Good Time Management Seems To Have A Bigger Impact On Wellbeing Than Work Performance

By Emily Reynolds As our lives have become busier, desire to do things quickly and efficiently has grown — something the rise of speed reading apps, lack of break-taking at work, and a general focus on “productivity” has shown. Good time management skills, therefore, are now highly prized both at work and at home. But do such techniques actually work? In a meta-analysis published in PLOS One, Brad Aeon from Concordia University and colleagues find that they do — but perhaps not for the reasons you’d expect. While time management skills have become more important in evaluations of job performance since the 1990s, their biggest impact lies elsewhere: in personal wellbeing. Time management, in brief, is a decision-making framework that helps us structure, protect and adapt our time in changing circumstances. It can therefore be measured through questions like “do you have a daily routine?”, “do you find it hard to say no to people?” and “do you evaluate your daily schedule?”. Work-life balance and attitudes to time and time management are also key. To explore the efficacy of time management, the team collated 158 papers from the mid-1980s to 2019 in journals in business, computing, gender studies, psychology, sociology and education; papers that included scales or questionnaires on time management were also included. (Interestingly, time management studies became more popular between 2000 and the 2010s, suggesting a wider trend and ...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Mental health Occupational Time Source Type: blogs