The Relationship between Time Management and Academic

Performance among University of Cape Coast Psychology Students

1. Introduction

Time is regarded as an indefinitely divisible, usable and invaluable resource in the

modern world (Das & Bera, 2021, p. 227; Nasrullah & Khan, 2015, p. 66). It is a process that
continues uninterrupted beyond the control of individuals and must be used wisely (Gayef et
al., 2017, p. 248). Time management is the deliberate control of the time spent on a given task
to increase efficiency, skill and productivity (Das & Bera, 2021, p. 227). The aim of time
management is to increase the quality of activities undertaken within a limited time (Gayef et
al., 2017, p. 248). Time management requires the utilization of analysis, planning and making
programs as in the management of the other resources. It is necessary to make an accurate
schedule and set goals, objectives and priorities (Gayef et al., 2017, p. 248). Time management
is only possible through self- motivation, performance and ability (Nasrullah & Khan, 2015, p.
66).
Academic success is the combination of ability and effort, supposedly the ability being
equal to those with higher grades. Academic success refers to the accomplishment or acquired
proficiency in the performance of an individual in a given skill or body of knowledge. Academic
achievement means knowledge attained and skills developed in the school subjects or
university courses usually designated by test scores, by marks assigned by teachers or both.
Since academic success is the criterion for selection, promotion or recognitions in various
occupations, the importance of academic achievement cannot be ignored (Cyril, 2014-2015, p.
38).

1.2. Statement of the Problem

Students in general have very busy and stressful lives because they are attending
classes, completing assignments and studying for exams. In addition, they have their daily
routines and lifestyles that are necessary for creating balance between their academics and
extracurricular activities. However, finding time to do everything at once can be challenging and
overwhelming. This is where good time management skills come into practice. They must take
necessary approaches and apply those strategies in order to be effective and more productive.
Having these skills gives students the ability to plan and prioritize upcoming assignments and
events. This is an important factor in keeping students organized and avoiding procrastination,
which ultimately leads to academic success (Cyril, 2014-2015, p. 38). The main goal of this
research is to examine the relationship between time management on academic success of
University of Cape Coast Level 400 psychology students.

1.3 Significance of the Study

 Time management can be very useful in a student’s hectic schedule. It ensures that
students are well prepared, organized and focused to manage their daily lives and compete
academic assignments on time. It can lead to improve success. Students must change their
habits in order to have good time management skills. This can only happen if students take the
first steps in identifying their problems. Good time management skills stems from the issue of
prioritizing one’s time effectively. This is possible by setting up new personal goals and striving
to accomplish them with a new and improved attitude in mind. Students should learn how to
work smart and not working too hard. Sometimes, students need to study for a couple of hours
and take a break to clear their minds. It is a good idea to take breaks when feelings of
frustration come on. Too much information leads to an information overload that the brain
cannot deal with at one time. If students are motivated and disciplined, their time management
skills will improve with practice (Cyril, 2014-2015, p. 39).
It improves the quality of your work. Learning how to manage time properly allows you
to allocate the right amount of time to each task. You are also less likely to allow tasks to pile
up and resort to rushing your tasks. Being able to spend sufficient time on individual tasks
allows you to achieve better results.
It helps build your focus. Proper time management allows you to focus on a task at a
time. Dividing your tasks into timelines can help prevent you from worrying about too much
tasks at once, as you know you have planned each. This allows you to focus on what you are
doing now.
Effective time management improves the quality of life as a whole. This is primarily
because by managing the time, some of most common problems such as stress and lack of time
for personal interest can be solved very effortlessly. Effective time management enables the
person to lead life peacefully without much tension. This is because time management focuses
on dividing the required time for each activity so that the person does not feel exhausted at the
end of the day. Therefore, effective time management improves the quality of life (Cyril, 2014-
2015, p. 39).
1.4 Limitations of the study
The problems related to time management are primarily concerned with the leisure or
other recreational activities that individuals are engaged in. These activities have been stated as
follows:
Technology has been prominent and students are spending too much on making use of
mobile phones, smartphones, computers and laptops in the modern era. They engaged in
online chatting with their friends, watching movies, listening to music, playing games and
making use of them for recreational purposes. It hinder their concentration towards studies
since they are used for a long period (Kapur, 2018, p. 19).
 Individuals of all age groups have a wide social circle. They take pleasure in getting
involved in numerous activities along with their friends such as talking on the phone, going out
for shopping and so on. These prove to be barriers within the course of academic achievements
(Kapur, 2018, p. 19).
Difficulty in understanding the concepts or having problems in the implementation of
assignments are constraints to time management. When a student is working on an assignment
that is complicated, lengthy and takes a limited time to complete it. They may have to work for
long hours without paying attention to other tasks. Therefore, the individual experiences a
setback in the performance of other tasks (Kapur, 2018, p. 21).
Lack of proper schedule can also contribute as a major problem in time management.
Students may be involved in numerous job duties, pursue more than one academic program
and have to perform all the household duties as well as manage other interests such as being
engaged in physical activities. Lack of proper schedule would enable the tasks and functions to
be left unchecked or incomplete (Kapur, 2018, p. 19).
1.5 Objectives of the study
I. To determine the level of time management and academic success of University of Cape
Coast Level 400 Psychology students.
II. To find out if there is gender difference in terms of time management among University
students.
III. To find out gender difference in their academic achievement.
IV. To ascertain the relationship between time management and academic performance.

