Session 5: Time Management and Prioritization

For teens with a chronic illness, setting reasonable and reachable personal expectations while titrating their activities in response to their disease/symptoms is often a major stressor. In Session 5 the teen is taught specific strategies to distinguish between desired (want to) and required (have to) activities and to create (and revise) personal schedules that address problems they may have with over- and/or underscheduling physical and social activities in their daily life. These issues are particularly important in working with teens who are on home-hospital/home-bound schooling or who are home-schooled and thus more likely to have less structure and peer social contact.