Photo by Malvestida on Unsplash
Time management is a vital skill everyone should be knowledgeable about, and the best way to gain it is through education. Unfortunately, for the younger ones, this can be rather uninteresting and burdensome at most. Learning about time management sounds like reprehension, like having their parent scold them for wasting time on their phones or doing nothing.
Oh, if only there’s a way to make something technical more appealing to the younger audience!
Author Leisa Braband writes perhaps the most entertaining time management book for students through her pet nanny series. The Pet Nanny (1 and 2) are the authors’ pet-sitting books for young readers. The stories follow Libby, a student by day and a pet-sitter by night, the perfect material to teach students or children about basic organizing and prioritizing time.
What Is Good Time Management for Students?
“Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend.”
– Theophrastus
Unfortunately for the philosopher, students, especially the younger ones, have yet to understand how to properly budget their time. For them, everything is still primarily about fun and games—until it’s too late and they’re cramming for a test or hurrying through a project.
If it’s about being in the present, children do it best, so much so that they tend to forget all other things to do in the future. This leads to the improper prioritization of activities or, worse, unfinished or late projects—all of which are total disasters for students! Good time management for students is ensuring all tasks for the day are organized according to importance and achieved at the end of it.
Systematic. Practical. But easygoing.
Mastering time management offers a plethora of benefits, even for younger people. Unfortunately, this can be quite a complex concept to study. This is why we’re taking a different approach to the subject, a more relaxed and entertaining approach to learning time management.
What Makes a Great Time Management Book for Students?
A proper time management book for students teaches them how to take control of their time and organize daily deliverables. It’s meant to teach them about active planning, proper assignment breakdown, setting goals, and reducing distractions. All of these are geared toward achieving an efficient use of time, leading to reduced stress and pressure.
Some of the best time management books are very technical. But if the audience is younger students, such materials wouldn’t last a day. So, what makes a great time management book for students who are easily distracted, bored, and not so into technical jargon?
Author Leisa Braband has mastered crafting one.
The Pet Nanny: A Surprisingly Good Book for Time Management
Leisa Braband has currently built her name around a specific niche in literature. So far, both of her publications are pet-sitting books for young readers—pretty unique, right?
While the subject of children or young adults caring for animals is nothing new in novels or movies, Leisa Braband offers an uncommon twist in her book. The Pet Nanny isn’t solely a story about pet-sitting. Instead, it dives into the complexity of the role, touching on how children as young as thirteen can effectively balance both studying and working.
At the core of The Pet Nanny series is the profession of pet sitting. But while detailing this, the author also discusses time management, making it a subtle time management book.
What makes it different from the rest?
Likability: Engaging and Easy to Read
Leisa Braband’s The Pet Nanny is a time management book for students that skips the technicality of the concept. The author doesn’t focus on complicating the lesson; instead, she dives right into its heart.
In narrating the story of Libby (the main character), the author tackles how tough it is juggling multiple activities in a day. She highlights the character’s struggles, and to effectively teach her readers time management, she thoroughly detailed what the protagonist did to make things easier. By utilizing storytelling, Leisa Braband managed to share step-by-step methods for time management. She does so without making it boring or adding overly theoretical concepts without compromising the lesson.
Relatability: Through Students’ Lens
Its relatability makes The Pet Nanny a surprisingly excellent time management book for students, even without jargon and technicalities. It connects directly to its readers, making the lesson more meaningful and thus memorable.
By conveying the lesson through a story, The Pet Nanny lets its readers vicariously experience the protagonist’s struggles. It makes the lesson more personal as if the students are living, learning, and applying it together with the main character.
Effectivity: Picturing Out Consequences
Although it’s a fictional story, The Pet Nanny is effective as a time management book for students because it immediately shows the consequences of bad time management.
This makes students think and reflect on their choices, which will likely lead to better decisions moving forward. Stories as a source of technical lessons surprisingly work because they allow readers to imagine themselves in the character’s position. They will experience the ups and downs of practicing and not practicing the concepts at hand.
Start Learning Through Storytelling!
The best time management book for students is one that’s relatable and fits their preferences. It’s a material that makes the complex concept enjoyable and simplifies without compromising its weight.
This is why Leisa Braband’s books are perfect for the job!
Both of her stories follow a character’s struggle to balance her studies and pet-sitting business, half of which are relatable to students. Although it’s not guaranteed that readers are also working part-time, learning from a student character is a great starter.
Are you struggling with time management? Why not consider grabbing a copy of Leisa Braband’s The Pet Nanny series today?
