time management introduction research

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Relation between stress, time management, and academic achievement in preclinical medical education: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Soleiman ahmady.

Department Medical Education, Virtual School of Medical Education and Management, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Nasrin Khajeali

1 Deprtment of Medical Education, Fasa University of Medical Sciences, Fasa, Iran

Masomeh Kalantarion

Farshad sharifi.

2 Elderly Health Research Center, Endocrinology and Metabolism Population Sciences Institute, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Mehdi Yaseri

3 Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Tehran University of medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Identifying the learners' problems is important. Besides, many factors are associated with academic failure, among which time management and stress are more important than any others based on evidence. By using a systematic review and meta-analysis, this study aims to synthesize the findings of studies about the correlation of time management and stress with academic failure to suggest a more in-depth insight into the effect of these two factors on academic failure. Four databases were searched from the inception of January 2018. Publication bias was evaluated visually using funnel plots and sized up by Egger's test. Ninety-four articles were found to be qualified for inclusion after full-text review and additional manual reference made. Of these, 8 were studies of educational interventions that were reviewed in this paper. Regarding the relation of stress and academic performance, the Funnel plot (results not shown) and Egger's test showed no publication bias in the studies ( P = 0.719). Based on this result, the estimated pooled correlation (reverted by hyperbolic tangent transformation) between stress and academic performance was found to be -0.32 (95% confidence interval: -0.38–-0.25). In conclusion, the review recognized a series of potentially mutable medium-to-large correlates of academic achievement, time management, and stress. It would be essential to have experimental data on how easily such self-regulatory capacities can be altered, and these interventions could help students enhance their potential, providing empirical tests for offered process models of academic achievement.

Introduction

Identifying the learners' issues early and offering advice from the start is an essential investment in the training and progress of future practitioners.[ 1 ] The National Committee on Internal Medicine (1999) has described the learner as a trainee who identifies the underlying problems that required to be addressed by a program leader or manager.[ 2 ] Some educators have expressed their concern about difficult learners in case they negatively affect educational programs and other students. Although studies may predict different elements, medical educators would like to be able to predict merely.[ 3 ]

Academic failure is a problem that has turned out to be a central concern for countries in different parts of the world. In order to find the different causes of academic failure, several research projects in this field have been performed. Typically, students experience academic issues with academic and nonacademic characteristics, and the various combinations of reasons for academic failure result in different types of student profiles, suggesting different strategies of intervention.[ 4 ]

The evidence indicates that when intervention techniques are applied for failed students, their performance improves in the subsequent academic year.[ 5 ] Ahmady et al . indicate that failed students can be assisted in becoming successful in the classroom when appropriate intervention techniques are applied. Usually, in research concerning student learning and behavioral outcomes, certain personal attributes of the students are measured, which are then related to some outcome measure. Among these, study skills, such as time management, is one of the factors affecting academic achievement and also stress.[ 6 ]

Personal characteristics are personality, motivation, self-concept, cognitive style, intelligence, and locus of control. Nevertheless, some environmental and contextual difficulties, which lead to unsuccessful learning, are not considered. The purpose of this study is to identify the factors related to the failure of college students.[ 4 ]

Many factors have been related to academic failure.[ 1 ] Ahmady et al . indicate that 21 factors related to academic failure in preclinical medical students, and study skill and stress is reported to be more important among other factors. We have found several studies[ 7 , 8 ] that suggest time management is perhaps more important than any other study strategies.[ 6 ]

West et al . (2011) show that study skills (time management) are usually powerful predictors of first-semester academic performance in medical school and other higher education disciplines.[ 7 ] Practical time management skills are essential. Students who do not plan their time effectively run out of time before running out of the content. Relatively, few studies have investigated the joint contribution of academic performance and study skills.[ 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 ]

Another reason is that medical education is inherently stressful and demanding. An ideal level of stress can increase the level of learning, while over-stress can cause health problems, leading to a decrease in students' self-esteem and failure in their academic competence. A high level of stress can affect the students' learning process in medical school negatively.[ 13 ] Sources of stress include curriculum, personal competence, tolerance, and time outside of medical school. Increased anxiety is associated with increased depression and anxiety.[ 14 , 15 ]

Knowledge about the effective size of these factors (time management and stress) can help policymakers, managers, medical teachers, and counselors track the students' academic failure. It is essential to integrate the evidence produced through all studies to obtain useful information, help medical students, and provide directions for future studies. To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first systematic review and meta-analysis of the findings of studies concerning time management and stress associated with academic failure. It suggests a more in-depth insight into the effect of these two factors on the students' academic failure.

Materials and Methods

This systematic review was carried out following PRISMA guidelines.[ 16 ]

Search strategy

PubMed, Web of Knowledge Educational Resources, and Information Center, and Scopus databases were searched.

Using the search No., time limitation was set for searching the resources. For comprehensiveness of the search, the following keywords were used in the abstract, title, and keyword sections: “academic performance” and “academic failure” or “academic achievement” and “drop out;” “medical student” and “struggle student;” “time management” and “stress.” Hand searching was also done in Medical Teacher and Medical Education journals. Furthermore, reference lists of many articles were reviewed to identify the relevant papers. The most celebrated authors in this area were contacted for “gray literature:” conference proceedings, unpublished studies, and internal reports. The obtained data were included in the study. The inclusion criteria for the articles were as follows: being a correlation between study skill and stress with academic performance, observational study design, preclinical medical students, without any language, or time limitation from January 1987 to January 2018.

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

The exclusion criteria for the search were being secondary research or not being a preclinical medical student. All the databases were searched by one reviewer, and Endnote X8 was applied for data management. The articles were imported into Endnote X8 to remove the duplicate data before importing the data into Excel. The imported data were the list of authors, titles, journals, and years of publication. Two team members (N Kh and SA) screened the titles and abstracts to determine the potentially relevant articles. The full-text version of the study was then reviewed if the study met the selection criteria or if there was any doubt concerning the study's eligibility. Furthermore, a third independent researcher was requested to resolve any disagreements.

Quality assessment

The study quality was rated on STROBE guidelines. Over 100 journals have endorsed STROBE guidelines ( http://www.strobe-statement.org ).[ 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 ] Studies were rated for each of the following: title and abstract, introduction, methods, results, discussion, data collection methods, and other information. This yielded a quality rating with a range from 8 to 22.

Data extraction and analysis

As several different variables were tested in each article, thus the article names were repeated. Studies were coded according to author (publication year), effective factors in academic performance, measurement method, type of R, type of analysis, location, and type of study [ Table 1 ]. Two reviewers extracted data from the included articles. They compared extractions and resolved differences through discussion or with a third nonauthors.

Data extraction of articles related to study skill (time management) and stress

SMART=Study management and academic results test

This meta-analysis was conducted via Stata 15.0 software (StataCorp. 2017. Stata Statistical Software: Release 15. College Station, TX: StataCorp LLC). As the distribution of the correlation was highly skewed, the inverse hyperbolic tangent transformation (z = tangh-1(rho) =1/2 ln ((rho + 1)/(rho - 1))) was applied. All the calculations were based on the transformed values. The Cochran's Q test and The I 2 statistic were used to assess and characterize the extent of the heterogeneity, respectively. I 2 -50% was indicated as considerable heterogeneity. Given the high heterogeneity of the data, the random-effects model was used. We used hyperbolic tangent transformation (rho = tangh (z) = [e 2 z - 1]/[e 2 z + 1]) to change the pooled estimates (and its 95% confidence intervals [CI]) to the pooled correlation. All the individual studies results were reported with 95% CIs and demonstrated in a forest plot. Publication bias was evaluated visually using funnel plots and sized up by Egger's test. A P < 0.05 was statistically significant.

The study selection initial database searches retrieved 13,123 articles. After exclusion of duplicate references, conference abstracts, screening titles and abstracts, 6305 articles were selected for further review (title and abstract). A total of 100 articles were found eligible for inclusion after full-text review and additional manual reference screening. Five articles, including the studies of educational interventions, were reviewed in this paper [ Figure 1 ].

