Time Isn't Money – It's Your Reputation: Why Most Time Management Advice Is Complete Rubbish

Time management books are like gym memberships in January. Everyone's got one, nobody uses it properly, and by March we're all back to our old habits wondering where the hell the day went.

I've been coaching executives and small business owners across Australia for nearly two decades now, and I can tell you this much: the biggest lie we tell ourselves is that we need more time. What we actually need is fewer distractions and the backbone to say no to things that don't matter. But nobody wants to hear that because it means admitting we're the problem, not our schedule.

The Australian Way: Efficiency Over Perfectionism

Here's where I reckon we get it right compared to our American cousins – Australians generally don't buy into the "hustle culture" nonsense that suggests you need to be productive 24/7. We understand that sometimes the most productive thing you can do is knock off early and have a beer. That's not laziness; that's sustainability.

The best time management principle I ever learned came from a business supervising skills workshop in Brisbane about twelve years ago. The facilitator, this no-nonsense woman from Queensland, said something that stuck: "Your time management isn't about managing time – it's about managing energy and attention."

She was absolutely right.

The Energy Management Revolution

Traditional time management treats every hour like it's worth the same. Complete bollocks. Your 9 AM brain isn't the same as your 3 PM brain, and pretending otherwise is why you're struggling to get through your to-do list.

I track my energy levels obsessively now. Sounds neurotic, but hear me out. I know that between 8:30 AM and 11 AM, I can tackle complex strategic work that would take me twice as long after lunch. Between 2 PM and 4 PM? That's admin time, email responses, and those mindless tasks that don't require heavy thinking.

Most people do this backwards. They check emails first thing (when their brain is fresh) and try to do creative work after lunch (when they're mentally sluggish). Then they wonder why they feel unproductive.

The Myth of Multitasking

Let me be blunt about multitasking: it doesn't exist. What you're actually doing is task-switching, and every switch costs you mental energy and time. The research is clear on this – people who think they're good at multitasking are usually the worst at it.

I learned this the hard way during a particularly chaotic period running a consultancy in Melbourne. I was juggling three major projects, trying to respond to emails in real-time, and fielding phone calls throughout the day. I felt busy and important. I was also making more mistakes than a first-year apprentice and delivering subpar work.

The solution? Batching. I now block out specific times for specific types of work. Email gets checked three times a day – 9 AM, 1 PM, and 5 PM. Phone calls happen between 4 PM and 5 PM unless it's genuinely urgent. Creative work happens in the morning. Admin happens in the afternoon.

Simple. Boring. Effective.

The Power of the "No" Muscle

Here's an uncomfortable truth: poor time management is often just poor boundary management dressed up in productivity language.

Every yes is a no to something else. When you say yes to that "quick coffee" that turns into a two-hour complaint session, you're saying no to the project that actually moves your business forward. When you say yes to that committee that meets monthly but achieves nothing, you're saying no to spending time with your family.

I used to be terrible at this. Absolutely shocking. I'd say yes to everything because I thought it made me look important and helpful. All it did was make me stressed and resentful.

Now I have a simple rule: if it's not a "hell yes," it's a no. This isn't about being rude or antisocial. It's about being realistic about your capacity and protecting your ability to do excellent work on the things that actually matter.

Technology: The Double-Edged Sword

Here's where I might lose some of you, but I think most productivity apps are a waste of time. I've tried them all – Todoist, Notion, Trello, Asana. They're like expensive gym equipment that ends up as coat hangers.

The problem isn't the technology; it's that we use these tools to avoid making hard decisions about priorities. We spend more time organising our tasks than actually doing them. It's procrastination disguised as productivity.

I keep it simple: a physical notebook for daily tasks, Google Calendar for appointments, and my phone's basic reminder app for anything time-sensitive. That's it. No complex systems, no colour coding, no elaborate categorisation. Just write it down and do it.

The Calendar Audit That Changed Everything

About five years ago, I was working with a CEO who couldn't understand why he never had time for strategic thinking. We did a calendar audit – printed out four weeks of his schedule and highlighted everything in different colours based on importance and urgency.

The results were shocking. Nearly 60% of his time was spent in meetings that he didn't need to attend, responding to emails that weren't addressed to him, and dealing with issues that his team could have handled.

We implemented what I call the "Calendar Clean-Up Protocol":

Weekly Reviews: Every Friday afternoon, review the following week's calendar. Cancel anything that doesn't directly contribute to your top three priorities.

