The Role of Time Management in Graduate Student Success
Andra Opone
Florida Atlantic University

Abstract
“Time is valuable - perhaps a fairly obvious thing to say, but if we all know it, why does anyone ever procrastinate? (Brian, 2000, p.14). Majority of graduate students procrastinate and if we do a survey to inquire why graduate students procrastinate, we would discover that the major reasons would be fear of failure, overwhelming school tasks or unclear task.
The habit of procrastination, which is common and gradually being cultivated over time has become a big factor hindering academic success of graduate students. Many times students procrastinate because they lack motivation and fail to prioritize their daily activities, but the biggest culprit of procrastination is and will always be poor “Time Management”.

The Role of Time Management in Graduate Student Success What then is Time Management? According to Foley “Time management may be defined as the discovery and application of the most efficient method of completing assignments of any length in the optimum time and with the highest quality” (Foley, 2007, p.733). With the work load associated with graduate studies, a lot of confusion usually arise on prioritizing: “what to do first and how to do it”, this state of confusion lead many students to procrastination which has a ripple effect on a students’ academic performance. Time management plays a major role by helping students complete academic task on time and efficiently.
It is important to take a closer look at the three key words from Foley’s definition: “discovery, application and highest quality” and how this can be aid graduate success.
As a graduate student the first thing is to ‘discover’ what motivates you, knowing why you are in graduate school is key. It is also essential to discover what works best for you in getting assignment or academic activities done on time without procrastinating. The key to controlling and ultimately combating this destructive habit is to understand how and why it happens (even to the best of us) and to take a few simple steps to better manage your time and outcomes (Rivera, 2007, p.6). Once a student can identify the major cause, what their strengths and weaknesses are then it is much easier for a student to set academic goals. The major reason why this is important is to help a student know where best to start planning from.
Then next step would be to ‘application’ knowing how to apply proper time management in achieving your academic goals. A student must have set goals. Once the goals are set, how to go about achieving them is one of the difficulties faced by many students. This is where the application of priority comes in. “The improper allocation of time, not setting goals and priority, spending more time with friends or last minutes preparation for examination, are some of the examples for poor time management behavior which have been commonly discussed as a prime source of weak academic performance (Gall, 1988; Longman & Atkinson, 1988; Walter & Siebert, 1981). The only way poor time management can be achieved is by planning and setting your task by scale of preference. One practical step students can take in order to set their priorities right is create an Academic Time Management Checklist for each course they are enrolled, stating the grades desired for the particular course and the study hours to put in to achieve that grade. The checklist should include their daily activities. This helps student to equally allot study hours and apportion hours for other activities in order to avoid spending too much time on unnecessary activities and too little time on necessary activities.
When a plan is executed on time there is enough room for correction to be made. This brings us the last key point “Highest quality”. This is the most beneficial aspect as student who plan their time in completing academic tasks or assignments have the opportunity to seek academic advise where they are unclear as to what the task requires, do quality research, proof read and make necessary corrections usually turn in better quality of work and get higher grades than a student who procrastinated and hurriedly turns in an assignment. Graduate studies require high quality of research to be done by student and proper planning and time management only makes it easier to work at ease. In conclusion, the role of time management in graduate success cannot be underestimated. It may not seem an obvious problem until it is too late to realize it. Obviously, all task and projects do not have the same importance. Consequently, “first thing first” is essence of good time management”(Hochheiser, 1998, p.17). It is of utmost importance to any student with set achievable academic goals to be realistic and start off early by properly managing and maximizing their available study time in order to achieve academic success. References

Lomas, B. (2000). Stress & time management: The easy step by step guide. Hayling Island: Rowmark.
Foley, C. (2007). Time Management. In B. S. Kaliski (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Business and Finance (2nd ed., Vol. 2, pp. 733-735). Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CCX1552100309&sid=GRGM&v=2.1&u=gale15691&it=r&p=GVRL&sw=w&asid=1e71601ba7116a44a1494d9d90ffb7c9
Rivera, C. (2007). Time management. Chandni Chowk, Delhi: Global Media.
Hamzah, A. R., Lucky, E. O., & Joarder, M. H. R. (2014).
Time management, external motivation, and students' academic performance: Evidence from a malaysian public university. Asian Social Science, 10(13), 55-63. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.fau.edu/login?url=http;//search.proquest.com/docview/1551700440?accountid=10902
Hochheiser, R. M. (1998). Time Management. Hauppauge, NY: Barron's Educational Series.