HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF

FOREIGN LANGUAGES AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

o0o
DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

RESEARCH PAPER

WAYS TO IMPROVE TIME MANAGEMENT

SKILLS OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS

Advisor: M.A. Võ Trọng Phúc

Student: Nguyễn Thị Kim Ngân
Student ID: 20DH710227
Major: English Language Studies

Ho Chi Minh City, April 2023

 Abstract

Undergraduate students in general have very busy and stressful lives because they always

struggle to balance personal and work commitments, as well as academic commitments.

Consequently, many students have poor time management skills. This research aims at

finding out ways to improve the time management skills of undergraduate students. A

questionnaire based on qualitative methods was distributed via an interview to students to

inquire about their time-wasting status in college as well as their advice on how to

improve these. The results indicated that students are having trouble controlling their time

mentioned in the Literature Review and need the advice to make things better.

Keywords: time management, undergraduate, improve, skills

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 Table of Contents

Chapter 1. Introduction...................................................................................................4
Chapter 2. Literature Review..........................................................................................4
Chapter 3. Methodology..................................................................................................5
3.1 Approach................................................................................................................. 5
3.2 The questionnaire...................................................................................................5
3.3 Data Collection.......................................................................................................6
3.4 Analysis Description...............................................................................................6
3.5 Evaluation and Justification..................................................................................6
Chapter 4. Results and Discussion..................................................................................7
4.1 Result....................................................................................................................... 7
4.1.1 The use of a to-do List.....................................................................................7
4.1.2 The Avoidance of social media.....................................................................7
4.2 Discussion................................................................................................................ 8
4.2.1 Interpretations Towards a to-do list...............................................................8
4.2.2 Interpretations Towards the Avoidance of social media...............................9
Chapter 5. Conclusion.....................................................................................................9
5.1 Summary................................................................................................................. 9
5.2 Recommendation....................................................................................................9
5.3 Contribution.........................................................................................................10

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Chapter 1. Introduction
In today’s fast-paced digital environment, there is always a lot of work and not
enough time to do it. This is why time is the most crucial element. Formerly, the start of
the 20th century with capitalist development also brought new ways to decrease the time
used to produce products. Frederick W. Taylor, the first “time management guru”, was
able to increase production from 12.5 to 50 tonnes of steel per day for more profit. While
most of us understand the value of time and its limited amount, we often fail to put this
knowledge into practice and waste our time on distractions and procrastination. Even if
we devote our time to important things, we quickly realize that there aren't enough hours
in the day to cover everything. This is why effective time management is critical to living
a happy and fulfilled life.

Chapter 2. Literature Review

Each student has twenty-four hours per day to attend classes, complete assignments,
and study for exams. In addition, they have their daily routines and lifestyles that are
required for balancing academics and extracurricular activities. Nonetheless, many
university students complain about running out of time when given an assignment and
easily get frustrated because they are unable to complete it before the deadline. Macan et
al. (p. 760) showed: "College students may become overwhelmed with feelings that there
is not enough time to complete all their work adequately.” Given this time pressure,
students consider successful time management important. A survey showed that 67% of
the undergraduates at the University of Georgia reported that their greatest personal need
was "to manage my time more effectively" (Weissberg, Berentsen, Cote, Cravey, &
Heath, 1982). Previous studies have determined a positive effect of time management.
Time management skills have been shown to have a good impact on student learning and
daily student life (Kearns & Gardiner, 2007; Kelly, 2002; McKenzie, Gow, & Schweitzer,

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2004) and Krause & Coates (2008) indicated that the ability for successfully managing
their time is the benchmark of students in developing better study habits as well as
strategies for success.

Nevertheless, it is never an easy task to manage time individually. According to a

2015 Student Engagement Insights survey by Cengage, 78% of students claim to struggle
with time management throughout their college experience, with an additional 9%
claiming to “always” struggle with this. Unfortunately, if a student cannot properly
manage time, he or she will likely fail to accomplish tasks promptly. Such failure
generally leads to poor job performance and limited productivity in school (Daniel Liden,
2023). Hence, time management is a vital skill that undergraduate students must learn and
practice (A. Vences Cyril, 2014).

The purpose of this study aimed to propose ways to improve the time management
skills of undergraduate students. This topic was identified as being of importance to
students in providing them with the necessary background to decrease time-wasting and
unproductive work while in college.

Chapter 3. Methodology
In this research, I used a questionnaire to collect data and opinions of HUFLIT’s
students to find out their experiences and suggestions to improve the time management
skills of undergraduate students. Details of the research execution are provided below.

3.1 Approach
For the reasons mentioned above, I decided to use qualitative methods to collect
advice from undergraduate students.

3.2 The questionnaire

The questionnaire, which is based on the qualitative method, was divided into 2 parts
with 3 questions including their experience with methods for time management skills
(questions 1, 2) and their advice to improve management skills in undergraduate students
(questions 3).
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3.3 Data collection
The questionnaire was distributed to 7 undergraduate students from junior year in the
academic year 2020 at HUFLIT. The interviews were conducted in a private room of
HUFLIT’s library and lasted approximately 10 minutes each. Answers were recorded by
smartphone, and 7 participants were also filmed with consent. The data was obtained
from the students’ answers to the questionnaire. There is no force to be the participants of
this research. The potential participant candidates were asked whether they would be
willing to join the study.

3.4 Analysis Description

The collected data was prepared before analysis. Patterns in recorded
communications were categorized and analyzed by the meaning of words, phrases,
sentences, and facial expressions of the participants.