Study flowchart demonstrates the inclusion-exclusion process

Study characteristics

Study setting and populations.

Most of the studies were completed in Europe (50%), 2 (25%) USA, and 2 (25%) Asia.

Type of design

The majority design in the articles was prospective, followed by correlational [ Table 1 ].

Aims of studies

The purpose of the studies was to report the effect level of the study skill (time management) and stress on academic performance.

Regarding the relation of stress and academic performance, the Egger' test and Funnel plot (results not shown) indicated that there was no publication bias in the studies ( P = 0.719). The same was obtained when we evaluated the relation of the study skill (time management) and academic performance, not statistically significant ( P = 0.833).

The individual studies transformed between stress and academic performance were shown in a forest plot [ Figure 2 ]; based on this result, pulled correlation (result from hyperbolic tangent transformation) between stress and academic performance was found to be – 0.32 (95% CI [-0.38, -0.25]).

Correlation between stress and academic failure

The individual studies transformed between study skill (time management) and academic performance were demonstrated in a forest plot [ Figure 3 ]; based on this result, pulled correlation (result from hyperbolic tangent transformation) between stress and academic performance was found to be 0.39 (95% CI [0.29, 0.47]).

Correlation between study skill (time management) and academic failure

To the authors' knowledge, this is the first systematic review and meta-analysis of the evidence concerning the effect of study skill (time management) and stress on academic performance.

Overall, with this review, we found medium to high-quality evidence from a modest number of studies, suggesting that study skills (time management) and stress significantly affect academic achievement: study skill (time management) (ES: 0.39) and stress (ES: -0.32).

However, research suggests that study skills (time management) are also significant factors affecting academic achievement in medical schools.[ 8 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 ]

Study skills are one of the more reliable predictors of first-semester total grades.[ 7 ] The predictive strength of first-semester final average is accounted for by scores on time management,

Teaching time management rules, such as preventing postponement, previewing data, reviewing material shortly right after presented, prioritizing items, handling study periods, reviewing repeatedly, and making time for other commitments, is an essential component.[ 26 ]

For instance, sometimes, students procrastinate studying material they have problem with or do not see the applicability of. In this instance, seminars or counseling, which concentrate on arranging these projects for one's optimum time of day such that it will be simpler to focus on the material and reduce procrastination, may be offered.[ 27 ]

Time management aims to improve the nature of activities that require a limited time. The inability to use time in the learning process is the main problem for the students. Previous studies have shown that the excessive intensity of courses affects productivity negatively. In this situation, medical students, who have to cope with an intensive training curriculum, may inevitably but efficiently make the most of their time. To succeed in the education process, medical students must set goals for their education and plan for appropriate academic progress. They, therefore, have to follow course schedules, be prepared for examinations, and use the time available for other activities.[ 28 ]

Another significant issue is that there is a substantial increase in stress levels during study times, in the 1 st year in particular.[ 29 ] Perceived stress is a key factor in discriminating among students with low versus high academic performance.[ 30 ] First-year students face different challenges that can be seen as potential stressors. They have to get familiar with a new environment, get into contact with other students, choose their lectures and seminars, participate in extracurricular activities, and manage their first tests. Another source of students' perceived stress is time-related demands, such as an increasing workload, time pressure, and regulation of their self-study.[ 31 ]

Pfeiffer notes that too much stress is negatively associated with students' readiness, focus, and performance, while positive stress helps the student achieve maximum performance.[ 32 ] It should also be recommended that this situation is the first exam in which students are exposed to a significant amount of integrated curriculum. Often, students are suggested by their seniors to pursue an education in the coming years; thus, they can lower the stress levels, control stress in a better way, and enhance their academic performance.

Managing self-efficacy, flexibility, and social support also are related to academic achievement; thus, intervening to enhance self-efficacy, resilience, and social support may lessen the perception that stress is affecting performance.

Limitations

The limitation of this review is that statistically significant time management and stress have not been reported in all studies.

Conclusions

This review of 31 years of research on the correlation of stress, time management, and academic failure has been devoted to the understanding of the effect of time management and stress on academic achievement of medical students. This systematic review and meta-analysis are the first in the field. We wish that this work provides a base for more focused research and intervention. Finally, our review and others have identified a series of potentially modifiable medium-to-large correlates of academic achievement, time management and stress in particular. It would be worthful to have experimental data on how easily such self-regulatory capacities can be altered, as well as for whom, over what period, and to what extent do such changes to be effective academic performance. These interventions could help students develop their potential and would provide empirical tests for proposed process models of academic achievement.

Financial support and sponsorship

Conflicts of interest.

There are no conflicts of interest.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank all of authorities and students at Medical School in Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences for their assistance.

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Open Access

Peer-reviewed

Research Article

Does time management work? A meta-analysis

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Methodology, Software, Validation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

* E-mail: [email protected]

Affiliation Concordia University, Sir George Williams Campus, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Roles Methodology, Validation

Affiliation FSA Ulaval, Laval University, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada

Roles Validation, Writing – review & editing

• Brad Aeon, 
• Aïda Faber, 
• Alexandra Panaccio

• Published: January 11, 2021
• https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0245066
• Reader Comments

Does time management work? We conducted a meta-analysis to assess the impact of time management on performance and well-being. Results show that time management is moderately related to job performance, academic achievement, and wellbeing. Time management also shows a moderate, negative relationship with distress. Interestingly, individual differences and contextual factors have a much weaker association with time management, with the notable exception of conscientiousness. The extremely weak correlation with gender was unexpected: women seem to manage time better than men, but the difference is very slight. Further, we found that the link between time management and job performance seems to increase over the years: time management is more likely to get people a positive performance review at work today than in the early 1990s. The link between time management and gender, too, seems to intensify: women’s time management scores have been on the rise for the past few decades. We also note that time management seems to enhance wellbeing—in particular, life satisfaction—to a greater extent than it does performance. This challenges the common perception that time management first and foremost enhances work performance, and that wellbeing is simply a byproduct.

Citation: Aeon B, Faber A, Panaccio A (2021) Does time management work? A meta-analysis. PLoS ONE 16(1): e0245066. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0245066

Editor: Juan-Carlos Pérez-González, Universidad Nacional de Educacion a Distancia (UNED), SPAIN

Received: October 27, 2020; Accepted: December 21, 2020; Published: January 11, 2021

Copyright: © 2021 Aeon et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Data Availability: All relevant data are within the manuscript and its Supporting Information files.

Funding: The authors received no specific funding for this work.

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist

Introduction

Stand-up comedian George Carlin once quipped that in the future a “time machine will be built, but no one will have time to use it” [ 1 ]. Portentously, booksellers now carry one-minute bedtime stories for time-starved parents [ 2 ] and people increasingly speed-watch videos and speed-listen to audio books [ 3 – 5 ]. These behaviors are symptomatic of an increasingly harried society suffering from chronic time poverty [ 6 ]. Work is intensifying—in 1965 about 50% of workers took breaks; in 2003, less than 2% [ 7 ]. Leisure, too, is intensifying: people strive to consume music, social media, vacations, and other leisure activities ever more efficiently [ 8 – 11 ].

In this frantic context, time management is often touted as a panacea for time pressure. Media outlets routinely extol the virtues of time management. Employers, educators, parents, and politicians exhort employees, students, children, and citizens to embrace more efficient ways to use time [ 12 – 16 ]. In light of this, it is not surprising that from 1960 to 2008 the frequency of books mentioning time management shot up by more than 2,700% [ 17 ].

