The Usage Of Time In Daily Life

Literature review helps the researcher to find necessary information to support the studies. Before this research is being conducted, it is necessary to review and analyze previous related studies and on the similar research topic. This step is essential since such review can provide valuable information about the topic. Literature review also offers a guideline for the researcher in conducting the research.

This chapter presents the literature review regarding the definition of time management, students’ class time, students’ daily routine and how to improve the students’ time management.

The usage of time in daily life varies according to individuals. It can be affected by the environments, surroundings, people, and the tasks that they perform. The utilization of time could also affect the way individuals live, regardless of who they are. It is undeniable that we need time to do our daily routines in order to reduce stress and produce better outcomes of what we do.

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The way we utilize time could affect the way we live. This includes students of higher learning. The way they use their time could affect their performance during their studies. Apart from that, their organization of their daily routines might be affected as well. However, many of the students are unaware of their usage of time during their studies. Many of students in higher learning institutions ignore the importance of a good way to spend time during their study. The realization on good time management is essential to change the current conditions of the students.

Time Management

Time management can be defined as the way of how individuals control their time throughout their daily life. Time management is very important in order for us to make sure that everything and anything that we do will flow according to what we plan. Doing tasks on time is one part of a good time management. One of the good practice in undergraduate education is to emphasize time on task (Chickering et al, 1987). Here, it can be related to a well-managed time. Students’ perceptions on time management are different and this will lead them to different ways of managing time. This can be further divided into two parts, academic and social life.

Managing Academic Activities

Academic time management means that the students focus on the academic session in the classroom or library. Students might do this maybe as a result when they are free from other things whenever they are in class. Involvement of the students will contribute on how they use their time. The meaning of involvement here refers to the amount of physical and psychological energy that the students devote to the academic experience (Astin, 1984). Whenever the students feel that they need to involve in a particular activity, they will focus more on the particular subject where their time will definitely be allocated to that particular matter.

Students feel that the time that they spend for academic depends on the things or the task that are given to them. Each particular task might take some time to complete and this affects the way the students manage their time.

Managing Social Life

Apart from having time for academic purposes, the students also need time for their social life. According to the definition given by the online MacMillan dictionary, social life refers to “the time that is spent enjoying oneself with friends and the opportunities to do enjoyable things that happens in particular place”. Having social life is important for students as they can discuss whatever problems that they are having and also reduce the stress level that they are having during their period of studies. It is shown that meeting students social and emotional needs at home, in the neighborhood, and at learning institutions are linked with better behavior at learning institutions, more positive attitudes and beliefs about learning institutions, and improved academic performance (Micheal E. Woolley, 2009). Thus, social interaction of the students are vital for their success in their studies.

Importances of Students’ Time Management

Each of everyone living have their own needs. This also applies to students who are studying in every part of education level. To get along well with other aspects of life, some achievements may be obtained by accomplishing particular needs. According to Maslow Hierarchy of Needs, proposed by Abraham Maslow (1943), each individual needs to achieve particular needs before attaining the others. In the level of safety, time is important where this includes the safety of body and mind as well. This condition can be achieved by having enough time for resting and winding up.

In the TESL students’ context, sufficient time means having time to relax and also recalls back the lessons learned in class during their free time. This also applies to the availability of time for them to socialize with others. Students are usually busy with their tasks and assignments and other matters. As normal human beings, sufficient amount of time should be available to make sure that daily activities can be done without any problems. What it means by free time is the availability of the space of time that is not being occupied by any activities such as classes or other tasks. By having this kind of space, the students may rest themselves both physically and mentally.

In order to make free time available, the students should however practice a good time management. Time management is vital for the students in order to achieve a suitable condition where they can perform their task without any problems that may affect their daily routine. The matter of time management is also related to the students’ self-satisfaction. Student satisfaction is the subjective perceptions, on students’ part, of how well a learning environment supports academic success (Celia C. Lo, 2010). Time availability is one of the factors of students’ satisfactions, in which they could make time to perform their daily routine including their tasks or assignments well and have enough time to rest and socialize.

The Importance of Good Time Management

A well-implemented time management may results in positive outcomes or results in what we are doing. This can be oriented to the performance of the students in their classroom, how they cope up with what they are doing outside the class and how they manage themselves. In a long term, a good time management skills also bestow satisfaction and true contentment (Wan Zah Wan Ali et al, 2008).

