Time Management Tools and Techniques for Students

Introduction

Contemporary society is a time of change — crucial shifts occur on a daily basis and impact our lives in ways we had not expected. Consider the case of high-tech gadgets, which are generally meant to alleviate our workload and make us more efficient. Yet no matter how many developments are made, it seems that people have less and less time. This is increasingly common across the globe, for all individuals regardless of age or occupation. Lack of time is evident in working environments, where time crises frequently occur and employees must put in extra hours to complete their tasks. Lack of time is equally obvious in our personal lives, when we never have enough time to spend with loved ones or to rest.

As a full-time master's student in marketing, I have often faced insufficient time to complete my tasks or to spend my vacations with family. In my personal experience, as with others in the general population — whether private individuals or the business community — the need to manage time more efficiently arises regularly.

This need for better time management can be met through the application of specific tools and techniques. As noted by Harvard Business School Publishing (2005), "time management is a conscious attempt to control and allocate finite time resources. Concern with time and speed is most apparent in the workplace, where it now impinges on the lives of managers, technical professionals, and supervisors to the point of creating a minor industry of time-management seminars, day-planners, PDAs, and scheduling software. Effective time management has many benefits. These include a reduction in wasted time, mitigation of work overloads, and higher levels of personal productivity. Perhaps more important, time management ensures that the most important task gets done."

The application of time management is vital for both individuals and the business community, as it helps people better organize their time, increase the efficiency of their operations, and improve their chances of achieving favorable outcomes. For me personally, applying these tools and techniques would help me organize my time better, complete all tasks on schedule, and still have sufficient time left to rest and see my family. It would also serve as valuable preparation for my future as a marketing director, when the work handled will be more significant, carry greater responsibilities, and demand substantially improved results.

Since time itself is fixed and unchangeable, we must learn how to adjust to it and increase the efficiency of our activities within a given period. As Allen (2001) observes: "You can't manage time — it just is. So 'time management' is a mislabeled problem, which has little chance of being an effective approach. What you really manage is your activity during time, and defining outcomes and physical actions required is the core process required to manage what you do."

Application of Theory

The theory of time management is extremely wide and varied, shaped by the personal experiences of its authors. However, although most authors express themselves in different words, the basic conclusion is the same. Time management comprises a series of tools and techniques implemented to increase the efficiency of personal and professional operations and to help retrieve the best results. It is not about doing more things within a specified amount of time, but about making sure that the things you do are the right ones, carried out to the desired quality standards and yielding the most favorable results.

As Cook (1998) notes: "Contrary to popular belief, effective time management is not based on doing more things in less time. That's just not going to happen. Time management is about doing the right things better. Time management shows you how to organize your valuable time to make sure the things you need to make happen get done."

A primary feature of effective time management is acknowledging the unique characteristics of all those who apply it: "The need to remember that we're all individuals. We do not all work — or even learn — in the same way" (Mancini, 2003). Therefore, the first step is to understand the particular features that define us as individuals. I, for instance, learn best through visual experience. In other words, I need to see a strategy actually implemented in order to understand its usage and benefits. Reading aids comprehension, but remains an abstract notion without witnessing how something works in practice. Once I observed and became convinced of the true benefits of efficient time management, I felt an immediate need to understand it better and apply it myself. By "observation," I refer to studying fellow students in my marketing master's program who not only completed their tasks on time but delivered them at a higher quality than my own work — even though I had often spent more time on those tasks than they had.

Once the need for effective time management is identified, the next step is to identify which tools and techniques best apply to one's own situation. Economic and management theory offers a wide range of possible approaches. Some tools for implementing time management can be summarized as follows:

Other means of implementing effective time management include:

However, to identify those tools that best apply to us, we must remember the first lesson of time management: we are unique individuals. As such, not all of the above tools are applicable to me as a marketing master's student. For instance, I am rarely in a position to take control of time during meetings, and even when I do attend meetings, I do not have the authority to manage them. Aligning my personal goals with those of the university, while possible in theory, is not a primary concern. Nor do I have the means to hire a personal planner.

In the end, I would only use a portion of the available tools to increase the efficiency of my academic work — specifically, to improve the quality of my learning and submitted assignments and to deliver the best outcomes on the most important tasks within the given time. The strategies I chose to adopt involve identifying the causes for delays and low-quality work, establishing personal goals, planning and prioritizing activities, reducing interruptions, and keeping my work area organized.

Changes in Thinking and Behavior

Once I identified the need to implement effective time management, my priorities changed significantly. My ways of thinking and behaving shifted noticeably. I no longer postponed the start of academic work, nor did I waste time once I had begun a project. In this sense, I managed to substantially reduce procrastination.

My approach to tasks also changed. Prior to adopting effective time management tools and techniques, my primary concern had been to get the task done on time, with quality being secondary to timely delivery. Now, however, I am more focused on the quality of my work. Consequently, my overall approach to academic activities shifted from an emphasis on timely submission to an emphasis on the final quality of the project. The goal became not to handle more tasks within a given period, but to ensure that the same tasks were properly executed and yielded the most successful outcome within the allotted time.

The adoption of these tools changed my thinking in one fundamental way: efficiency. Time management taught me the true meaning and importance of being efficient — successfully completing tasks to a high standard using fewer resources, whether time, materials, or energy. This lesson is equally valuable for my future as a marketing director, when I will need to ensure that outcomes benefit the organization while making the best use of its resources.

Finally, the results of my work improved in concrete, measurable ways. By reducing procrastination and keeping interruptions to a minimum, I was able to concentrate more effectively on the task at hand. The final outcomes reflected this. Not only was my work of superior quality, but I learned more and applied the acquired knowledge more effectively. All of these improvements increased my self-confidence, which became apparent to my colleagues and teachers. I am now better able to interact with those around me and have developed a stronger sense of self-respect.

I have implemented numerous time management tools and techniques, each personalized and adjusted to my particular needs. They all helped me achieve my goals of increasing efficiency and improving the quality of my submitted work. These tools and techniques must be further developed, customized, and applied in order to ensure the continued success of my academic activities and to prepare me effectively for my future career as a marketing director within, I hope, an international corporation.

Conclusion

All of the above played a vital role in my personalized implementation of time management and offered the necessary support for improving the final quality of my work and better preparing for my future career. The process does not end here, however; I will continue to identify new sources of potential failure and reduce their negative impact through customized time management tools and techniques.