Time management is defined as “a form of decision making used by individuals to structure, protect, and adapt their time to changing conditions” [ 18 ]. This means time management, as it is generally portrayed in the literature, comprises three components: structuring, protecting, and adapting time. Well-established time management measures reflect these concepts. Structuring time, for instance, is captured in such items as “Do you have a daily routine which you follow?” and “Do your main activities during the day fit together in a structured way?” [ 19 ]. Protecting time is reflected in items such as “Do you often find yourself doing things which interfere with your schoolwork simply because you hate to say ‘No’ to people?” [ 20 ]. And adapting time to changing conditions is seen in such items as “Uses waiting time” and “Evaluates daily schedule” [ 21 ].

Research has, furthermore, addressed several important aspects of time management, such as its relationship with work-life balance [ 22 ], whether gender differences in time management ability develop in early childhood [ 23 ], and whether organizations that encourage employees to manage their time experience less stress and turnover [ 24 ]. Despite the phenomenal popularity of this topic, however, academic research has yet to address some fundamental questions [ 25 – 27 ].

A critical gap in time management research is the question of whether time management works [ 28 , 29 ]. For instance, studies on the relationship between time management and job performance reveal mixed findings [ 30 , 31 ]. Furthermore, scholars’ attempts to synthesize the literature have so far been qualitative, precluding a quantitative overall assessment [ 18 , 32 , 33 ]. To tackle this gap in our understanding of time management, we conducted a meta-analysis. In addressing the question of whether time management works, we first clarify the criteria for effectiveness. In line with previous reviews, we find that virtually all studies focus on two broad outcomes: performance and wellbeing [ 32 ].

Overall, results suggest that time management enhances job performance, academic achievement, and wellbeing. Interestingly, individual differences (e.g., gender, age) and contextual factors (e.g., job autonomy, workload) were much less related to time management ability, with the notable exception of personality and, in particular, conscientiousness. Furthermore, the link between time management and job performance seems to grow stronger over the years, perhaps reflecting the growing need to manage time in increasingly autonomous and flexible jobs [ 34 – 37 ].

Overall, our findings provide academics, policymakers, and the general audience with better information to assess the value of time management. This information is all the more useful amid the growing doubts about the effectiveness of time management [ 38 ]. We elaborate on the contributions and implications of our findings in the discussion section.

What does it mean to say that time management works?

In the din of current debates over productivity, reduced workweeks, and flexible hours, time management comes to the fore as a major talking point. Given its popularity, it would seem rather pointless to question its effectiveness. Indeed, time management’s effectiveness is often taken for granted, presumably because time management offers a seemingly logical solution to a lifestyle that increasingly requires coordination and prioritization skills [ 39 , 40 ].

Yet, popular media outlets increasingly voice concern and frustration over time management, reflecting at least part of the population’s growing disenchantment [ 38 ]. This questioning of time management practices is becoming more common among academics as well [ 41 ]. As some have noted, the issue is not just whether time management works. Rather, the question is whether the techniques championed by time management gurus can be actually counterproductive or even harmful [ 26 , 42 ]. Other scholars have raised concerns that time management may foster an individualistic, quantitative, profit-oriented view of time that perpetuates social inequalities [ 43 , 44 ]. For instance, time management manuals beguile readers with promises of boundless productivity that may not be accessible to women, whose disproportionate share in care work, such as tending to young children, may not fit with typically male-oriented time management advice [ 45 ]. Similarly, bestselling time management books at times offer advice that reinforce global inequities. Some manuals, for instance, recommend delegating trivial tasks to private virtual assistants, who often work out of developing countries for measly wages [ 46 ]. Furthermore, time management manuals often ascribe a financial value to time—the most famous time management adage is that time is money. But recent studies show that thinking of time as money leads to a slew of negative outcomes, including time pressure, stress, impatience, inability to enjoy the moment, unwillingness to help others, and less concern with the environment [ 47 – 51 ]. What’s more, the pressure induced by thinking of time as money may ultimately undermine psychological and physical health [ 52 ].

Concerns over ethics and safety notwithstanding, a more prosaic question researchers have grappled with is whether time management works. Countless general-audience books and training programs have claimed that time management improves people’s lives in many ways, such as boosting performance at work [ 53 – 55 ]. Initial academic forays into addressing this question challenged those claims: time management didn’t seem to improve job performance [ 29 , 30 ]. Studies used a variety of research approaches, running the gamut from lab experiments, field experiments, longitudinal studies, and cross-sectional surveys to experience sampling [ 28 , 56 – 58 ]. Such studies occasionally did find an association between time management and performance, but only in highly motivated workers [ 59 ]; instances establishing a more straightforward link with performance were comparatively rare [ 31 ]. Summarizing these insights, reviews of the literature concluded that the link between time management and job performance is unclear; the link with wellbeing, however, seemed more compelling although not conclusive [ 18 , 32 ].

It is interesting to note that scholars often assess the effectiveness time management by its ability to influence some aspect of performance, wellbeing, or both. In other words, the question of whether time management works comes down to asking whether time management influences performance and wellbeing. The link between time management and performance at work can be traced historically to scientific management [ 60 ]. Nevertheless, even though modern time management can be traced to scientific management in male-dominated work settings, a feminist reading of time management history reveals that our modern idea of time management also descends from female time management thinkers of the same era, such as Lillian Gilbreth, who wrote treatises on efficient household management [ 43 , 61 , 62 ]. As the link between work output and time efficiency became clearer, industrialists went to great lengths to encourage workers to use their time more rationally [ 63 – 65 ]. Over time, people have internalized a duty to be productive and now see time management as a personal responsibility at work [ 43 , 66 , 67 ]. The link between time management and academic performance can be traced to schools’ historical emphasis on punctuality and timeliness. In more recent decades, however, homework expectations have soared [ 68 ] and parents, especially well-educated ones, have been spending more time preparing children for increasingly competitive college admissions [ 69 , 70 ]. In this context, time management is seen as a necessary skill for students to thrive in an increasingly cut-throat academic world. Finally, the link between time management and wellbeing harks back to ancient scholars, who emphasized that organizing one’s time was necessary to a life well-lived [ 71 , 72 ]. More recently, empirical studies in the 1980s examined the effect of time management on depressive symptoms that often plague unemployed people [ 19 , 73 ]. Subsequent studies surmised that the effective use of time might prevent a host of ills, such as work-life conflict and job stress [ 22 , 74 ].

Overall, then, various studies have looked into the effectiveness of time management. Yet, individual studies remain narrow in scope and reviews of the literature offer only a qualitative—and often inconclusive—assessment. To provide a more quantifiable answer to the question of whether time management works, we performed a meta-analysis, the methods of which we outline in what follows.

Literature search and inclusion criteria

We performed a comprehensive search using the keywords “time management” across the EBSCO databases Academic Search Complete , Business Source Complete , Computers & Applied Sciences Complete , Gender Studies Database , MEDLINE , Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection , PsycINFO , SocINDEX , and Education Source . The search had no restrictions regarding country and year of publication and included peer-reviewed articles up to 2019. To enhance comprehensiveness, we also ran a forward search on the three main time management measures: the Time Management Behavior Scale [ 21 ], the Time Structure Questionnaire [ 19 ], and the Time Management Questionnaire [ 20 ]. (A forward search tracks all the papers that have cited a particular work. In our case the forward search located all the papers citing the three time management scales available on Web of Science .)

Time management measures typically capture three aspects of time management: structuring, protecting, and adapting time to changing conditions. Structuring refers to how people map their activities to time using a schedule, a planner, or other devices that represent time in a systematic way [ 75 – 77 ]. Protecting refers to how people set boundaries around their time to repel intruders [ 78 , 79 ]. Examples include people saying no to time-consuming requests from colleagues or friends as well as turning off one’s work phone during family dinners. Finally, adapting one’s time to changing conditions means, simply put, to be responsive and flexible with one’s time structure [ 80 , 81 ]. Furthermore, time management measures typically probe behaviors related to these three dimensions (e.g., using a schedule to structure one’s day, making use of downtime), although they sometimes also capture people’s attitudes (e.g., whether people feel in control of their time).

As shown in Fig 1 , the initial search yielded 10,933 hits, excluding duplicates.

