Academic Time Management

Academic Time Management

With every new experience come challenges, and anxieties that can be overwhelming if they are not handled and dealt with in a reasonable way. Beginning college is certainly no exception. Stress takes many forms, most notably in the academic sense, as exams, papers, and various projects and assignments. Making the grade is an important aspect of many college students, and the best way of getting good grades without sacrificing all aspects of a social life is effective time management. Well developed time management skills not only help to organize all the different pieces of a students life it also reduces their levels of stress and anxiety, while allowing them to achieve decent grade point averages. Simply learning and implementing useful time management techniques can help anyone through the turbulent transition to college academic life.

Stress

College life is filled with academic stressors and anxieties that consume most students. Many of the reported causes and time periods during the school semester in which students experienced heighten angst were similar and consistent among their peers. However, freshman and sophomores students had higher reactions to stress than juniors and seniors (Misra, 2000, 1). This variation is caused by the underclassmen’s’ lack of strong social support networks, and their underdeveloped coping mechanisms needed to deal with college stress due to demanding school work and tasks. Academic stress not only stems from the physical workload of classes, exams, papers, projects, and assignments, but also from psychological factors. Most of the pressure and stress students face is self-imposed. “Students’ perception of the extensive knowledge base required and...

... middle of paper ...

...a, 2000, 4). Time management has been a proven stress reducer, by helping break up and spread out workloads so that students can complete assignments with as little anxiety as possible. Using such organizational techniques also allocates ample amounts of study time for each class improving students’ GPA. Time management strategies provide an effective guide for working your way through any college experience and are invaluable to every type of university student.

References:

Lahmers, Amy. “Factors associated with academic time use and academic performance

of college students: A recursive approach.” Journal of College Student Development Sept./Oct. 2000: 544-554.

Misra, Ranjita. “College students’ academic stress and its relation to their anxiety, time management, and leisure satisfaction.” American Journal of Health Studies 2000:

41-51.