1.6 Hypothesis of the study

H1: The level of time management and academic success is average.
H2: There is no significant difference between male and female University students in their time
management.
H3: There is no significant difference between male and female University students in their
academic performance.
H4: There is no significant relationship between time management and academic achievement
of University of Cape Coast Level 400 Psychology students.
2. Literature Review
2.1 Theoretical Framework
There are several theories such as Abraham Maslow Hierarchy of Needs, Frederick
Herzberg’s motivation theory and Edward Lee Thorndike’s Trial and Error theory.
 In Maslow’s theory, he believed that individual’s needs are in the form of the hierarchy.
He also believed in the satisfaction of various human needs and how people pursue these
needs in accordance to their occupations and backgrounds. In order for students to pursue
their need to achieve academic success, they must use and improve time management skills by
planning, thinking and using behaviors regarding how to manage time and managing time more
efficiently can affect their academic success and limit time wastage (Kapur, 2018, p. 21).
According to Herzberg’s motivation theory, it assumes that motivators or certain factors
such as personal achievement or salary have an impact on the performance of the individual.
Time management can be seen as the internal motivation as it deals with the student while
external motivation is concerned with other motivators outside the student’s personal space.
Therefore, proper time management and external motivation will drive and encourage students
to achieve a high level of academic success (Kapur, 2018, p. 21).
Lastly, Thorndike’s trial and error theory introduced three laws that are the law of
readiness, law of effect and law of exercise. The law of readiness states that the learner’s state
to participate in the learning session. Law of effect means that the learning takes place properly
when it results in satisfaction and the learner derives pleasure out of it or progress on the path
of learning is blocked. Law of exercise consist of law of use and law of disuse. Law of use refers
to strengthening of connection with practice while the law of disuse refers to the weakening of
connection of forgetting when the practice discontinued thereby the more you properly
manage your time efficiently during learning hours, it will impact your academic performance
(Chourasiya, 2022).
3. Methodology
3.1 Research design
Making use of descriptive survey method by using interviews and questionnaires to
ascertain the relationship of the time management on student’s academic success and using
longitudinal studies collect data from the same people for a longer period to ascertain
relationship between time management on student academic performance (Nasrullah & Khan,
2015, p. 69; Thomas, 2020).
3.2 Population and Sampling procedure
The population for the study is Faculty of Educational foundations students of University
of Cape Coast from Level 100 to Level 400. The accessible population is 153 Level 400 students
of Department of Psychology. With the use of Krejcie and Morgan Sample size table, we just
need to get a feedback from 108 people. We can use multi-sample stage such as simple random
sampling technique to get our sample size of 50 people, proportionate stratified random
sampling (Nigussie, 2019, p. 46).
3.3 Data collection method
 Time management questionnaire is structured and used to measure time management
behavior of participant students. To record the response, a 5-point Likert scale is used
(Nasrullah & Khan, 2015, p. 69).
3.4 Data processing analysis
After collecting the data, the questionnaire is sorted out by using software package/
SPSS 21 version to analyze the data. Descriptive statistics like frequency, percentage, mean and
standard deviation are calculated. Correlation analysis can also conducted to interpret the
relationship (Nigussie, 2019, p. 46).
4. Conclusion
To conclude, we have shown the definition of time management, academic
performance, the objectives, hypothesis, significance, methodology and limitation of the study.
Student should improve their time management skills by increase awareness of their attitudes,
planning, thinking and behavior regarding how to manage time. They should also be aware of
time wastage and should take responsibility for managing their time more efficiently (Gayef et
al., 2017, p. 256). The study shows that time management is highly related to the academic
success of University students.
References