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For the students, a good management of time may help them to cope better with their daily activities including their studies. For instance, when they are having too many classes in one day, their attention span is reduced, as they may be tired as the result of using them for previous class on the same day. This will definitely result in the decrease of performance in class as well as low participation in the classroom. However, if the students are having flexible time during their whole course learning, they may be able to react or behave differently in classes. Time management of the students are vital to ensure the time flow goes well and without proper management of time, the tasks assigned to the students may not be completed as planned. Furthermore, the extent of which students can achieve particular development goals is a direct function of time and effort they devote to activities designed to produce this gain (Astin, 1984).

Good time management will not only make life easier and well managed, as we can see that students who manage their time well, they will be more ready for the class that will take place. According to Campbell and Svenson (1992), cited by Misra and McKean (2000) effective time management strategies increase academic performance. Therefore, it is very important for students to manage their time properly in order to make sure that they can perform better in their study. Students are more likely to succeed in their learning if they are good in managing their life. The students who did not manage to keep their tasks or assignments schedule will have difficulties in coping with other tasks later on.

The highest stress level experienced by the students is in the form of preparing themselves for examinations, the competition among themselves to get good grades and the things that are related to time management (Mastura Mahfar, et al 2007). It can be said that in order to reduce the stress level, students can change or improve their way of managing time during their studies. According to Macan et al (1990), Briton and Tesser (1991), and Tureman and Hartley (1996), cited by Zulauf and Gortner (1999), time management skills and academic performance are positively related. Thus, a good time management skills will result in a better performance or achievements during studies.

Studies on Students’ Use of Time

A study conducted by Wan Zan Wan Ali, et al (2008) entitled “Kemahiran Pengurusan Masa Pelajar Universiti Tempatan: Status Dan Hubungannya Dengan Pencapaian” or “Time Management Skills Among Local Universities Students: The Status and Correlation with Achievements” is to find out how Malaysian universities students manage their time and how does it affect their achievements during their studies. A total number of 3025 students from seven public and two private universities across various study participated in the study. Data was collected using a set of questionnaire and analyzed descriptively using t-test, ANOVA and Pearson correlation. Findings of this study found that generally, time management skill of the respondents was generally at moderate and significant differences were established between gender, year of study and fields of study.

In another study conducted by Brint and Cantwell (2008) entitled “Undergraduate Use And Academic Outcomes: Results From UCUES 2006” reported that class attendance and out-of-class study time are known to be strongly associated with academic engagement and college GPA. This means that the way students manage their time for classes and outside learning affect their grades. The study was done by focusing on two other uses of time as influences on academic outcomes, which includes the students who are devoted to active engagements with friends and community as opposed to passive entertainments, and students that connect time usage to campus life, rather than separating them from campus life.

The finding of the research leads to the fact that “activating” uses of time are associated with higher levels of academic engagement and higher GPAs. Activating here is on the way students use their time with the needs of that particular time. However, uses of time that connect students to campus life show inconsistent effects.

According to Zul Azhar Zahid Jamal (2004) stated by Wan Zah Wan Ali, et al (2008), students who can manage their time properly will receive numerous benefits apart from their increase in academic performance.

The act of managing time can be seen as the way students put their effort in spending time according to their needs on doing things or task that are given to them. When a good time management is not practised, several disadvantages may happen to individuals such as becoming less productive, having the feeling of worries, waste a lot of precious time, being stressful and the most important is the failure to finish the tasks or works given on time. This can be supported by the statement where good time management can facilitate productivity and minimise stress (Lay & Schouwenburg, 1993).

The use of time among students also has been studied by Wan Zah Wan Ali et al (2008) and Brint and Cantwell (2008) in their research. Both studies findings concluded that students have their own way of managing time where these differences do affect the performance of the students. According to Wan Zah Wan Ali et al (2008) in the same study, time management skill of the respondents was at moderate and there are some differences among the respondents, which were established between gender, year of study and fields of study.

Summary

Many of the studies and research stated above mentioned about the importance of good time management and how it might affect students performance and daily routine. The positive outcomes of good time management skill during studies are obvious and stated in many of the previous research. Apart from the benefits in academic aspect, good time management also affect students’ social life where they can socialize to express themselves and at the same moment ease the stress or pressure that the students have throughout their study.