Time management is a college-success strategy and a life success skill
Normally, individuals and groups have had the perception that time management is merely a success strategy in college. However, the notion is quite misleading. Time is key factor that determines and fosters the achievement of our career objectives and long life goals.
While in college, proper time management helps students to balance between studies, class schedules, extracurricular activities, jobs, and personal life. This does not imply that effective time management is merely a success strategy in college. In fact, in life there are various activities that an individual would want to accomplish within a given time period.
In case the available time is not properly allocated to all activities to be achieved within a given period, then the available time will not be allocated to the correct event. Thus, there will be overlaps and postponement of activities that are supposed to be achieved within a given time.
Just like proper time management helps college students to be successful, in life the skill is important in determining how every minute could be better used. This implies that time management skills assist individuals to prioritize activities to be accomplished, plan properly, and focus on each activity that is supposed to be achieved or finished within a given period. Hence, in life, time still appears as a scarce resource that calls for effective management.
The causes of procrastination and how procrastination can be prevented
Procrastination is the tendency to defer, postpone, or suspend an activity that can be done now to a future date. Procrastination usually results into a tendency given that when new tasks are deferred they become stressful to accomplish on time. Procrastinating behaviors normally result from the availability of time to complete a project or if the task appears too difficult to accomplish. However, the causes of procrastination can be grouped in to three categories according to Knaus William and Ellis Albert.
First, procrastination may result from the hostile feelings towards classmates, workmates, managers, or tutors and it can make an individual postpone the assignments.
Secondly, low frustration tolerance may make an individual to stop working on an assignment and set it aside prior to completing it. Finally, procrastinating behaviours may result from self-downing. This occurs when students have feelings that a project is difficult to accomplish effectively based on the stipulated time.
There are numerous ways of preventing procrastination. These include mixing boring, challenging, and enjoyable activities; sparing time for the unanticipated events; effective and wise utilization of the free time; rewarding oneself after completing a given project on time; allocating time for socialization, relaxation, and exercise, as well as setting realistic and attainable goals.
Besides, procrastination may be prevented through breaking larger projects into units, avoiding overworking yourself, creating conducive environment for work, and accomplishing the assignments when the morale is still high.
Why college students have difficulties managing time
Time management skills are important to all college students, but such students usually find it difficult managing their time. First, given that, there are numerous college activities to be carried out within a given period, college student find themselves wasting a lot of time because they prefer management by crises. For instance, college students are prone to living from drama to drama, crises to crises, and from minute to minute.
Secondly, college students are fond of wishful thinking and this makes them lack actual worked out plans or inadequate plans. Besides, college students have poor communication strategies, which make them assume that each person encounters similar time constraints, scheduling, as well as the assumption that everybody understands their interests and time requirements.
Conversely, the inability to turn down certain suggestions when it is necessary coupled with leaving some well-planned tasks unfinished because of excessive socialization have led to difficulties in managing college time. Such socializations increase the number of stop in visitors, telephone timeouts, and personal disorganization. When a college student’s life is in continuous disarray, the student will attempt to handle many tasks ones to an extent of being irritated and beset.