3.5 Evaluation and Justification

To have a deeper understanding of students’ opinions and experiences towards their
time-management skills by asking questions that cannot be easily put into numbers,
qualitative research is the best method. On the other hand, qualitative research is time-
consuming, and the researcher also needs time to transcribe as well as thoroughly analyze
the data. This means the researcher is extremely time-pressured which can lead to thin
analyses and poor conclusions. However, the time factor has little impact on this study
when weighed against the numerous benefits that this method provides.

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Chapter 4. Results and Discussion
In the previous section, the method used in the interview to accumulate opinions and
suggestions was given in detail. In this section, the results and a discussion of the results
are provided.

4.1 Result
4.1.1 The use of a to-do list
When asked about ways to improve their time management skills, 4 out of 7 students
believed that creating a to-do list is the most effective tool. Having a detailed to-do list
helps students prioritize work and personal tasks to accomplish one after the other. This
also allows them to focus exclusively on the priority tasks, whereas spending less time on
those which are not important. One respondent (male, 21) shared:

“I used to spend a lot of time thinking about which urgent tasks need to be tackled first,
and what is next, but since applying this method, I am no longer wasting my time.”

Furthermore, 3 out of 7 students suggested using a to-do list as a motivator to

complete tasks promptly since this method consists of the time estimates section next to
each task. With the motivation from each to-do list, they will have the ability to use time
productively without procrastination.

“Due to the certain amount of time allowed for each task on the to-do list, I can feel the
urge to finish all my work within a day and have more chances to take care of my daily
life as well.” – a 21-year-old male respondent stated.

4.1.2 The Avoidance of social media

3 out of 7 interviewees shared the same opinion that avoiding social media helps
improve their time management skills. They discovered that by reducing their time spent
scrolling through social media such as Facebook and Instagram, etc, they had the

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opportunity to do more valuable things in their lives without being distracted. One
respondent (female, 21) shared her opinion after a month get rid of social media:

“When I stop myself from using these platforms, especially Facebook, I feel like I have
more time and can meet all of my deadlines on time which I could not do in the past.”

4.2 Discussion
College can be a stressful time for many students as they have to struggle to balance
time between academics, work, and other obligations, which may reflect poor planning
and an inability to effectively prioritize time. Therefore, time management can be one of
the most crucial but still tricky skills to master.

To make this skill achievable, the results from the interview show that to improve
time management skills most of the students (4 out of 7) prefer using a to-do list method,
and the rest (3 out of 7) side with avoiding social media.

4.2.1 Interpretations Towards a to-do list

The results indicated that by creating organized to-do lists, college students can
prioritize things they need to do and be motivated to finish every task. In line with the
hypothesis of Marie Claire Dorking (2016) that the key reason students are pleased with
to-do lists is that it enables them to focus on all their important tasks of the day without
spending time on ones that do not matter. Next, E.J. Masicampo, an associate professor of
psychology in North Carolina also stated about the ability as a motivator of a to-do list:
“When a goal on your to-do list isn't complete, it can weigh on your mind that you have
to get it done right away, which is very effective for scheduling time to do other things.".
These results should be taken into account when considering how to improve better time
management skills in college students. The generalizability of the results is limited by
data collected from a small size group of HUFLIT students (7 students). Future research
should enhance the size of the respondents to receive more accurate results.

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4.2.2 Interpretations Towards the Avoidance of social media
The data suggests that getting rid of social media in daily life is a useful way to keep
students on the right track without being distracted and also enables them to save a lot of
time. The results support the claims of Ayelet Fishbach, a professor of behavioral science
and marketing at the University of Chicago (2022): “After quitting social media, learners
find that they can focus on a given task until it’s done, which will inevitably bring their
time management skill to a higher level.” The study provides new insight into the
relationship between advancing time management skills and the avoidance of social
media in students. The reliability of these data may be slightly impacted because
participants just have a relatively short time to respond to the survey, but that does not
affect the survey results at all.

Chapter 5. Conclusion
This research was conducted to select some effective ways to improve the time
management skills of undergraduate students.

5.1 Summary
The studies utilized a qualitative method to find out the participants’ personal
opinions and advice on ways to assist the time management skills of undergraduate
students. Through this qualitative method, I expect to understand more about situations
where students lack time management skills and the effective ways to improve these
skills.

The statistics showed that using a to-do list and keeping away from social media are
the most beneficial ways for students who want to have good time management skills.

5.2 Recommendation
Because only a small group of people shared their thoughts and advice, the survey's
results may be biased. Furthermore, the study period is too short, so the researcher should
conduct preferable for the researcher to conduct additional research to gain a better
understanding of the details of how students improve their time management.

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5.3 Contribution
This study explores how students lack time management skills as identified in the
literature review section. From that, we can discover the most effective ways to improve
this vital skill. Moreover, what the author surveyed seems to strengthen studies of
previous researchers, so this study also provides solid evidence for other existing research
done before me that focuses on finding efficient time management strategies for students
as well as identifying the strengths that make these strategies effective.

Furthermore, my thesis provides suggestions for improvement based on both

available academic sources and real-life experiences, whereas others primarily work on
academic sources without providing facts from students.

Overall, time management skills are essential for undergraduate students. They can
consider using a to-do list and avoiding using social media to help improve their time
management skills.

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STUDENTS
Alyami (2021). In Impact of Time-Management on the Student’s Academic
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Cengage (2015). In Engagement Insights: Survey Findings on the Quality of
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