Background
Time management is the process of organizing and planning how to divide your time between specific activities. It is believed that good time management enables you to work more efficiently so that you get more done in less time. Additionally time management strategies provide structures for when time is tight and pressures are high. There is some evidence that failing to manage your time effectively may cause increased stress.
Definition
Time Management is the act or process of planning and exercising conscious control over the amount of time spent on specific activities, especially to increase effectiveness, efficiency, or productivity. ~Michelle Buck, 2000
Literature Review
Macon (1990) did the first in-depth analysis of time management in the development of the Time Management Behavior scale. To create her scale she identified thirty-three behaviors from time management literature. During her research Dr. Macon determined several factors showed significance: Setting Goals and Priorities, Mechanics: Scheduling and Planning, and Preference for Organization. Each of these factors have behaviors that contributed to their significance (see table below) and provide characteristics for development of the time management skill.
Research on organizational stress, and this can include stress from school, suggests that work related stress is a critical influence on health and well-being. Students who perceived themselves to have control over their time felt fewer school and somatic tensions than did students who did not perceive themselves to have control over their time (Häfner, Stock et al. 2015). Therefore actual control of time is directly tied to perception. This connection to perception fits with research into the field of self-efficacy as well and the increase in perception is correlated with positive impacts on student performance (Bandura 1977, Schwarzer 2014).
Nadinloyi and team (2012) identified that almost 73% of students start learning or actually learn with less than one week before the exam period. Overwhelmed by the volume of learning material and the short period available, students fail to reach performance expectations, which were strongly associated to their intellectual abilities. Magher’s research (2005) shows that students are much more motivated if they can solve the task in a personal rhythm rather than cramming to meet external schedules. These findings support the locus of control students feel when implementing time management strategies (Indreica, Cazan et al. 2011).
When students implemented time management factors, implementation was positively correlated with increases in GPA and life satisfaction. In the analysis of her findings Macan identified negative correlations between stress, tension and role ambiguity when time management factors were present (Macan 1990). A very important component of her findings is Factor 3 in her original research, person’s perception of control of time. Again this perception is key because those factors of stress and tension loaded most negatively on that factor.
There is a growing body of research that found that effective time management strategies increase academic performance (Campbell, Svenson et al. 1992, Burrus, Jackson et al. 2016). They also site that time management behaviors enhance achievement for college students, especially productive study methods (Entwistle & Ramsden, 1983; Kirschenbaum & Perri, 1982; Mega, Ronconi et al. 2014). Effective study techniques include starting large tasks well before due dates, breaking down large tasks into small ones, and doing small tasks on a regular schedule (Brown, 1991). Misra and McKean (2000) found that when students ignored these behaviors their stress before exams increased.
In their study Misra and McKean found multiple effects of the implementation of time management behaviors on college students;
- College females performed more and more effective time management behaviors than male college students. One contributing factor may be that females perceived more stress than males when they did not perform the time management behaviors.
- Male college students reduced their academic stress due to changes and frustration (daily hassles) when they perceived themselves to be in control of their time, able to set goals, and organized.
- Perceived Control of Time reduced academic stress due to changes in female college students, but unlike males, it did not reduce stress due to frustration.
- Those females who were goal oriented had less frustration.
- Planning lowered stress for females, but did not lower stress for males.
- Preference of Organization reduced academic stress for females in all the categories.
- Setting goals and priorities among females reduced emotional reactions and increased cognitive reactions to stressors.
- Planning and scheduling (Mechanics of Time Management) reduced emotional reactions and increased cognitive reactions among both males and females.
- Organization, however, lowered behavioral, emotional, and physiological reactions to stressors only among females.
- Females reported leisure activities in an aesthetic environment improved coping with stress.
The differences in impact indicate there may be different explicit strategies to use with different populations based on sex.
Crede and Kuncel (2008) found that study habit and skill measures improve prediction of academic performance more than any other noncognitive individual difference variable examined to date and should be regarded as the third pillar of academic success. They categorize the first two as intellective (cognitive) and nonintellective (noncognitive) factors.
Implementation of time management strategies indicated greater conscientiousness which results in greater academic achievement as well. That is, more conscientious students implement more effective time management practices, which allow them to succeed academically. This finding replicates the work of McKenzie and Gow (2004). MacCann, Fogerty, and Roberts (2012) maintain that the importance here is that time management behaviors can be taught providing influence over conscientiousness and academic achievement.
Time management behaviors can be mediated through metacognition and self-reflection. Flavell defines metacognitive processes as “one’s knowledge concerning one’s own cognitive processes and products …[and] the active monitoring and consequential regulation of those processes in relation to the cognitive objects or data on which they bear” (Flavell, 1976, p. 232). Students high in these processes also express greater study and time management behaviors. There is indication that these skills can be developed in combination as students learn the process of self-regulation and reflection as they implement other strategies. An important aspect of this development is that students have multiple strategies at their disposal in order to determine which strategies work best in specific situations. Students who have not processed strategy effectiveness through attempting different strategies experience increased stress due to lack of options (Zimmerman 1986).
Review of the literature does not identify key strategies that are most effective as indicated in the review above. In fact Hattie (1996), indicates that strategies should be taught and implemented in context, use the tasks with related material to aid in generalization, and as mentioned previously engage students in metacognition and self-reflection about the efficacy of the strategy (Hattie and Yates 2013).
References |
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