Term Paper on "Time Management There Are Many Different Things"

Term Paper 12 pages (3991 words) Sources: 5 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Time Management

There are many different things that can cause stress for the college student. Managing their time effectively and having satisfaction with the leisure time that they have are issues that must be addressed by many college students (McKean & Misra, 2000). Academic stress is also extremely important and this is possibly one of the largest issues that college students face, but this can be lessened by learning to manage time appropriately (McKean & Misra, 2000). Nationwide there has been a strong increase in the stress that college students are feeling and many believe that this trend is rather disturbing.

There are several different categories that this stress takes and these include financial, health-related, academic, and self-imposed (McKean & Misra, 2000). Those that are academic have to do with the knowledge base that the student has and whether the student has the perception that he or she is able to develop it in an adequate period of time. Many students experience academic stressors at specific times during each semester because many of these come from taking exams, competing for grades, and memorizing or learning a large amount of information within a very short period of time (McKean & Misra, 2000). The interest, however, is in whether students that manage their time better experience fewer symptoms of anxiety and stress (McKean & Misra, 2000).

Stress is generally a good thing as all individuals must have some to survive. However, when students have too much stress in their lives or the stress is perceived as being a negative event then psychological and physical impairments can sometimes be seen (McKean & Misra, 2000). There are ways that students can reduce stress in college but they have to work at what they are doing and learn how to get enough social support, enough time for leisure and enjoyment, and manage their time correctly (McKean & Misra, 2000). If students are not able to meet any type of personal need through different leisure activities or hobbies they may feel as though the stress that they must deal with in classes and during exams is actually much stronger than what it really is (McKean & Misra, 2000). In addition, female students appear to experience more anxiety symptoms and benefit less from leisure activities, so the female college student population would seem to be the most at risk for difficulties stemming from the stress of time management problems (McKean & Misra, 2000). In addition, however, female students are seen to be better overall at managing their time effectively than male students (McKean & Misra, 2000).

Time management seems to be extremely important for many of these individuals as they work their way through college (McKean & Misra, 2000). Many of these students are just out of high school and when they were in high school they did not have the degree of stress that they have in college. They also did not have the trouble with managing their time correctly in high school. Their lives were much more regulated and parents and others kept close control over what many of these individuals did with their time when it came to their class time, homework, and social activities. When these individuals got into college many of them moved away from home and therefore they did not have the direct influence of individuals that would make sure they managed their time correctly and got things done (McKean & Misra, 2000).

Most of these students begin to experience a lot more stress when they realize that they do not have others to take care of them. These students can then realize that they are getting behind in their classes and having other difficulties that they previously did not expect to have to deal with (McKean & Misra, 2000). Time management is expected to alleviate stress and also to facilitate much more productivity than would normally be seen. By having strategies for time management that are very effective students can help to increase the academic performance that they have. Many personnel on college campuses that work to assist students with their academic difficulties frequently suggest that these individuals engage in time management (McKean & Misra, 2000).

Another term for this idea of time management is strategic studying (Lahmers, 2000). Essentially it means the same thing in that students must find ways to study when they need to and as much as they need to without cramming for exams and while still having enough time for hobbies and other leisure activities. Many programs that deal with time management emphasize several things including breaking down tasks that are very large into smaller tasks that seem easier to deal with, making sure that small tasks get done on a regular schedule, and starting tasks that are very large well before the due date actually approaches (Lahmers, 2000). While these ideas do not help all students, they have generally been deemed beneficial (Lahmers, 2000).

These are all very good suggestions for time management and very good ideas to help alleviate stress in the college student. Unfortunately, many students actually ignore these techniques and then when exams, term papers, and other large projects come due students find that they have come unprepared or do not have enough time to study or write their research projects (Lahmers, 2000). Some of this stress comes from taking too many classes or overloading themselves which is a common thing in colleges today (Lahmers, 2000). The pressure to succeed is very great and parents, peers, society, and others put pressure on these students to do a better job and do things faster. Society in general today demands more from many individuals than it did only a few years ago and because of this these students are finding that they must work even harder and attempt to find ways to deal with the stress that they often face (Lahmers, 2000).

When students need to reduce their stress they should look at things like setting priorities and goals for studying and other things that they wish to complete, making lists of various priorities and things that have to be done so that they have a visual reference, finding a place to work and study that is organized, clean, and comfortable, and finding control over the time that they have so they can feel as though they are accomplishing something (Lahmers, 2000). Being able to have leisure time for hobbies and other enjoyable activities as well as structuring time so that enough studying can be done to reduce the stress over research papers, exams, and other issues is very important in reducing the stress the college student faces because not having enough time for oneself and not having enough time to study seem to be the largest stressors (Lahmers, 2000).

Many college students also have to work, and therefore the time that they would have for studying and leisure activities is cut into still further by the constraints of their employment (Lahmers, 2000). When all of these things are combined together it is easy to see why college students face so much stress and are so concerned about their academic futures. Many of these students do not get enough food, or at least not enough healthy food, and a great deal of them also do not get enough sleep (Lahmers, 2000). Many of them spend time doing things with their friends and then realize the night before a big test that they must study or they will not be able to pass (Lahmers, 2000). When they do these things they lose out on the good sleep that they need over the course of the night so that their minds can be fresh to take the test the following day (Lahmers, 2000).

The same is true of research papers and other large academic projects that are quite often put off until the last minute. Even a good student cannot do in a day what should have taken weeks to create and this is especially true for complicated academic papers or projects where a lot of research is involved (Lahmers, 2000). Many students start out with very good intentions about these types of projects but as the project deadline draws nearer the student realizes that he or she has done very little to actually make a good start on the project. This means less leisure time while the student works towards finishing the project and also means less time to study for other projects or tests that might be coming up (Lahmers, 2000). In addition to this the lack of sleep that many of these students face during this period of time only compounds the problem and makes the stress worse (Lahmers, 2000).

In general, having too much academic stress or other types of stress in the college individual's life correlates very strongly with anxiety (Lahmers, 2000). Both the psychological and physical symptoms of stress can manifest themselves quite strongly in college students and those that have better time management will see less of these… READ MORE

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