• PPT PowerPoint slide
• PNG larger image
• TIFF original image

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0245066.g001

The search included no terms other than “time management” to afford the broadest possible coverage of time management correlates. Nevertheless, as shown in Table 1 , we focused exclusively on quantitative, empirical studies of time management in non-clinical samples. Successive rounds of screening, first by assessing paper titles and abstracts and then by perusing full-text articles, whittled down the number of eligible studies to 158 (see Fig 1 ).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0245066.t001

Data extraction and coding

We extracted eligible effect sizes from the final pool of studies; effect sizes were mostly based on means and correlations. In our initial data extraction, we coded time management correlates using the exact variable names found in each paper. For instance, “work-life imbalance” was initially coded in those exact terms, rather than “work-life conflict.” Virtually all time management correlates we extracted fell under the category of performance and/or wellbeing. This pattern tallies with previous reviews of the literature [ 18 , 32 ]. A sizable number of variables also fell under the category of individual differences and contextual factors, such as age, personality, and job autonomy. After careful assessment of the extracted variables, we developed a coding scheme using a nested structure shown in Table 2 .

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0245066.t002

Aeon and Aguinis suggested that time management influences performance, although the strength of that relationship may depend on how performance is defined [ 18 ]. Specifically, they proposed that time management may have a stronger impact on behaviors conducive to performance (e.g., motivation, proactiveness) compared to assessments of performance (e.g., supervisor rankings). For this reason, we distinguish between results- and behavior-based performance in our coding scheme, both in professional and academic settings. Furthermore, wellbeing indicators can be positive (e.g., life satisfaction) or negative (e.g., anxiety). We expect time management to influence these variables in opposite ways; it would thus make little sense to analyze them jointly. Accordingly, we differentiate between wellbeing (positive) and distress (negative).

In our second round of coding, we used the scheme shown in Table 2 to cluster together kindred variables. For instance, we grouped “work-life imbalance,” “work-life conflict” and “work-family conflict” under an overarching “work-life conflict” category. The authors reviewed each variable code and resolved rare discrepancies to ultimately agree on all coded variables. Note that certain variables, such as self-actualization, covered only one study (i.e., one effect size). While one or two effect sizes is not enough to conduct a meta-analysis, they can nonetheless be grouped with other effect sizes belonging to the same category (e.g., self-actualization and sense of purpose belong the broader category of overall wellbeing). For this reason, we included variables with one or two effect sizes for comprehensiveness.

Meta-analytic procedures

We conducted all meta-analyses following the variables and cluster of variables outlined in Table 2 . We opted to run all analyses with a random effects model. The alternative—a fixed effects model—assumes that all studies share a common true effect size (i.e., linking time management and a given outcome) which they approximate. This assumption is unrealistic because it implies that the factors influencing the effect size are the same in all studies [ 83 ]. In other words, a fixed effects model assumes that the factors affecting time management are similar across all studies—the fallacy underlying this assumption was the main theme of Aeon and Aguinis’s review [ 18 ]. To perform our analyses, we used Comprehensive Meta-Analysis v.3 [ 84 ], a program considered highly reliable and valid in various systematic assessments [ 85 , 86 ].

In many cases, studies reported how variables correlated with an overall time management score. In some cases, however, studies reported only correlations with discrete time management subscales (e.g., short-range planning, attitudes toward time, use of time management tools), leaving out the overall effect. In such cases, we averaged out the effect sizes of the subscales to compute a summary effect [ 83 ]. This was necessary not only because meta-analyses admit only one effect size per study, but also because our focus is on time management as a whole rather than on subscales. Similarly, when we analyzed the link between time management and a high-level cluster of variables (e.g., overall wellbeing rather than specific variables such as life satisfaction), there were studies with more than one relevant outcome (e.g., a study that captured both life satisfaction and job satisfaction). Again, because meta-analyses allow for only one effect size (i.e., variable) per study, we used the mean of different variables to compute an overall effect sizes in studies that featured more than one outcome [ 83 ].

Overall description of the literature

We analyzed 158 studies for a total number of 490 effect sizes. 21 studies explored performance in a professional context, 76 performance in an academic context, 30 investigated wellbeing (positive), and 58 distress. Interestingly, studies did not systematically report individual differences, as evidenced by the fact that only 21 studies reported correlations with age, and only between 10 and 15 studies measured personality (depending on the personality trait). Studies that measured contextual factors were fewer still—between 3 and 7 (depending on the contextual factor). These figures fit with Aeon and Aguinis’s observation that the time management literature often overlooks internal and external factors that can influence the way people manage time [ 18 ].

With one exception, we found no papers fitting our inclusion criteria before the mid-1980s. Publication trends also indicate an uptick in time management studies around the turn of the millennium, with an even higher number around the 2010s. This trend is consistent with the one Shipp and Cole identified, revealing a surge in time-related papers in organizational behavior around the end of the 1980s [ 87 ].

It is also interesting to note that the first modern time management books came out in the early 1970s, including the The Time Trap (1972), by Alec MacKenzie and How to Get Control of your Time and your Life (1973), by Alan Lakein. These books inspired early modern time management research [ 21 , 58 , 88 ]. It is thus very likely that the impetus for modern time management research came from popular practitioner manuals.

To assess potential bias in our sample of studies, we computed different estimates of publication bias (see Table 3 ). Overall, publication bias remains relatively low (see funnel plots in S1). Publication bias occurs when there is a bias against nonsignificant or even negative results because such results are seen as unsurprising and not counterintuitive. In this case, however, the fact that time management is generally expected to lead to positive outcomes offers an incentive to publish nonsignificant or negative results, which would be counterintuitive [ 89 ]. By the same token, the fact that some people feel that time management is ineffective [ 38 ] provides an incentive to publish papers that link time management with positive outcomes. In other words, opposite social expectations surrounding time management might reduce publication bias.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0245066.t003

Finally, we note that the link between time management and virtually all outcomes studied is highly heterogeneous (as measured, for instance, by Cochran’s Q and Higgins & Thompson’s I 2 ; see tables below). This high level of heterogeneity suggests that future research should pay more attention to moderating factors (e.g., individual differences).

Time management and performance in professional settings

Overall, time management has a moderate impact on performance at work, with correlations hovering around r = .25. We distinguish between results-based and behavior-based performance. The former measures performance as an outcome (e.g., performance appraisals by supervisors) whereas the latter measures performance as behavioral contributions (e.g., motivation, job involvement). Time management seems related to both types of performance. Although the effect size for results-based performance is lower than that of behavior-based performance, moderation analysis reveals the difference is not significant (p > .05), challenging Aeon and Aguinis’s conclusions [ 18 ].

Interestingly, the link between time management and performance displays much less heterogeneity (see Q and I 2 statistics in Table 4 ) than the link between time management and other outcomes (see tables below). The studies we summarize in Table 4 include both experimental and non-experimental designs; they also use different time management measures. As such, we can discount, to a certain extent, the effect of methodological diversity. We can perhaps explain the lower heterogeneity by the fact that when people hold a full-time job, they usually are at a relatively stable stage in life. In school, by contrast, a constellation of factors (e.g., financial stability and marital status, to name a few) conspire to affect time management outcomes. Furthermore, work contexts are a typically more closed system than life in general. For this reason, fewer factors stand to disrupt the link between time management and job performance than that between time management and, say, life satisfaction. Corroborating this, note how, in Table 6 below, the link between time management and job satisfaction ( I 2 = 58.70) is much less heterogeneous than the one between time management and life satisfaction ( I 2 = 95.45).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0245066.t004

Moreover, we note that the relationship between time management and job performance (see Fig 2 ) significantly increases over the years ( B = .0106, p < .01, Q model = 8.52(1), Q residual = 15.54(9), I 2 = 42.08, R 2 analog = .75).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0245066.g002

Time management and performance in academic settings

Overall, the effect of time management on performance seems to be slightly higher in academic settings compared to work settings, although the magnitude of the effect remains moderate (see Table 5 ). Here again, we distinguish between results- and behavior-based performance. Time management’s impact on behavior-based performance seems much higher than on results-based performance—a much wider difference than the one we observed in professional settings. This suggests than results-based performance in academic settings depends less on time management than results-based performance in professional settings. This means that time management is more likely to get people a good performance review at work than a strong GPA in school.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0245066.t005

In particular, time management seems to be much more negatively related to procrastination in school than at work. Although we cannot establish causation in all studies, we note that some of them featured experimental designs that established a causal effect of time management on reducing procrastination [ 90 ].

