Time Management Research: Literature Review and Synthesis
This literature review synthesizes three publications on time management: Britton and Tesser's (1991) empirical study linking time management habits to college GPA, Macan's (1994) process-model study examining workplace training outcomes, and Spidal's (2009) practical guide for individual self-assessment. The paper compares each author's research questions, populations, and methodologies, noting areas of overlap and divergence. While Britton and Tesser found that short-term planning and time attitudes predicted academic achievement, Macan's results were mixed—training reduced workplace tension but did not consistently improve job performance. Spidal's self-help framework, meanwhile, offers practical applications that parallel the empirical findings, raising the question of how well academic research informs popular time management guidance.
- Introduction: Overview of time management research and sources reviewed
- Assertions and Overview: Each author's core claims about time management benefits
- Research Questions: Motivating questions behind each study compared
- Research Design and Methodology: Survey and data collection methods across studies
- Criticism and Future Research: Limitations of self-help literature and gaps to address
- Conclusion: Shared advocacy for time management across all sources
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper clearly organizes its comparison across three distinct sources by moving systematically through their assertions, research questions, and methodologies, making the synthesis easy to follow.
- It draws meaningful contrasts between empirical academic studies and practical self-help literature, demonstrating the student's awareness of different types of scholarly contribution.
- The concluding observation — that it would be worth investigating how well academic research informs popular time management training — shows independent critical thinking beyond mere description.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates effective thematic synthesis: rather than summarizing each source in isolation, the student consistently groups all three authors under shared analytical categories (assertions, research questions, design). This approach reveals relationships among sources and is a hallmark of strong literature review writing at the undergraduate level.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a brief framing of time management research and introduces the three sources. It then moves through four main analytical sections — Assertions, Research Questions, Research Design, and Criticism/Future Research — treating each source comparatively within each section. A Works Cited list follows standard APA formatting. The structure is tightly organized and well-suited to a synthesis assignment.
Introduction
Psychologists have conducted research into the effectiveness of various time management techniques for organizing work and personal life. Time management is also a popular topic for self-help books, PowerPoint presentations, and instructional web videos (for example, Allen, 2001; Mann, 2007; McGhee, 2005; Spidal, 2009). The untested assertions found in some practical manuals provide testable hypotheses that psychologists can investigate empirically using controlled samples and statistical models. These researchers have found some popularly promoted time management advice to be supported by the evidence, while other recommendations have proven to be of questionable value.
This essay compares, contrasts, and synthesizes information presented in three publications on time management: Bruce K. Britton and Abraham Tesser (1991), Therese Hoff Macan (1994), and Debra Spidal (2009). Each of these authors approaches the problem from a different angle. Together, their work covers different populations and applies different models of time management. Ultimately, all three authors are advocates of using time management techniques to improve work efficiency, perform better in school, or enhance a subjective sense of confidence and self-efficacy.
Assertions and Overview
Two of the articles — the Britton and Tesser study and the Macan study — present empirical evidence for the value of time management, testing outcomes on populations that had either attended time management seminars or scored high on time management inventories. The third article, by Spidal, is not a statistical study comparing control groups; instead, it offers practical advice for individual self-assessment and the application of one's findings to improve personal time management.
Britton and Tesser focused their investigation on college students. They proposed that differences in time management habits among students account for significant differences in academic performance, as measured by grade point average (GPA).
Macan also ran statistical tests on comparable populations to examine practical outcomes resulting from different styles of time management. Rather than studying college students, Macan's research focused on adults employed at two government agencies — a correctional facility and a public social service agency. She was able to compare a sample group of workers who had received time management training to a control group of coworkers who had not. She found that time management training did have beneficial effects in reducing workplace tension, but not in increasing efficiency.
Spidal's article can be seen as the practical application of the kinds of time management techniques the other two studies found effective. Spidal elaborates on methods for self-evaluation relevant to improving personal time management. She proposes that these techniques will benefit anyone who has goals, helping people identify time-wasters and organize their schedules to accomplish objectives more efficiently.
Works Cited
Allen, D. (2001). Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity. New York: Viking.
Britton, B. K., & Tesser, A. (1991). Effects of time-management practices on college grades. Journal of Educational Psychology, 83(3), 405–410.
Macan, T. (1994). Time management: Test of a process model. Journal of Applied Psychology, 381–391.
Mann, M. (2007). Inbox Zero [Video]. Google Videos. video.google.com (accessed May 29, 2008).
McGhee, S. (2005). Take Back Your Life! Using Microsoft Outlook to Get Organized and Stay Organized. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Press.
Pausch, R. (2007). Time management [Video]. Google Videos. video.google.com (accessed May 29, 2008).
Spidal, D. (2009). Time management. Key Words, 17(1), 15.
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