Time Management There Are Many

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 symptoms (Lahmers, 2000). Even an individual that is very good at managing his or her time will occasionally experience stress and anxiety in college simply because the workload is so heavy (Lahmers, 2000). However, older students that return to college often have less stress in their lives when it comes to their education and this is largely thought to be because they have better skills at managing their time (Lahmers, 2000).

When they manage time effectively they are not rushed to complete tasks and therefore they do not have the stress that the younger college students often face when working to meet a deadline. It is important for counselors and faculty members to help emphasize to students when they first start out on their college careers that managing their time is one of the most important things that they can do (Lahmers, 2000). This means that these students must not only make time to go to classes and study for exams, but they must also make time for research projects, hobbies and leisure activities, meals, and sleep (Lahmers, 2000).

This does not mean that students can expect to get a full eight hours of sleep each night or expect to eat three leisurely meals per day every day. Sometimes this simply does not work out and students that have very heavy class loads often struggle to fit everything in (Lahmers, 2000). Offering courses for college credit that deal with time management can help to enhance the lives of many of these students and this is something that colleges may want to consider. This would allow these students to be able to attend these types of classes just as they would a regular class and therefore they would not feel that they were taking still more time out of their already busy and crowded schedules to attend a seminar or some type of lectures that deals with managing their time effectively (Lahmers, 2000).

While time management and academic stress are not the only issues that college students face they are by far the most serious and time management relates to so many different things that it has many smaller sub-issues in it that all relate to stress and can provide many different stressors for the college student that is not wary of these issues and careful in what he or she does when it comes to balancing college and the rest of life (Lahmers, 2000).

Anxiety may sound silly to most people that do not understand the condition, but to those that suffer with it, it is a serious and often debilitating problem (Konig & Kleinmann, 2007). Quite frequently, people who have extreme cases of anxiety disorder are not even able to leave their home, even to take a walk around the block or go to the grocery store for milk (Konig & Kleinmann, 2007). Mild cases only cause nervousness or panic when in large crowds of individuals or unfamiliar surroundings. Individuals who have social anxiety disorder, also sometimes called antisocial disorder, often rely on others to go out and get the things that they need to survive such as groceries, medication, or clothing (Konig & Kleinmann, 2007).

Anxiety, however, can come from many things. One of the areas where it is being seen more commonly today is in the student population (Konig & Kleinmann, 2007). When individuals get into college, they often find that things are very different than they were in high school. Because of that, they cannot manage their time well, and when they start having problems in their classes they become anxious and even panicky about it (Konig & Kleinmann, 2007). If they are taught from the beginning to manage their time well, this will be much less of an issue.

Occupational stresses are very real in many professions and this is also true of those who 'work' as students (Konig & Kleinmann, 2007). When these students experience intense periods of stress that are more and more frequent most of these have to do with psychological, physiological, and behavioral responses (Konig & Kleinmann, 2007). That effect will continue to accumulate as these intense periods of stress continue and much of this will have influence on whether the student chooses to remain in the classroom or even in his or her chosen academic major in general (Konig & Kleinmann, 2007).

Eventually, it is possible that the level of stress will become so high that it will reach the stage of burnout (Konig & Kleinmann, 2007). The student is directly affected by stress and burnout and this can hurt others who need these students, such as family and friends, as well as the students themselves (Konig & Kleinmann, 2007). There may not be enough staff for these students who need them and services related to both education and other school ideals for students with these difficulties may be greatly reduced (Konig & Kleinmann, 2007). Because of this, the stress that these students face and the burnout that comes from it require educational reform that turns its focus not only on the students but also on the classrooms and teachers as well (Konig & Kleinmann, 2007). There are few direct indicators of student burnout but there are various indirect measures that are available (Konig & Kleinmann, 2007).

