The stresses of college life are numerous, but no set of skills handles them better than time management.
Deadlines can potentially be a massive source of stress for college students. Lack of time management leads to procrastination, which means that the assignment can go untouched until the night before it is meant to be turned in.
With procrastination, students commonly underestimate how much time it will take to complete the work, leading to stress and poor performance.
What is normally done instead of coursework is leisure time, but by delegating time to the task and doing it sooner rather than later, more time is freed up for the future. When time management skills are implemented, work gets done faster and leisure time is free of that nagging deadline stress.
According to the University of Michigan, students can expect to spend two to three hours studying material outside the classroom per credit hour. When employment, sports, volunteering and other obligations are involved, time management skills are necessary to stay afloat.
For full-time college students, a lack of time management can lead to poor sleeping habits. In order to make up for time lost on procrastinating, students typically stay up late studying.
Not only are all-nighters actually counterproductive, according to the National Sleep Foundation, lack of sleep can lead to several health risks and poor academic performance.
If time management skills are developed and used to plan ahead, students can improve their organizational skills, better prioritize tasks and avoid unnecessary stress and anxiety that comes with a looming deadline, according to an article by Management Study Guide.
Time management skills are also desirable in the workplace, where the demand for high-quality work requires proper planning and time. A project created in a day will most often be of lower quality than something worked on and refined for a whole week.
When assigning time to certain tasks, it is also important to consider what times of the day are most productive. If hard tasks are tackled during peak productivity times, they instantly become much more manageable than finishing that 10-page paper at 3 a.m.
In conjunction with the course material being studied, college students also need to learn the fundamental skills that will be required once they leave the academic environment. By exercising good time management skills, college students can better handle new challenges and excel in their academic life.
