Purpose: Students learn to prioritize activities.
1. Students discuss multiple priorities.
Explain to students that it is necessary in many cases to prioritize tasks based on more than one criterion. Ask students to suggest examples of times when they might need to take into consideration more than one criterion. Write student responses on the board. (Students might respond: when more than one task is a step toward your goals, when you are asked to do something by someone you respect, when you have promised to do something.)
Ask students to recall some of the different ways these items can be prioritized.
Explain to students that time is almost always an element in prioritizing. Some activities, such as chores or homework, may be limited to one day. Other activities, such as long-term career goals, can take place over several years.
2. Students learn how to prioritize their tasks.
Explain to students that they are now going to prioritize their tasks. Say, “Let’s imagine you have three things you have to do: go to a party, do your homework, and do some chores around the house.”
Ask students to suggest ways that they would prioritize the tasks. List their responses on the board.
When students disagree about the way the list should be prioritized, have them defend their reasoning. Encourage students to explain the consequences of choosing to do one task over another.
During the discussion, make the important point that doing homework is a stepping-stone goal to most long-term goals. For this reason, one important consequence of not doing their homework is that their action plan for achieving their long-term goals will be set back. Remind students of the importance of keeping their long-term goals in sight.
Lead students to the following prioritization:
- Homework should be first, as it relates to their long-term goals.
- Household chores are next. If students don’t do their chores, they may lose the privilege of going to the party.
- Going to the party is last. Socializing and being with friends is important but should not distract students from other goals and responsibilities.
Tell students that if they made homework their first priority, they stayed focused on their long-term goals. Point out that they also saw that taking care of family responsibilities made it possible to have fun and go to the party.
3. Students recognize that their goals can sometimes conflict.
Ask students what they would do if they only had one hour to finish their homework and do household chores, but each of these tasks would take an hour to complete.
Explain to students that when they have several tasks and not all of them can be completed, they have conflicting goals.
Ask students to suggest the major reasons for running into conflicting goals. Elicit from students that the most common source of conflict is time limitations.
4. Students identify ways to deal with conflicting goals.
Ask students to offer possible solutions to the conflicting goals of doing homework, going to the party, and doing the chores. (Students might respond: go late to the party or don’t go at all, don’t do the homework, don’t do the household chores.)
Have students discuss the consequences of each option. Tell students that when they change priorities, they have to look at the consequences. It is important that they do not make a change that seems positive in the short term but has a negative impact on their long-term goals.