Life Skills and Leadership Manual - Peace Corps

Life Skills & Leadership: Unit 3, Session 4: Setting Priorities, Managing Time | Page 54 of 68

responsibilities. But if we can put a few big rocks in our container at the beginning, we can make a

little progress toward our future goals while still keeping up with our daily responsibilities.

“Today we are going to learn about how to manage our time – how to fill our own container – by

figuring out which of our responsibilities are rocks, which are sand, and which are water.”

II. Information ( 30 minutes)
Materials:
Slips of paper or small cards
Pens or pencils
Handout 1: Need To, Have To, Want To

A. Need To, Have To, Want To
Participants make a distinction between the things they must do and the things they would like to do.

1. Distribute slips of paper and pencils to participants. Say:

“I’d like for you to think for a few minutes about the things you do every day and how you spend your

time. Think about from the time you awoke yesterday to right now, today. What are all the activities

you have done? I’d like you to write each of your activities on a separate slip of paper.

“For example, what did you do right away when you woke up yesterday? Did you bathe? Dress? Eat?

Did you go to school? What did you do after school? Did you do your homework? Did you do chores at

home? List everything.

“What you write will probably be different from what others will write. You can use as much detail and

as many papers as you wish.”

2. After three to five minutes, check in with people and ask for a few examples to show the variety of
   activities that participants have done. Encourage participants to fill out more slips if they are reminded
   of other activities they have done. People might not think to include some activities because “we all do
   them” so make a few suggestions of your own to help people recall as many details as they can. Then
   distribute Handout 1: Need To, Have To, Want To and say:

“Most of the things we do every day can probably fit into a few basic categories:

What we need to do because it will help us reach a goal in the future.

What we have to do because our body has to have it or someone expects us to do it.

What we want to do because we like it, it is fun, or it is enjoyable.

“On the handout there are two examples for each heading. What other examples can you think of for

each?”

Note: Be prepared for differences between cultures as far as choice is concerned. You may need to ask probing questions to

learn about how much choice young people, girls, minorities, and others are allowed to have. Asking about the

expectations that adults have for youth is one way to learn about the amount of choice and independence youth expect to

have.