7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens Worksheets

"7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens" is a best-selling book by Sean Covey. Teachers and other youth leaders like to use the seven habits in lessons or as a course to teach teens to be responsible, focused and successful. It's helpful to use worksheets when teaching such a course. You can design a course that covers a habit in each of the lessons and make up worksheets to reinforce the principles at home.

The first habit is Be Proactive. You can make a worksheet that helps teens to explore the areas of their lives in which they have responsibility. Divide the worksheet into two columns. The first column lists the areas of their lives, and the second column gives them room to write details of those responsibilities. For example, in the left column they could write "Education." Then in the column next to it, they could write things they do to be proactive for their educations: study hard, turn in assignments on time, ask the teacher if an idea is confusing.

For this second habit, Begin With the End in Mind, students will need a worksheet that helps them define their goals and mission in life. This is a big job, but a worksheet can help them focus their thoughts by giving ideas at the top of the sheet and then giving space below for brainstorming. At the very bottom of the worksheet, leave a few lines or a box for writing goals and a mission statement.

Teens today are very busy and have many activities. Provide them with a worksheet that will help them list out all of their activities and then prioritize them. They can prioritize by writing numbers next to the activities, or they can list them in order from greatest importance to least importance. Remind the students that their priorities should match up with the goals they explored in the previous lesson.

Many teens are naturally competitive and see others as competition instead of fellow human beings. Think Win-Win helps teens to look for solutions to problems that are mutually beneficial to all involved. For this worksheet, provide examples of problems the teens may encounter (their basketball game is scheduled at the same time as their brother's piano recital, or they want to ask their best friend's crush to prom), and have them write out more than one solution to the problem. Then have them circle the solution that takes everyone's well-being into consideration.

Listening is not always teenagers' strong points, but they will be much more successful in life if they learn to listen to others before jumping to conclusions or speaking their minds. To illustrate this point, create a worksheet that acts as an aid to an activity. Pair the students off and give them a topic to discuss. Then have them fill out their worksheet based on what they heard from their partner. On the worksheet, make sure they must answer how the other person feels about the topic, what his experiences are regarding the topic and what can be learned from the other person's point of view.

Synergy means working together to achieve more than could be accomplished by a single person. For this worksheet, give examples of two different people and what they have to offer to a project. Instruct the teens to think of ways that the two people could combine their gifts and talents to create something greater. The worksheet should include several different examples so the teens begin to look at talents as team-building contributions instead of threats to their own self-esteem.

In "7 Habits" lingo, "Sharpen the Saw" means taking time regularly to renew and refresh. For this worksheet, have students list all the activities they do that leave them feeling refreshed and energized. If possible, have the students share these lists with one another because some teens need ideas about things they can do to relax and renew themselves. Encourage the students to try something new and to schedule time with themselves for renewal.