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Stop Watching the Clock and Start Managing Energy: Why Most Time Management Advice is Backwards
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Three months ago, I watched my mate Dave colour-code his calendar for the fourth time that week. Different colours for different priorities. Green for urgent, blue for important, red for "fires to put out." By Thursday, his schedule looked like a toddler had attacked it with highlighters, and he was still working until 9 PM every night.
That's when it hit me - we've been thinking about time management completely arse-backwards.
After seventeen years of training managers across Australia, from Perth mining companies to Sydney tech startups, I've realised something that'll probably upset the productivity gurus: time management isn't about managing time. It's about managing energy, attention, and most importantly, saying no to the right things.
The Calendar Lie We All Believe
Here's what nobody wants to admit - your colour-coded calendar is probably making things worse. I know, I know. You've invested hours perfecting that system. But think about it this way: when did you last feel genuinely productive because your calendar was pretty?
The truth is, most of us are trying to squeeze more tasks into the same energy tank. It's like expecting your ute to haul three tonnes when it's built for one and a half. Something's going to give, and it's usually your sanity or your quality of work.
I learned this the hard way during my corporate days at a major telecommunications company. Spent two years optimising my schedule, downloading every productivity app known to humanity, colour-coding everything. My efficiency was through the roof on paper. In reality? I was exhausted, my team was confused by my constant schedule changes, and clients were getting half my attention during meetings.
The breakthrough came when I stopped asking "How can I fit more in?" and started asking "What can I eliminate?"
Why Energy Management Beats Time Management Every Time
Your energy isn't linear throughout the day. This isn't rocket science, but somehow we keep pretending it is. Most people have about 3-4 hours of peak mental performance per day. For some, it's 6 AM to 10 AM. Others hit their stride after lunch. Night owls might not reach full capacity until 2 PM.
But what do we do? We spread our most important work across the entire day like Vegemite on toast - thin and unsatisfying.
Smart managers block out their peak hours for their most challenging work. Not for emails. Not for "quick catch-ups." For the stuff that actually moves the needle.
I worked with a client in Melbourne last year who was spending her mornings (her peak energy window) responding to emails and her afternoons (when her brain was running on fumes) trying to write strategic reports. We flipped it. Emails after 2 PM, report writing before 10 AM. Her output quality improved dramatically, and she started leaving the office at 5:30 instead of 7 PM.
The Myth of Multitasking (And Why Aussies Are Particularly Bad at It)
Let me share something that might sting a bit: Australians are terrible at single-tasking. We pride ourselves on being laid-back, but put us in an office and we'll try to juggle six conversations while writing a report and planning our weekend. It's like we're compensating for our relaxed reputation by being productivity maniacs.
Multitasking is a myth. What you're actually doing is task-switching, and it's killing your productivity. Every time you switch tasks, your brain needs time to refocus. Scientists call it "switching cost," and it can reduce your efficiency by up to 40%.
Think about it this way: you wouldn't try to have three phone conversations simultaneously, would you? So why do we think we can write a proposal while monitoring Slack while planning a meeting agenda?
The Two-List Strategy That Actually Works
Forget the endless productivity apps and complicated systems. Here's what I teach every client, and it's stupidly simple:
List One: Must Do Today (Maximum 3 items) These are non-negotiable. If the world ended tomorrow, these three things would need to be done first. Not five things. Not "3-5 depending." Exactly three.
List Two: Could Do If Time Permits (Everything else) This is your overflow list. Nice-to-haves. Tasks that feel urgent but aren't actually important. The stuff that makes you feel busy without moving you forward.
The magic happens when you protect your List One time like a mother protecting her cubs. No interruptions. No "quick questions." No checking emails "just this once."
I've seen this simple system transform chaos into clarity for dozens of teams. A logistics company in Brisbane increased their on-time deliveries by 23% just by having their dispatchers focus on three key tasks each morning instead of trying to handle everything at once.
Why "Busy" Has Become a Status Symbol (And How to Escape It)
Somewhere along the way, being busy became a badge of honour in Australian workplaces. We wear exhaustion like a medal. "I'm so swamped" has become our default response to "How are you?"
But here's the thing - busy doesn't equal productive. Some of the most successful people I know appear to have endless time. They're not superhuman; they're just ruthless about saying no to anything that doesn't align with their core objectives.
This is where most time management advice fails. It teaches you how to do more things efficiently instead of teaching you how to do fewer things excellently.
The Meeting Epidemic and How to Cure It
Australian businesses have a meeting problem. We schedule meetings to plan meetings. We have check-ins about check-ins. I once worked with a company where managers spent 67% of their week in meetings. Sixty-seven percent! When were they supposed to actually manage anything?
Here's my radical suggestion: cut your meetings in half. Right now. Today. If you have ten meetings scheduled this week, cancel five of them. See what happens. I guarantee the world won't end.
Most meetings exist because we're too lazy to write a proper email or make a decision without feeling like we've "consulted" everyone. Half the meetings on your calendar could be solved with a well-written three-paragraph email.
The meetings you do keep should have clear outcomes, strict time limits, and mandatory agendas. No agenda, no meeting. It's that simple.
Technology: Your Servant or Your Master?