Meeting Hygiene: No meetings without clear agendas. No meetings longer than 45 minutes without a damn good reason. No meetings with more than six people unless it's a company-wide announcement.

Email Boundaries: Unsubscribe ruthlessly. Use filters aggressively. Stop cc'ing people unless they actually need to take action.

Within a month, he'd reclaimed nearly 15 hours a week. Fifteen hours! That's almost two full work days of strategic thinking time that was previously lost to administrative busy work.

The Pomodoro Technique (But Not the Way You Think)

Everyone knows about the Pomodoro Technique – 25 minutes of focused work followed by a 5-minute break. Most people implement it wrong.

The real power isn't in the timing; it's in the constraint. When you know you only have 25 minutes, you can't afford to check social media or get distracted by that "urgent" email that's probably not urgent at all.

I modify it based on the type of work. Deep thinking gets 90-minute blocks. Admin work gets 25-minute sprints. Creative work gets whatever it needs – sometimes that's 15 minutes, sometimes it's three hours.

The key is matching the time block to the cognitive load of the task. Don't force a complex analysis into a 25-minute window, and don't give routine data entry two hours when 30 minutes would do.

The Queensland Mining Lesson

This might sound random, but stay with me. I once worked with a mining operation in Queensland where delays cost thousands of dollars per hour. Every process was optimised to eliminate waste – not just material waste, but time waste, energy waste, attention waste.

They had a saying: "If it doesn't make the hole deeper or the truck fuller, question why you're doing it."

I adapted this for business: "If it doesn't increase revenue, reduce costs, or improve customer satisfaction, question why you're doing it."

This simple filter eliminates about 40% of what most people think they need to do. It's ruthless, but it works.

Related Resources:

• Growth Network Blog - Practical business growth strategies
• Workplace Abuse Training - Essential workplace skills

The Meeting Epidemic

Let's talk about meetings for a minute. The average office worker spends 23 hours a week in meetings. Twenty-three hours! That's more than half their working time.

Most meetings could be emails. Most emails could be conversations. Most conversations could be decisions made by one person with clear authority.

I instituted a "no meetings Monday" policy in my last corporate role. Productivity increased by 35% on Mondays because people actually had time to do deep work instead of talking about work.

The pushback was immediate: "But how will we collaborate?" "What about team building?" "How will we stay aligned?"

Here's the thing – if your collaboration, team building, and alignment depend entirely on scheduled meetings, you've got bigger problems than time management. You've got a communication problem.

The Perfectionism Trap

Perfectionism is procrastination in a fancy dress. I see this constantly with high achievers who can't understand why they're always behind schedule despite working long hours.

They spend three hours perfecting an email that needed five minutes. They research every possible option before making decisions that are easily reversible. They revise presentations seventeen times when version three was perfectly adequate.

Good enough is often good enough. Not always – when you're performing surgery or designing aircraft, perfectionism matters. But for most business tasks, "good enough" gets you moving while "perfect" keeps you stuck.

The Energy Vampire Audit

Time management isn't just about managing your calendar; it's about managing your energy drains. Some people and activities suck your energy faster than a teenager with a new phone plan.

I keep a running list of energy vampires – people who leave me feeling drained after every interaction, activities that feel necessary but accomplish nothing, environments that make me feel sluggish and unmotivated.

Then I systematically reduce or eliminate them. Not overnight – that would be chaos – but gradually, strategically.

This isn't about being antisocial. It's about protecting your finite energy resources so you can show up fully for the people and activities that actually matter.

The Measurement Trap

Here's where most time management advice goes wrong: it assumes that measuring everything leads to improvement. Sometimes it does. Often it doesn't.

I spent six months tracking every minute of my day in elaborate detail. Colour-coded spreadsheets, automated apps, hourly check-ins with myself. I could tell you exactly how long I spent on each task, where my time went, and what my productivity patterns looked like.

And I was miserable.

All that tracking became another task to manage. I was spending time managing my time management system instead of actually getting work done. The tail was wagging the dog.

Now I track only what's useful: energy levels throughout the day, which types of tasks drain me most, and how long different categories of work actually take (because we're terrible at estimating this).

Less data, more insight.

The Conclusion Nobody Wants to Hear

Here's the uncomfortable truth about time management: it's not really about time at all. It's about making choices and living with the consequences.

You have enough time for everything that's truly important to you. If something isn't getting done, it's either not as important as you claim it is, or you're not being honest about your priorities.

Stop looking for time management hacks and start making harder decisions about what deserves your attention. Your future self will thank you for it.

Even if your present self thinks you're being too harsh.