There are specific variables that students report as being very stressful (Konig & Kleinmann, 2007). Much of these have to do with student behavior but others can include a lack of materials and supplies, difficulty in meeting the instructional objectives that are put forth and the needs of various teachers, excessive amounts of unnecessary 'busywork,' salaries that are lower than they should be for the work that is done in part-time jobs, and very few opportunities available for not only growth in one's classes but professional interactions as well (Konig & Kleinmann, 2007).

In addition, they cite a loss of control based on what a student wants to do vs. what the teacher insists upon, a lack of recognition in their chosen career path, and interpersonal interactions between either the other students or students that are overly stressful (Konig & Kleinmann, 2007). As time goes on and many of these stresses are still unresolved students decide to leave the classroom because they become so stressed and anxious that they can no longer function in a way that they feel comfortable with. Managing their time correctly could work to avoid much of this (Konig & Kleinmann, 2007). Unfortunately, even with this information being documented in various studies there have not been any important fundamental changes carried out within most educational institutions to try to help students with their time management skills (Konig & Kleinmann, 2007).

It is important to review and critique existing research in order to shed light on many of the various variables that lead to anxiety, stress, and burnout of students (Marlowe, Koonce, Lee, & Cai, 2002). Various educational researchers have introduced various models that are intended to show stress and burnout as a conceptualized idea of what is going on in a particular student population (Marlowe, Koonce, Lee, & Cai, 2002). Social psychology is one of the most notable fields that has helped with these insights (Marlowe, Koonce, Lee, & Cai, 2002). Social learning theory was utilized in the general model in the late 1970s that helped understand the various processes that lead to anxiety, stress, and burnout (Marlowe, Koonce, Lee, & Cai, 2002). The school creates expectations for student and student performance but does not provide the resources that are necessary to create this, so students began to experience uncertainty in various degrees (Marlowe, Koonce, Lee, & Cai, 2002).

Because students have this uncertainty over what they are doing and how well their grades and classwork are ultimately doing they began to experience anxiety and stress that will ultimately influence not only whether the student stays in the classroom but whether the student stays with his or her particular professional goal at all (Marlowe, Koonce, Lee, & Cai, 2002). As important as these models of stress and burnout are, there have been no interventions created based on them to help to reduce the burnout that these students face and the rate at which they are leaving the classroom or suffering anxiety and stress because their time is managed ineffectively (Marlowe, Koonce, Lee, & Cai, 2002). This clearly indicates that time management and the way that it relates to anxiety and depression in college students must be reconceptualized in some way so that more about it can be understood and more can be done in order to help these individuals live fuller lives both in and out of the classroom (Marlowe, Koonce, Lee, & Cai, 2002).

There have been extensive amounts of literature that have documented many of the sources that students deal with when they face stress (Marlowe, Koonce, Lee, & Cai, 2002). Because of this, insights have been seen that indicate that there is a link between the demands that students must face in performing their collegiate duties and the lack of understanding as to how this affects the well-being of these students (Marlowe, Koonce, Lee, & Cai, 2002). All of the theory and applied research that have been utilized have not created a model that helps to correlate these two in a way that allows for various changes to be made that will help students out in the classroom (Marlowe, Koonce, Lee, & Cai, 2002).

There is a strong correlation between stress, strain, and outcome. A stressor is basically the relationship between an individual and either the environment or another individual that is seen as being taxing or endangering the well-being of this individual in some way (Marlowe, Koonce, Lee, & Cai, 2002). Even if this stress is perceived and not actually real it is how an individual interprets it that causes problems, and management of time in one of the most serious stressors for many college students (Marlowe, Koonce, Lee, & Cai, 2002).

As stress continues for prolonged periods of time there is frequent emotional exhaustion, a sense of failure, a serious reduction in personal accomplishment, and a tendency to see others not as actual people (Marlowe, Koonce, Lee, & Cai, 2002). These very symptoms detail the fact that there is specific and immediate strains going on in a very complex environment but the symptoms are also utilized to define burnout (Marlowe, Koonce, Lee, & Cai, 2002). I