Life Skills & Leadership: Unit 3, Session 4: Setting Priorities, Managing Time | Page 55 of 68
Pause for ideas from the group, then continue with instructions:
“I would like you to look at your slips of paper with yesterday’s activities and decide whether each
activity is something you need to do (to reach a future goal), have to do (for our bodies or because
someone expects us to do it), or want to do as I’ve just defined these terms. Make a pile of your papers
under each heading.”
- Let people work for a few minutes. Eventually people will likely point out that some activities fit under
more than one heading. Acknowledge this (or bring it up yourself if no one else does) by saying:
“Notice that some activities may fit under two headings. You can decide where these activities fit best.
For example, if you worked at your aunt’s vegetable stand, does that fit under ‘Have To’ because your
mother told you to work there? Or does fit under ‘Need To’ because it helps you build skills for working
in the future? Another example: If you took care of your younger brother because you were told to but
you also enjoyed spending time with him, maybe you would put that activity under the ‘Want To’
heading. (Take other examples from the participants.)
“So, in order to decide, think about what the activity means to you and why you did it.”
- Give participants several more minutes to finish sorting their activities. Then ask each person to share
one of her or his activities from each category. (People probably have at least one activity that fits
under each heading. For example, everyone has come to this training – a Need To activity for their
future!) Engage participants in discussion using the following questions:
Note: Among the discussion questions, those in BOLD are the most important.
Which heading has the largest number of your activities and which has the fewest? Why do
you think that is?
Which of the three types of activities would you like to be doing more of?
Which activities prevented you from doing things you needed to do or had to do?
Note: Answers to these three questions serve as an assessment of Learning Objective 1.
What activities did you have difficulty sorting under just one heading?
How did you decide where to put activities that could have fit under two headings? (For
example, did you use your Head, Heart, Hands, or Hopes?)
Who are the people who support the activities you do? Who might approve or disapprove?
What activities do you still have trouble deciding about?
How much difference does it make where an activity is placed in the end? (Possible answer:
Where you placed an activity is not as important as knowing why you placed it where you did.)
Think about the goals you set the last time we met. Why is it important to be able to connect
your activities to these categories? (Possible answers: It’s helpful to know how you are
spending your time. It’s helpful to see where you could do something differently. It shows
whether you are making progress toward a goal.)
