Key points from the graphic
- The graphic sets out the 7 habits of highly effective teens as advice for school students: take responsibility, set goals, prioritise, listen, cooperate, work as a team and look after yourself.
- The habits are not numbered on the graphic. Read column by column, they appear in a different order from the book they come from.
- The habit names match Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, on which his son Sean Covey based the 1998 book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens [2][3]. The graphic itself does not mention either book.
- It was made by Tutoria, a tutoring service, whose email and phone number are in the footer [1].
The 7 habits on the graphic in text
The text of each habit, as printed, in reading order: left column top to bottom, then the right column. We have corrected the small typing errors on the image.
Be Proactive
Highly effective teens take responsibility for their own life. They control the situation, rather than letting the moment control them. Learn to take initiative for decisions that affect you. Instead of being reactive, be proactive. Take control of your own education, exam preparation, relationships and so on.
Begin With The End In Mind
Set goals for yourself. As a teenager, you are full of dreams, so set your end goal and then start working towards turning that dream into a reality. Whatever your dream is, start small and work your way towards it. Motivation, patience and discipline will help you achieve this.
Put First Things First
Prioritise your tasks. Highly effective students recognise their priorities and work towards those. For example, during exam season, exam preparation and scoring well is the priority, and discipline must be developed for this. Teenagers who learn to put first things first develop better time management skills.
Seek First To Understand, Then Be Understood
Understand the power of listening. Highly effective students recognise the difference between actually listening and just waiting to be heard. To get your point across, you must be willing to listen to and understand other people’s points first. This takes patience.
Think Win-Win
Highly effective teenagers have an “everyone can win” attitude. They understand the power of being a team player and look for mutual benefit in every situation. Thinking win-win can help in group study, in keeping healthy friendships and so on.
Synergize
To become a highly effective student, understand the importance of teamwork and creative cooperation. Synergy means that “two heads are better than one”, so working together can achieve more. This helps during exam preparation, social situations and so on.
Sharpen The Saw
Self-care is important. Every once in a while, take a break to renew yourself and evaluate the rest of the habits. This will keep you physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually healthy.
The graphic ends: “Develop and implement these 7 habits of highly effective teenagers and you will surely see a positive benefit in every area of your life. These 7 habits of highly effective teenagers will help you succeed in your exam preparation and every other area of your life.”
The habits in Covey’s order
In the Covey framework the habits are numbered 1 to 7. FranklinCovey, the company that teaches the programme, lists them in this order with these short summaries [3]:
| Habit | Name | FranklinCovey summary | Where it sits on the graphic |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Be Proactive | Assume responsibility and focus on the things that can be influenced rather than what can’t. | Left column, 1st |
| 2 | Begin With the End in Mind | Define clear measures for success and create a plan to achieve them. | Left column, 2nd |
| 3 | Put First Things First | Prioritise and spend time on achieving the most important goals. | Left column, 3rd |
| 4 | Think Win-Win | Approach each situation looking for ways everyone can win. | Right column, 1st |
| 5 | Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood | Listen, understand and honour others’ perspectives, and express thoughts and feelings respectfully. | Left column, 4th |
| 6 | Synergize | Use different perspectives to solve problems and achieve more than any one person alone. | Right column, 2nd |
| 7 | Sharpen the Saw | Make time for renewal activities to keep up motivation, energy and vitality. | Right column, 3rd |
Stephen Covey intended the first three habits as a means of achieving independence, the next three as a means of achieving interdependence, and the seventh as a way to maintain the others [4]. The graphic splits them differently, so habits 4 and 5 sit in different columns.
About the book
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens was written by Sean Covey, son of Stephen Covey, and published on 9 October 1998 by Touchstone Books [2]. In 2000 the Young Adult Library Services Association named it one of its Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults [2]. The book discusses how teenagers can become more independent and effective by following seven basic habits [2].
Notes on this infographic
- Order. The habits are unnumbered and, read in columns, out of Covey’s order. Habit 5, Seek First to Understand, appears before habit 4, Think Win-Win. The table above gives the standard numbering [3].
- Credit. The habit names come from the Covey books, but the graphic does not credit them [2][4].
- Typing errors. The image has several, for example “priorities,nd” and missing spaces after full stops. The text above corrects them without changing the meaning.
- The original Tutoria post is titled 7 Habits of Highly Effective Students [1], while the graphic says Teenagers.
Questions about the 7 habits of highly effective teens
What are the 7 habits of highly effective teens?
In the Covey framework they are: be proactive, begin with the end in mind, put first things first, think win-win, seek first to understand then to be understood, synergize, and sharpen the saw [3]. Sean Covey’s book for teenagers is largely based on that framework [2]. All seven are on this graphic, in a different order.
Who wrote The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens?
Sean Covey, the son of Stephen Covey. It was published in 1998 and is largely based on his father’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People [2].
What is habit 3 in the 7 habits of highly effective teens?
Put first things first, in the Covey numbering. FranklinCovey sums it up as prioritising and spending time on the most important goals [3]. The graphic applies it to exam season, when revision comes first.
Sources
- Tutoria, 7 Habits of Highly Effective Students, the original post for this graphic (read via the Wayback Machine copy).
- Wikipedia, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens.
- FranklinCovey, The 7 Habits.
- Wikipedia, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
Last reviewed 29 October 2026