Interestingly, time management was linked to all types of results-based performance except for standardized tests. This is perhaps due to the fact that standardized tests tap more into fluid intelligence, a measure of intelligence independent of acquired knowledge [ 91 ]. GPA and regular exam scores, in contrast, tap more into crystallized intelligence, which depends mostly on accumulated knowledge. Time management can thus assist students in organizing their time to acquire the knowledge necessary to ace a regular exam; for standardized exams that depend less on knowledge and more on intelligence, however, time management may be less helpful. Evidence from other studies bears this out: middle school students’ IQ predicts standardized achievement tests scores better than self-control while self-control predicts report card grades better than IQ [ 92 ]. (For our purposes, we can use self-control as a very rough proxy for time management.) Relatedly, we found no significant relationship between time management and cognitive ability in our meta-analysis (see Table 8 ).

Time management and wellbeing

On the whole, time management has a slightly stronger impact on wellbeing than on performance. This is unexpected, considering how the dominant discourse points to time management as a skill for professional career development. Of course, the dominant discourse also frames time management as necessary for wellbeing and stress reduction, but to a much lesser extent. Our finding that time management has a stronger influence on wellbeing in no way negates the importance of time management as a work skill. Rather, this finding challenges the intuitive notion that time management is more effective for work than for other life domains. As further evidence, notice how in Table 6 the effect of time management on life satisfaction is 72% stronger than that on job satisfaction.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0245066.t006

Time management and distress

Time management seems to allay various forms of distress, although to a lesser extent than it enhances wellbeing. The alleviating effect on psychological distress is particularly strong ( r = -0.358; see Table 7 ).

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0245066.t007

That time management has a weaker effect on distress should not be surprising. First, wellbeing and distress are not two poles on opposite ends of a spectrum. Although related, wellbeing and distress are distinct [ 93 ]. Thus, there is no reason to expect time management to have a symmetrical effect on wellbeing and distress. Second, and relatedly, the factors that influence wellbeing and distress are also distinct. Specifically, self-efficacy (i.e., seeing oneself as capable) is a distinct predictor of wellbeing while neuroticism and life events in general are distinct predictors of distress [ 94 ]. It stands to reason that time management can enhance self-efficacy. (Or, alternatively, that people high in self-efficacy would be more likely to engage in time management, although experimental evidence suggests that time management training makes people feel more in control of their time [ 89 ]; it is thus plausible that time management may have a causal effect on self-efficacy. Relatedly, note how time management ability is strongly related to internal locus of control in Table 8 ) In contrast, time management can do considerably less in the way of tackling neuroticism and dampening the emotional impact of tragic life events. In other words, the factors that affect wellbeing may be much more within the purview of time management than the factors that affect distress. For this reason, time management may be less effective in alleviating distress than in improving wellbeing.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0245066.t008

Time management and individual differences

Time management is, overall, less related to individual differences than to other variables.

Age, for instance, hardly correlates with time management (with a relatively high consistency between studies, I 2 = 55.79, see Table 8 above).

Similarly, gender only tenuously correlates with time management, although in the expected direction: women seem to have stronger time management abilities than men. The very weak association with gender ( r = -0.087) is particularly surprising given women’s well-documented superior self-regulation skills [ 95 ]. That being said, women’s time management abilities seem to grow stronger over the years ( N = 37, B = -.0049, p < .05, Q model = 3.89(1), Q residual = 218.42(35), I 2 = 83.98, R 2 analog = .03; also see Fig 3 below). More realistically, this increase may not be due to women’s time management abilities getting stronger per se but, rather, to the fact that women now have more freedom to manage their time [ 96 ].

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0245066.g003

Other demographic indicators, such as education and number of children, were nonsignificant. Similarly, the relationships between time management and personal attributes and attitudes were either weak or nonsignificant, save for two notable exceptions. First, the link between time management and internal locus of control (i.e., the extent to which people perceive they’re in control of their lives) is quite substantial. This is not surprising, because time management presupposes that people believe they can change their lives. Alternatively, it may be that time management helps people strengthen their internal locus of control, as experimental evidence suggests [ 89 ]. Second, the link between time management and self-esteem is equally substantial. Here again, one can make the argument either way: people with high self-esteem might be confident enough to manage their time or, conversely, time management may boost self-esteem. The two options are not mutually exclusive: people with internal loci of control and high self-esteem levels can feel even more in control of their lives and better about themselves through time management.

We also note a very weak but statistically significant negative association between time management and multitasking. It has almost become commonsense that multitasking does not lead to performance [ 97 ]. As a result, people with stronger time management skills might deliberately steer clear of this notoriously ineffective strategy.

In addition, time management was mildly related to hours spent studying but not hours spent working. (These variables cover only student samples working part- or full-time and thus do not apply to non-student populations.) This is consistent with time-use studies revealing that teenagers and young adults spend less time working and more time studying [ 98 ]. Students who manage their time likely have well-defined intentions, and trends suggest those intentions will target education over work because, it is hoped, education offers larger payoffs over the long-term [ 99 ].

In terms of contextual factors, time management does not correlate significantly with job autonomy. This is surprising, as we expected autonomy to be a prerequisite for time management (i.e., you can’t manage time if you don’t have the freedom to). Nevertheless, qualitative studies have shown how even in environments that afford little autonomy (e.g., restaurants), workers can carve out pockets of time freedom to momentarily cut loose [ 100 ]. Thus, time management behaviors may flourish even in the most stymying settings. In addition, the fact that time management is associated with less role overload and previous attendance of time management training programs makes sense: time management can mitigate the effect of heavy workloads and time management training, presumably, improves time management skills.

Finally, time management is linked to all personality traits. Moreover, previous reviews of the literature have commented on the link between time management and conscientiousness in particular [ 32 ]. What our study reveals is the substantial magnitude of the effect ( r = 0.451). The relationship is not surprising: conscientiousness entails orderliness and organization, which overlap significantly with time management. That time management correlates so strongly with personality (and so little with other individual differences) lends credence to the dispositional view of time management [ 101 – 103 ]. However, this finding should not be taken to mean that time management is a highly inheritable, fixed ability. Having a “you either have it or you don’t” view of time management is not only counterproductive [ 104 ] but also runs counter to evidence showing that time management training does, in fact, help people manage their time better.

Does time management work? It seems so. Time management has a moderate influence on job performance, academic achievement, and wellbeing. These three outcomes play an important role in people’s lives. Doing a good job at work, getting top grades in school, and nurturing psychological wellbeing contribute to a life well lived. Widespread exhortations to get better at time management are thus not unfounded: the importance of time management is hard to overstate.

Contributions

Beyond answering the question of whether time management works, this study contributes to the literature in three major ways. First, we quantify the impact of time management on several outcomes. We thus not only address the question of whether time management works, but also, and importantly, gauge to what extent time management works. Indeed, our meta-analysis covers 53,957 participants, which allows for a much more precise, quantified assessment of time management effectiveness compared to qualitative reviews.

Second, this meta-analysis systematically assesses relationships between time management and a host of individual differences and contextual factors. This helps us draw a more accurate portrait of potential antecedents of higher (or lower) scores on time management measures.

