The Time Tracker Program

INTRODUCTION TO THE TIME TRACKER PROGRAM It is worthwhile to take a closer look at the dimension of time, for it is inseparably tied to our experience, to our self-consciousness—to life itself. — Marc Wittmann, Felt Time: The Psychology of How We Perceive Time The Time Tracker Program™ is designed to help students gain the skills they need to independently plan and carry out their daily tasks and assignments and to advance toward their desired goals at school and at home. These skills include attention, motivation, self-regulation, organization, and prob- lem-solving. They are all part of the executive functions (EF)—the core cognitive processes involved in consciously choosing and self-directing toward goals—and they all connect to a foundation of time awareness. Time awareness is not a fixed trait (students are not simply “good” or “bad” with time) but rather a flexible skill that can be developed through practice. Time awareness is about much more than being able to read a clock: It is about being able to read, interpret, and respond to the actions, materials, and obstacles involved in meeting the demands of the current situation (e.g., navigating one’s way to class through an unexpectedly crowded hallway with the necessary books and technology). It is also about being able to accurately anticipate these features for future situations (e.g., planning to arrive at school earlier the next day to avoid getting marked as tardy). Time awareness is equally important to elementary students who are learning the basic routines of the classroom and high school seniors who are coping with multiple deadlines and extracurricular activities. Without this key skill, standard time management tools like checklists, planners, and home- work contracts will lack meaningful context and are unlikely to lead to the increased independence and problem-solving abilities that we as educators and caregivers all desire for our students. While students who experience EF challenges in academic settings are the most likely to be identified as needing sup - port in managing their time, we have all encountered situations that challenge our time awareness, and all students can benefit from scaffolded instruction in this area. Time awareness includes the dual ability to visualize a future goal and one’s future self attaining that goal , which is essential to the development of EF. As Russell Barkley (2012) states, to build their EF, individuals need “to repeatedly practice: self-monitoring, self-stopping, seeing the future, saying the future, feeling the future, and playing with the future so as to effectively ‘plan and go’ toward that future” (p. 199). The following example shows how two students who are equally intelligent can expe- rience academic assignments, academic achievement, and self-efficacy very differently based on their respective abilities to “say,” “feel,” and “play with” images of their future selves.

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