In this figure, it showed the percentage of how good students can follow their plans. In the survey, among students who do not have a planning habit, 28% of the students could follow more than 75% of their plans, while 12% of the students could follow 51% to 75% of their plans. The remaining 60% of the students were those who could follow half of the plan or less. When comparing among those students who have a planning habit, 96% of them could follow more than half of their plans. It shows that students believed they could manage their time more effectively when they have a planning habit.
For different planning methods, there were a tendency of decreasing percentage in following the plan greater than 75%. The highest percentage was students using timetable, 50% of the students selecting this method could follow over 75% of the plan. For students using schedule and list, the percentages dropped to 25% and 10% respectively. It could conclude that students using timetable inclined to have a better control of time in their perception comparing to the other two methods. The method which could show a clearer time relationship enabled students to perceive control of time in a greater level. Different planning styles
There are three types of planning styles: labelling with a title only, enclosing a short remark and having a long description. All students who selected a long description could follow 51% to 75% of the plan. When students used a short remark to jot down the important things, it helped 79% of the students to follow 51% to 75% of the plan and 14% of the students followed more than 75% of the plan. For students who chose with title only in their planning method, 30% of the students could follow more than 75% of their plans. This planning style shows that students could catch up with their plans the most in their mind.
Drucker(1967) stated that sometime students cannot finish the planning work entirely even they have had plan before. If students described more detailed in their plans, they had a higher chance to miss some of the tasks they had mentioned before. Writing the plan with title only had the simplest things for students to do; and students were more easily to perceive the control of time. Different planning times To find out the effect of time to have a plan on how much students follow their plan, we had asked “When do you prefer to plan your time?
And “How well could you follow your plan? ” According to the results of the questionnaire, 4 respondents planned their time in the morning and 7 planned in the evening. 9 students plan in both morning and evening and 5 stated that they planned whenever they felt free. All interviewees who planned in the morning could follow their plan 51% to 75%. For those who planned in the evening, only 1 could follow more than 75%. Other 6 interviewees could follow 51% to 75%. For those who planned in the morning and evening, 3 of them could follow over 75% and 6 could follow 51% to 75%.
Only 1 male planned at any time could follow more than 75%. The other 4 could follow 51% to 75%. The result shows that students planning in both morning and evening have the most ideal outcome while students planned in the evening have a better effect than in the morning. According to Lakein’s idea, both planning in the morning and evening have their specific benefits, students could gain all the benefits when they choose to plan in both morning and evening, so the result is acceptable. For example, students who planned in the morning are more energetic to start their planning in a clear mind.
When students planned in the evening, they could utilize the past experiences and the consequence of today activities to make a better estimation of time duration. Burt & Kemp suggested that memory is an essential factor in estimating the duration of future activities. This explains the phenomena that planning in the evening have a better result; and it appears consistent to Buehler’s advice; students inclined to use singular information in the morning such as possible situation, it has a worst effect than using distributional information in the evening which is the past experience.
Lakein also stated that planning in an appropriate time is important. Students plan at any time disorderly that cause no planning when necessary. 3. Conclusion To conclude, students could estimate their time with their friends but not studying, most of them want to spend more time on studying. Time management cannot affect the performance of students but it helps students use their time more efficiently and reduce their stress. Also, it is important for students to plan in suitable time and as detailed as possible, which make them managing their time better. 4. Recommendation
Students usually think that they do not have enough time to study, relax and complete assignments. Then, good time management strategies may help students to wisely spend their time each day. According to Duke University’s Effective Time Management, there are 6 advantages if students apply time management skills in aid of studying and performing. They are gaining time, having motivations and initiations, reducing avoidance, promoting review, eliminating cramming and reducing anxiety respectively. Knowing the benefits of planning, students can follow the 10 strategies provided by the University of Georgia.
Among those strategies, we believe that setting priorities is the first important part. Students having deep understand of what their tasks will be are capable of prioritizing tasks depending on the difficulties and urgency. It helps students distinguish what tasks should be done first. In addition, stop procrastinating is also essential. Students sometimes do tasks when the deadline is approaching which is too rush. Breaking the large tasks into smaller ones can let students start the tasks earlier and provide them sufficient time to finish.
Having enough time, the quality of the work done can be guaranteed. Reference: Britton, Bruce K. and Abraham Tesser. “Effect of Time Management Practices on College Grades. ” Journal of Educational Psychology 83 (1991): 405, 408-409. Print. Buehler, R. , Griffin, D. and Ross, M. “Exploring the ‘Planning Fallacy’: Why people underestimate their task completion times. ” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 67 (1994): 366-381. Print. Burt, C. D. B. and Kemp, S. “Construction of activity duration and time management potential. ” Applied Cognitive Psychology 8 (1994): 155-168. Print.