I'm constantly amazed by how many people let their phones control their day. Notifications popping up every thirty seconds, emails demanding immediate attention, Slack messages creating false urgency.
Your phone should work for you, not the other way around. Turn off non-essential notifications. Check emails at set times (I recommend three times per day maximum). Put your phone in another room when you're working on important tasks.
I know this sounds extreme, but try it for one week. Just one. The withdrawal symptoms will be brutal for the first two days, then you'll start to notice something magical: sustained concentration. The ability to think deeply about problems instead of skimming the surface.
A manufacturing client in Adelaide implemented "phone-free mornings" for their management team. Productivity in strategic planning increased by 35% in the first month. Turns out, when you're not constantly interrupted, you can actually think.
The Parkinson's Law Problem
Work expands to fill the time available. This is Parkinson's Law, and it's probably costing you hours every week. Give yourself three hours to write a report, and it'll take three hours. Give yourself ninety minutes, and you'll probably finish in ninety minutes with similar quality.
Most tasks don't need as much time as we allocate to them. We pad our estimates, then find ways to fill that extra time. More research, more polishing, more second-guessing decisions that were fine the first time.
Try this experiment: take your biggest weekly task and cut the allocated time by 25%. Force yourself to work within that constraint. You'll be surprised how often you maintain quality while dramatically reducing time investment.
The Delegation Disaster Most Managers Create
Here's something that'll ruffle some feathers: most Australian managers are control freaks who delegate badly, then complain about being overwhelmed.
Delegation isn't just handing someone a task and hoping for the best. It's about clearly defining outcomes, providing necessary resources, setting check-in points, and then - this is the hard part - actually letting go.
I've seen managers spend two hours explaining a thirty-minute task, then spend another hour checking and re-checking the work. At that point, you might as well have done it yourself.
Good delegation means accepting that someone else might do the task differently than you would. Different doesn't mean wrong. Sometimes it means better.
The Energy Audit You've Never Done
Most people can tell you exactly how much money they spent last week but have no idea how they spent their energy. Start tracking both for just one week - not forever, just seven days. Note when you feel energised, when you feel drained, what activities give you energy versus what activities suck it away.
You might discover that three-hour planning sessions leave you useless for the rest of the day. Or that certain types of client meetings actually energise you while others feel like soul-crushing exercises in patience.
Once you understand your energy patterns, you can start designing your days around them instead of fighting against them.
Administrative tasks drain me completely, so I batch them into one afternoon per week instead of spreading them throughout my schedule. Creative work energises me, so I tackle it during my peak morning hours. Strategic planning requires my full mental capacity, so I never schedule it after lunch when my blood sugar crashes.
The Australian Workplace Culture Problem
We need to talk about something uncomfortable: Australian workplace culture often rewards presenteeism over productivity. Being seen at your desk until 7 PM is valued more than completing excellent work by 4 PM.
This is madness.
Some of the most productive people I know work intensely for shorter periods rather than spreading their effort thin across long hours. A lawyer in Sydney restructured her practice to work four intense days instead of five casual ones. Her billable hour rate went up, her stress went down, and her clients got better service because she was mentally fresh for every interaction.
But breaking this culture requires managers who measure outputs, not inputs. Results, not hours. Quality, not quantity.
The Perfectionism Trap That's Killing Your Productivity
Perfectionism isn't a virtue - it's a productivity killer disguised as high standards. How many projects have you delayed because they weren't "quite ready yet"? How many emails have you rewritten four times when the first version was perfectly adequate?
Good enough is often good enough. This doesn't mean lowering your standards; it means being strategic about where you apply your highest standards.
A report for internal review doesn't need the same polish as a client proposal. An email to a colleague doesn't need the same precision as a contract. A first draft doesn't need to be publication-ready.
Save your perfectionism for the things that truly matter.
Building Systems That Actually Stick
The reason most productivity systems fail is that they're too complicated to maintain when life gets hectic. The more steps involved, the more likely you are to abandon the system when pressure mounts.
Effective systems are embarrassingly simple. They work when you're stressed, tired, or overwhelmed - which is exactly when you need them most.
My entire task management system fits on a single piece of paper: today's three priorities at the top, everything else below. When something new comes up, it either replaces one of the three priorities (rare) or goes on the second list (common).
That's it. No apps, no colour coding, no complex categorisation. Just clarity about what matters most today.
The Reality Check Nobody Wants to Hear
Here's the uncomfortable truth: if you're constantly overwhelmed, constantly behind, constantly stressed about time management, the problem probably isn't your system. The problem is that you're trying to do too much.
We live in a culture that celebrates overcommitment and treats "no" like a dirty word. But every yes to something unimportant is a no to something that matters.
The most effective people I know are ruthless editors of their own lives. They say no to good opportunities so they can say yes to great ones. They eliminate busywork so they can focus on real work. They protect their time like it's their most valuable asset - because it is.
Time management isn't about finding more hours in the day. It's about making sure the hours you have are spent on things that actually matter.
And sometimes, that means disappointing people who want more from you than you can reasonably give.
That's not selfish. That's sustainable.
Ready to transform how your team approaches productivity? Stop trying to manage time and start managing energy, attention, and priorities. The results might surprise you.