Third, our findings challenge intuitive ideas concerning what time management is for. Specifically, we found that time management enhances wellbeing—and in particular life satisfaction—to a greater extent than it does various types of performance. This runs against the popular belief that time management primarily helps people perform better and that wellbeing is simply a byproduct of better performance. Of course, it may be that wellbeing gains, even if higher than performance gains, hinge on performance; that is to say, people may need to perform better as a prerequisite to feeling happier. But this argument doesn’t jibe with experiments showing that even in the absence of performance gains, time management interventions do increase wellbeing [ 89 ]. This argument also founders in the face of evidence linking time management with wellbeing among the unemployed [ 105 ], unemployment being an environment where performance plays a negligible role, if any. As such, this meta-analysis lends support to definitions of time management that are not work- or performance-centric.

Future research and limitations

This meta-analysis questions whether time management should be seen chiefly as a performance device. Our questioning is neither novel nor subversive: historically people have managed time for other reasons than efficiency, such as spiritual devotion and philosophical contemplation [ 72 , 106 , 107 ]. It is only with relatively recent events, such as the Industrial Revolution and waves of corporate downsizing, that time management has become synonymous with productivity [ 43 , 65 ]. We hope future research will widen its scope and look more into outcomes other than performance, such as developing a sense of meaning in life [ 108 ]. One of the earliest time management studies, for instance, explored how time management relates to having a sense of purpose [ 73 ]. However, very few studies followed suit since. Time management thus stands to become a richer, more inclusive research area by investigating a wider array of outcomes.

In addition, despite the encouraging findings of this meta-analysis we must refrain from seeing time management as a panacea. Though time management can make people’s lives better, it is not clear how easy it is for people to learn how to manage their time adequately. More importantly, being “good” at time management is often a function of income, education, and various types of privilege [ 42 , 43 , 46 , 109 ]. The hackneyed maxim that “you have as many hours in a day as Beyoncé,” for instance, blames people for their “poor” time management in pointing out that successful people have just as much time but still manage to get ahead. Yet this ill-conceived maxim glosses over the fact that Beyoncé and her ilk do, in a sense, have more hours in a day than average people who can’t afford a nanny, chauffeur, in-house chefs, and a bevy of personal assistants. Future research should thus look into ways to make time management more accessible.

Furthermore, this meta-analysis rests on the assumption that time management training programs do enhance people’s time management skills. Previous reviews have noted the opacity surrounding time management interventions—studies often don’t explain what, exactly, is taught in time management training seminars [ 18 ]. As a result, comparing the effect of different interventions might come down to comparing apples and oranges. (This might partly account for the high heterogeneity between studies.) We hope that our definition of time management will spur future research into crafting more consistent, valid, and generalizable interventions that will allow for more meaningful comparisons.

Finally, most time management studies are cross-sectional. Yet it is very likely that the effect of time management compounds over time. If time management can help students get better grades, for instance, those grades can lead to better jobs down the line [ 110 ]. Crucially, learning a skill takes time, and if time management helps people make the time to learn a skill, then time management stands to dramatically enrich people’s lives. For this reason, longitudinal studies can track different cohorts to see how time management affects people’s lives over time. We expect that developing time management skills early on in life can create a compound effect whereby people acquire a variety of other skills thanks to their ability to make time.

Overall, this study offers the most comprehensive, precise, and fine-grained assessment of time management to date. We address the longstanding debate over whether time management influences job performance in revealing a positive, albeit moderate effect. Interestingly, we found that time management impacts wellbeing—and in particular life satisfaction—to a greater extent than performance. That means time management may be primarily a wellbeing enhancer, rather than a performance booster. Furthermore, individual and external factors played a minor role in time management, although this does not necessarily mean that time management’s effectiveness is universal. Rather, we need more research that focuses on the internal and external variables that affect time management outcomes. We hope this study will tantalize future research and guide practitioners in their attempt to make better use of their time.

Supporting information

S1 checklist. prisma 2009 checklist..

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0245066.s001

S1 File. Funnel plots.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0245066.s002

S2 File. Dataset.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0245066.s003

Acknowledgments

We would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge our colleagues for their invaluable help: Mengchan Gao, Talha Aziz, Elizabeth Eley, Robert Nason, Andrew Ryder, Tracy Hecht, and Caroline Aubé.

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Time Management

Linda Clark

Introduction

Commonly, students in higher education face challenges from poor time management. While it may not be possible to prevent life’s problems while you are at university, you can do a great deal to prevent the challenges that they can cause. This can be accomplished through thoughtful prioritisation and time management efforts. This chapter provides a close look at the nature of time management and how to identify your time management style. You will learn how to conduct a time audit of your life and create a semester, weekly and daily plan. Following this, an examination of how to break up tasks into manageable time frames and tips from three proven time management strategies will help keep you on track to graduate from university on time.

Time Management at University

You may find that time management at university is different from anything you have experienced previously. Even in the workplace, activities and time spent on tasks are monitored by the company and its management. At university, time management is left up to you. While it is true that there are assignment due dates and organised classroom activities, learning at the university level requires more than just the simple completion of work. It involves decision-making and the ability to evaluate information. This is best accomplished when you are an active partner in your own learning activities.

You can expect to spend much more time on learning activities outside the classroom than you will in the classroom. Most courses have a workload of 165 hours each semester. This is a workload of 10-12 hours each week needed to attend or listen to lectures and tutorials, prepare for assessments, and to read study material. Some weeks may be more intense, depending on the time of the semester and the courses you are taking. Not only will what you do be larger in scale, but the depth of understanding and  knowledge  you  will  put  into  it will  be significantly more than you may have encountered previously. This is because there are greater expectations required of university graduates in the workplace. Nearly any profession that requires a university degree has with it a level of responsibility that demands higher-level thinking and therefore higher learning.

Identifying your time management style

Managing time and prioritising tasks are not only valuable skills for pursuing an education, but they can become abilities that follow you through the rest of your life, especially if your career takes you into a leadership role (see Figure 13.2 ).

Table 13.1 is an exercise that is intended to help you recognise some things about your own time management style, and identify any areas where you might be able to improve. Tick the box that best represents your position on each statement.

Table 13.1 Time management

When you have finished, consider what your answers mean in regard to potential strengths and/or challenges for you when it comes to time management in university. If you are a person who likes strict deadlines, what would you do if you took a course that only had one large paper due at the end? Would you set yourself a series of mini deadlines that made you more comfortable and that kept things moving along for you? Or, if you have difficulty prioritising tasks, would it help you to make a list of the tasks to do and order them, so you know which ones must be finished first?

The simplest way to manage your time is to plan accurately for how much time it will take to do each task, and then set aside that amount of time. How you divide the time is up to you. If it is going to take you five hours to study for a final exam, you can plan to spread it over five days, with an hour each night, or you can plan on two hours one night and three hours the next.

This approach however relies on being able to estimate time accurately.  Many people are not truly aware of how they actually spend their time. To get organised and plan for the semester ahead, you will need to consider study and non-study commitments. Conduct an audit on how much time you spend on aspects of your daily life.  Include studying, working, sleeping, eating, caring for others, socialising, household chores and exercising. This will allow you to see where your time is going and where you could achieve some better balance for your life, work and study.

In this activity, write down all the things you think you will do tomorrow, and estimate the time you will spend doing each (see Table 13.2 ). Then track each thing you have written down to see how accurate your estimates were. After you have completed this activity for a single day, you may consider completing another time audit for an entire week so that you are certain to include all of your activities.

Table 13.2 Sample time estimate table

Planning your semester

Now that you have audited your time and you know how much time is required in all areas of your life you can now make a plan. It is important to view your time in three different ways – semester, weekly and daily.

Semester view

• Make a plan of the whole semester. A yearly wall calendar is useful for this.
• Add assignment due dates and exam blocks
• Add class or lab attendance requirements
• Include other significant commitments, for example, work or family commitments identified in your time audit.

