may be additional screen time beyond their daily average!
How much time do you want to spend?
How much time do you actually spend?
Does it all line up? If not, what steps can you take to change things and bring them into alignment this year?
You can set goals, track your progress, and support each other in reclaiming your time to make progress toward your real personal goals in 2025!
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