 Nasrullah, S., & khan, M.S. (2015, February). The Impact of Time Management on the
Students’ Academic Achievement. International Institute for Science, Technology and
Education: E-Journals. Retrieved on 21st May, 2023 from
https://core.ac.uk/reader/234693030.
 Kapur, R. (2018). The Impact of Time Management on Student’s Academic
Achievements. International Journal of Law, Management and Social Science. Retrieved
on 21st May, 2023 from
https://bharatpublication.com/admin/upload_ijlmss/1529139278_02_Radhika_Kapur.p
df
 Cyril, A.V. (2014, December-2015, February). Time Management and Academic
Achievement of Higher Secondary Students. I-Manager’s Journal on School Educational
Technology. Retrieved on 21st May, 2023 from
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1097402.pdf.
 Das, P., & Bera, S. (2021). Impact of Time Management on Students’ Academic
Achievement at Secondary Level. ResearchGate. Retrieved on 21st May, 2023 from
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Saradindu-Bera/publication/349063177_Impact_
of_Time_Management_on_Students’_Academic_Achievement_at_Secondary_Level/
links/6087f787907dcf667bc7471e/Impact-of-Time-Management-on-Students’-
Academic-Achievement-at-Secondary-Level.pdf
 Nigussie, T. (2019, November 4). The Effect of Time Management Practice on the
Academic Achievement: A Case of Dire Dawa University, Ethiopia. European Journal of
Business and Management. Retrieved on 21st May, 2023 from
https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/234628799.pdf.
 Gayef, A., Tapan, B., & Sur, H. (2017). Hadttepe Health Management Magazine. (2017).
Relationship between Time Management Skills and Academic Achievement of the
Students in Vocational School of Health Services. Retrieved on 21 st May, 2023 from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318100775_Relationship_Between_Time_M
anagement_Skills_and_Academic_Achievement_of_The_Students_in_Vocational_Schoo
l_of_Health_Services.
 Chourasiya, S. (2022, November 10). Thorndike’s Theory of Learning. SamarEducation.
Retrieved on 21st May, 2023 from
https://www.samareducation.com/2022/05/thorndikes-theory-of-learning.html?m=1.
 Indeed Editorial Team. (2022, November 9). Why is Time management Important and
How to Manage your Time. Retrieved on 26th May, 2023 from
https://ca.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/why-is-time-management-
important.
 Thomas, L. (2022, July 21). Cross-Sectional Study. Scribbr. Retrieved on 25 th May, 2023
from
https://www.scribbr.com/methodology/cross-sectional-study/#:~:text=Longitudinal
%20studies%20and%20cross%2Dsectional,an%20extended%20period%20of%20time .