Weekly view

• Consider the tasks you need to complete each week to meet the expectations of your course such as weekly readings or tutorial preparation.
• Allocate time for exam preparation, tutorial preparation and time to work on upcoming assignments.
• Write daily ‘to do’ lists
• Use time management apps on your phone to set reminders
• Allow for some flexibility

Breaking Tasks Down

Of all the parts of time management, accurately predicting how long a task will take is usually the most difficult. What makes it challenging to estimate accurately time spent on-task is that you must also account for things like interruptions or unforeseen problems that cause delays. When it comes to academic activities, many tasks can be dependent upon the completion of other things first, or the time a task takes can vary from one instance to another. For example, if a lecturer assigned you three chapters of reading, you would not know how long each chapter might take to read until you looked at them. The first chapter might be 30 pages long while the second is 45. The third chapter could be only 20 pages but made up mostly of charts and graphs for you to compare. By page count, it might seem that the third chapter would take the least amount of time, but actually studying charts and graphs to gather information can take longer than regular reading.

The concept behind the next strategy discussed is to break tasks into smaller, more manageable units that do not require as much time to complete. As an illustration of how this might work, imagine that you are assigned a two-page essay that is to include references. You estimate that to complete the essay would take you between four and five hours. You look at your calendar over the next week and see that there simply are no open five-hour blocks. While looking at your calendar, you do see that you can squeeze in an hour every night. Instead of trying to write the entire paper in one sitting, you break it up into much smaller components as shown in the table below (see Table 13.3 ).

Table 13.3 Breaking down projects into even small chunks.

You could use a variation of the Pomodoro Technique discussed in the next section and write for three 20-minute segments each day at different times. The key is to look for ways to break down the entire task into smaller steps and spread them out to fit your schedule.

Three Strategies for Time Management

There are three helpful time management strategies that have been used by students successfully for many year – Daily Top Three, Pomodoro Technique and Eat the Frog. Try them out and see how they work for you.

Daily Top Three

The idea behind the daily top three approach is that you determine which three things are the most important to finish that day, and these become the tasks that you complete. It is a very simple technique that is effective because each day you are finishing tasks and removing them from your list. Even if you took one day off a week and completed no tasks on that particular day, a daily top three strategy would have you finishing 18 tasks in the course of a single week. That is a good number of things crossed off your list.

Pomodoro Technique

The Pomodoro Technique allows you to tackle one task at a time with high intensity before taking a short-timed break, and then repeating this process (see Figure 13.4 ). The Pomodoro Technique recommends 25 minutes of work and then a five-minute break, and after two hours of this, a longer break of 15-30 minutes (Cirillo, n.d). Be flexible in your approach, for example you don’t have to stop after 25 minutes if you are working well, or you may restart your 25 minutes if you get distracted. To make the most of this technique, plan your tasks ahead of time and be specific about what you want to achieve during each time block.

Eat the Frog

Of our three quick strategies, eat the frog probably has the strangest name and may not sound the most inviting. The name comes from a famous quote, attributed to Mark Twain: “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” How this applies to time and task management is based on the concept that if a person takes care of the biggest or most unpleasant task first, everything else will be easier after that.

We greatly underestimate how much worry can impact our performance. If you are continually distracted by anxiety over a task you are dreading, it can affect the task you are working on at the time. Not only will you have a sense of accomplishment and relief when the task you are concerned with is finished and out of the way, but other tasks will seem lighter and not as difficult.

We all lead busy lives and managing your time effectively while you are studying at university can mean the difference between success and failure. By managing your time and using some positive strategies, you can give yourself the best possible chance of successful study outcomes.

• Time management at university level is up to you.
• Expect to spend more time on learning outside of the classroom than you will inside the classroom.
• Identify your time management style to help you create deadlines.
• Consider study and non-study commitments when auditing your time to help you to see where your time goes.
• Plan your semester first, add weekly tasks, and then make a ‘to do’ list for daily tasks.
• Break large tasks into small blocks of time which will fit into your schedule.
• Use the Daily Top Three to write down three tasks that are important to finish that day.
• Use the Pomodoro Technique to work on one task for a 25-minute period. then take a five-minute break then repeat until you have been working for two hours.
• Use Eat the Frog to take care of the biggest task first so that everything else seems easier after that.

Cirillo, F. (n.d). The Pomodoro Technique . Cirillo Consulting. https://francescocirillo.com/pages/pomodoro-technique

Academic Success Copyright © 2021 by Linda Clark is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Time Management Is About More Than Life Hacks

• Erich C. Dierdorff

Your productivity hinges on these three skills.

There is certainly no shortage of advice — books and blogs, hacks and apps — all created to boost time management with a bevy of ready-to-apply tools. Yet, the frustrating reality for individuals trying to improve their time management is that tools alone won’t work. You have to develop your time management skills in three key areas: awareness, arrangement, and adaptation. The author offers evidence-based tactics to improve in all three areas.

Project creep, slipping deadlines, and a to-do list that seems to get longer each day — these experiences are all too common in both life and work. With the New Year’s resolution season upon us, many people are boldly trying to fulfill goals to “manage time better,” “be more productive,” and “focus on what matters.” Development goals like these are indeed important to career success. Look no further than large-scale surveys that routinely find time management skills among the most desired workforce skills, but at the same time among the rarest skills to find.

• Erich C. Dierdorff is a professor of management and entrepreneurship at the Richard H. Driehaus College of Business at DePaul University and is currently an associate editor at  Personnel Psychology.

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Time Management Strategies for Research Productivity

• Academic Institute
• Houston Methodist

Research output : Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Researchers function in a complex environment and carry multiple role responsibilities. This environment is prone to various distractions that can derail productivity and decrease efficiency. Effective time management allows researchers to maintain focus on their work, contributing to research productivity. Thus, improving time management skills is essential to developing and sustaining a successful program of research. This article presents time management strategies addressing behaviors surrounding time assessment, planning, and monitoring. Herein, the Western Journal of Nursing Research editorial board recommends strategies to enhance time management, including setting realistic goals, prioritizing, and optimizing planning. Involving a team, problem-solving barriers, and early management of potential distractions can facilitate maintaining focus on a research program. Continually evaluating the effectiveness of time management strategies allows researchers to identify areas of improvement and recognize progress.

• Time Management
• research productivity

ASJC Scopus subject areas

• Nursing(all)

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• 10.1177/0193945912451163

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• Link to publication in Scopus

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• Time Management Medicine & Life Sciences 100%
• Efficiency Medicine & Life Sciences 79%
• Research Design Medicine & Life Sciences 58%
• Research Personnel Medicine & Life Sciences 30%
• Nursing Research Medicine & Life Sciences 19%

T1 - Time Management Strategies for Research Productivity

AU - Chase, Jo Ana D.

AU - Topp, Robert

AU - Smith, Carol E.

AU - Cohen, Marlene Z.

AU - Fahrenwald, Nancy

AU - Zerwic, Julie J.

AU - Benefield, Lazelle E.

AU - Anderson, Cindy M.

AU - Conn, Vicki S.

N1 - Copyright: Copyright 2013 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

PY - 2013/2

Y1 - 2013/2

N2 - Researchers function in a complex environment and carry multiple role responsibilities. This environment is prone to various distractions that can derail productivity and decrease efficiency. Effective time management allows researchers to maintain focus on their work, contributing to research productivity. Thus, improving time management skills is essential to developing and sustaining a successful program of research. This article presents time management strategies addressing behaviors surrounding time assessment, planning, and monitoring. Herein, the Western Journal of Nursing Research editorial board recommends strategies to enhance time management, including setting realistic goals, prioritizing, and optimizing planning. Involving a team, problem-solving barriers, and early management of potential distractions can facilitate maintaining focus on a research program. Continually evaluating the effectiveness of time management strategies allows researchers to identify areas of improvement and recognize progress.

