Does Time Management Work?

If you want to get a rise out of me, try telling me that you “just don’t have enough time.” There are few faster ways to turn me into a pedantic, patronizing finger-wagger.

No one has more time than you.

The question is not whether you can somehow conjure more time but whether it’s possible to manage your finite time more effectively to get more done. And not only to get more done but to have a better working experience.

The question is: Does time management work?

To answer this question for both of us, I donned my reading glasses and dove into Google Scholar. Fortunately, I found an excellent meta-analysis by Aeon, Faber, & Panaccio that curates the findings of 158 different primary studies, including 21 from real-world workplaces. The authors looked at the research from a variety of different angles and concluded that, yes, time management works. Hooray!

Sure, I could stop there, but this isn’t one of those blogs where all the juicy information is in the title. Sure, “Time Management Works!” But what the heck is it? And what does it work on?

Shall we…?

What is Time Management?

define time management as “a form of decision-making used by individuals to structure, protect, and adapt their time to changing conditions.”

According to their literature review, Aeon et al. describe time management in three categories: structuring your time, protecting your time, and adapting your time.

Structuring Your Time

The first category is about how you set up your work in the time you have. It includes establishing routines, schedules, and systems for your day, week, or month. The idea is to organize your work in ways that take advantage of efficient sequences, deliberate frequencies, and appropriate durations to optimize your outputs.

Another interesting and important finding is that structuring your time is most beneficial when it connects your use of time to a clear purpose. It’s not just about getting more done; it’s about getting more of the right work done. YES!

Protecting Your Time

The second category is enforcing boundaries to stick to your intended schedule. This includes protecting yourself from interruptions, distractions, and derailers as you work. It requires that you advocate for yourself and know when and how to say “no.”

Adapting Your Time

The final category is about flexing your time to adjust to changing circumstances. While you can protect yourself from some disruptions to your schedule, others can’t be avoided. Adapting your time is about rejigging your priorities, shifting schedules, and using waiting time.

Time management is structuring, protecting, and adapting how you use your time to get more done and in a more satisfying way.

Now that we know what it is, let’s talk about what good it does.

Benefits of Time Management

It turns out that optmizing your time has beneficial effects on various outcomes. Let’s talk about them in three categories.

Time Management Boosts Performance

The evidence suggests that managing your time makes you perform better. It improves behaviors that lead to better work, such as motivation and proactiveness. I was most interested to see the results of one study that showed a significant correlation between time management and creativity. I guess it makes sense… if you’re bogged down in a swamp of tasks, you don’t have the space or stillness for tiny ideas to emerge.

In addition to predicting productive work habits, time management also predicts managers’ (or teachers’) performance ratings, albeit with a slightly weaker relationship. Aeon & Aguinis propose a troublesome hypothesis for why it might not be more strongly related to your ratings—persistent norms that people who work longer are better. Thus, those who manage their time effectively and leave work on time might be penalized over those who doddle but linger. Frustrating.

Time Management Enhances Wellbeing

While time management has an important benefit on performance, the positive effects on well-being are even more potent. It is positively related to job satisfaction, optimism, and a sense of purpose. The relationship is especially strong for two subcategories of well-being: life satisfaction and mental health.

Now, you might wonder whether time management makes you happy or happy people are more likely to manage their time. We have data about self-efficacy, which is your belief in your ability to perform. While you might assume that people with higher self-efficacy manage their time better, there is evidence that people who engage in time management training subsequently feel more in control, suggesting there could be a causal relationship. If you learn and apply time management techniques, they increase well-being.

Time Management Reduces Distress

Time management increases productivity and well-being. Does it have anything else to offer? Yup. It bolsters the positive side of the equation and mitigates the negative side. It’s associated with decreased distress measured through factors such as stress, hopelessness, and boredom. The strongest relationship is between time management and psychological distress, which, across ten studies, correlated -.36. That’s a significant finding. Better control of your time, less fretting.

One final point: In the meta-analysis, I’ve been citing collected data over multiple decades. One of the most interesting findings was that the benefits of time management are getting stronger over time. It’s no surprise to me. With the torrent of emails, the ridiculous bloating of hours in meetings, and increasingly unstructured knowledge work, managing your time effectively is becoming increasingly important.

Given the importance of time management to both productivity and well-being, I’m starting a series on techniques you can implement to wrangle your time in a way that serves you best. I hope you’ll follow along.

Research References

Aeon B, Aguinis H. It’s about time: New perspectives and insights on time management. Acad Manag Perspect. 2017;31(4):309–30.

Aeon, B., Faber, A., & Panaccio, A. (2021). Does time management work? A meta-analysis. PLOS ONE, 16(1), e0245066. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone....

Häfner A, Stock A. Time management training and perceived control of time at work. J Psychol. 2010;144(5):429–47. pmid:20806849

Additional Resources

Practical Advice About How to Prioritize Your Workload

10 Helpful Things To Do When You’re Overwhelmed

Enough about Workload, the Problem is Thoughtload

 

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