AB - Researchers function in a complex environment and carry multiple role responsibilities. This environment is prone to various distractions that can derail productivity and decrease efficiency. Effective time management allows researchers to maintain focus on their work, contributing to research productivity. Thus, improving time management skills is essential to developing and sustaining a successful program of research. This article presents time management strategies addressing behaviors surrounding time assessment, planning, and monitoring. Herein, the Western Journal of Nursing Research editorial board recommends strategies to enhance time management, including setting realistic goals, prioritizing, and optimizing planning. Involving a team, problem-solving barriers, and early management of potential distractions can facilitate maintaining focus on a research program. Continually evaluating the effectiveness of time management strategies allows researchers to identify areas of improvement and recognize progress.

KW - Time Management

KW - efficiency

KW - research productivity

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84872550728&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84872550728&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1177/0193945912451163

DO - 10.1177/0193945912451163

M3 - Article

C2 - 22868990

AN - SCOPUS:84872550728

SN - 0193-9459

JO - Western Journal of Nursing Research

JF - Western Journal of Nursing Research

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Towards a unified management interface for 5g sensor networks: interoperability between yet another next generation and open platform communication unified architecture.

1. Introduction

2. related work, 3. background on yang and opc ua, 3.1.1. module.

• Header information includes the YANG version, namespace, and prefix statements. The namespace statement within the module defines the unique qualifier for all of the statements defined within the module. The namespace and prefix statement are used in module definitions to differentiate the modules from each other. If the definitions from different vendors have the same names for YANG elements, naming collisions can be avoided.
• Linkage statements contain import and include statements. The import statement references the definitions from another YANG module within the current module using the prefix with a different namespace. The included statements are used for the definitions from another YANG module within the current module, and the current module namespace is used to reference those.
• Meta-information includes information related to the YANG definition, such as the organization name, description, and contact details.
• Revision history includes the revision statements, which track the history of changes to the YANG module and correlate to the different software versions of the managed device that support the YANG module.

3.1.2. Data Definitions

• leaf is the simplest data definition, having at most one instance and no child data definition statements. leafs contain data values.
• leaf-list is otherwise the same as a leaf but can contain a list of unique leaves. A key refers to its value in the context of a leaf-list.
• container is a data dentition that is at most one instance and can hold no value but can have one or more child data definition statements, such as leaves or containers.
• list is otherwise the same as the container but can contain a list of unique containers. It is identified with one or more key leaves.
• grouping is data definition statements that can be used in multiple locations in the YANG model if grouped with a grouping statement. This enables the efficient reuse of definitions, thus reducing the modeler’s workload and decreasing the likelihood of error. When a part of a tree is used in multiple locations, making a change to it affects all instances of that structure.
• typedef statement: each leaf and leaf-list data definition statement includes a mandatory definition that specifies the format required for the data to be considered valid. YANG provides basic built-in types, such as string, enumeration, uint64, etc.; these data types can be extended by redefining the type definitions using typedef statements.
• The rpc statements define remote callable procedures with specified input arguments and output results. Remote Procedure Call (RPC) definitions can thus establish a comprehensive application programming interface (API) that can be efficiently used over the network.
• Notification statements can be used to specify a set of important events emitted by network functions. These notifications can contain complex information using the same rules as data definitions. Consequently, notifications can provide a valuable event-based interface for the state of network functions. Client applications can subscribe to these events to observe device state changes.

3.2. OPC UA

3.2.1. opc ua address space model, 3.2.2. opc ua device model, 3.2.3. opc ua nodeset2 xml file, 3.2.4. opc ua model design xml file, 4. mapping yang to opc ua, 4.1. yang module mapping, 4.2. yang built-in data type mappings, 4.3. yang data definition mapping.

• leaf statement: leaf is the simplest data definition in YANG, which is, at most, one instance with data values and has no child data definition statements. The leaf statement defines a scalar variable of a particular built-in or derived type. The config statement in the data definition identifies whether the definition represents the element’s configuration or the state data. Any data definition defined as a config to true can be edited. Otherwise, it can only be observed. If the leaf statement is defined with config as “true”, then in OPC UA, it is mapped to a variable node, and if it is described as “false”, then it is mapped to a property node.
• leaf-list statement: leaf-list statement is used to define an array of particular data types. leaf-list contains a list of unique leaves with a key that refers to their value. Like the leaf statement, the leaf-list is mapped to a property node or a variable node in OPC UA with the ValueRank attribute of the node set to OneDimension and the ModellingRule attribute set to “ExposesItsArray”.
• Container statement: container is a data definition that wraps one or more child data definition statements. The OPC UA address space model does not provide a node for representing the container; hence, the container is emulated by generating a custom ObjectType and defining an object instance to the custom object type.
• Grouping statement mapping: the grouping statement defines a set of nodes that can be assembled into reusable collections and instantiated with the uses statement. In OPC UA, grouping statements are mapped to a custom object type and instantiated using the object declaration of the type.
• List statement: list contains one or more child data definition statements, including a grouping of leaf or container entries, with each uniquely identified with one or more key leaves. The list statements are mapped to an ObjectsFolder reference by custom object types. Also, the holder object is created in the objects folder so that the list entries can be added programmatically at runtime.
• Typedef statement mapping: typedef statement allows for the creation of a new derived data type by redefining the base type. The base type can be the YANG built-in type or a custom type. Typedef statements are mapped to DataType definitions in OPC UA.
• RPC statement mapping: the rpc statement defines a YANG RPC operation. It contains a block of sub-statements that holds detailed input and output nodes. The operation name, input, and output parameters are modeled using YANG data definition statements. The RPC statement is mapped to the method node in the OPC UA model design. The notification statement defines a NETCONF notification. YANG data definition statements model the notification content. The notification is mapped to Custom Event Type objects in the OPC UA model design.

5. Implementation and Validation

5.1. case study, 5.2. validation of generated model design file.

• Correctness of the model mapping: the generated files are analyzed semantically to ensure that the YANG data models are accurately mapped to corresponding OPC UA information models without semantic loss. Structural integrity is validated to ensure that the hierarchy and relationships in YANG models (like containers, lists, and leafs) are preserved accurately in the OPC UA structure (like objects, variables, and methods).
• An interoperability test is conducted to test if the generated OPC UA models can be seamlessly loaded into OPC UA server instances and if models can be accessed either using OPC UA client or OPC UA GUI instances.
• Generation time: measures how efficiently the plugin processes YANG models and generates the corresponding OPC UA models.
• Handling large data models: tests the plugin’s ability to manage increasingly large or complex YANG data models. Verifies that the plugin performs well with deep and broad data hierarchies and numerous variables or configurations.
• Support for multiple YANG modules: validates whether the plugin can handle multiple YANG modules and revisions while maintaining flexibility to incorporate various configurations or extensions.
• Adaptability to new standards: checks whether the plugin can adapt to new or updated versions of YANG and OPC UA standards as they evolve.
• Error reporting: ensures that the plugin provides clear and detailed error messages when issues arise during the model generation process, such as invalid YANG models or unsupported features.
• Resilience: tests the plugin’s robustness against incomplete or erroneous input data. It should either gracefully handle errors or provide meaningful feedback for corrections.

6. Conclusions

Author contributions, institutional review board statement, informed consent statement, data availability statement, conflicts of interest, abbreviations.

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Share and Cite

Sambandan, D.; Thirupathi, D. Towards a Unified Management Interface for 5G Sensor Networks: Interoperability between Yet Another Next Generation and Open Platform Communication Unified Architecture. Sensors 2024 , 24 , 6231. https://doi.org/10.3390/s24196231

Sambandan D, Thirupathi D. Towards a Unified Management Interface for 5G Sensor Networks: Interoperability between Yet Another Next Generation and Open Platform Communication Unified Architecture. Sensors . 2024; 24(19):6231. https://doi.org/10.3390/s24196231

Sambandan, Devaraj, and Devi Thirupathi. 2024. "Towards a Unified Management Interface for 5G Sensor Networks: Interoperability between Yet Another Next Generation and Open Platform Communication Unified Architecture" Sensors 24, no. 19: 6231. https://doi.org/10.3390/s24196231

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