Why Most Time Management Training is Complete Rubbish
Walking into yet another corporate training session about time management, I couldn’t help but laugh at the irony.
Here’s what nobody tells you about time management training: most of it is designed by people who’ve never actually managed anything more complex than their own Netflix queue.
The typical approach to time management training is backwards. Most trainers focus on individual behaviour modification when the real problem is systemic workplace dysfunction. I’ve watched numerous employees leave these sessions feeling motivated, only to return to the same chaotic environment that caused their time management issues in the first place.
Take the classic “prioritisation matrix” that every trainer loves to bring out. You know the one – urgent versus important, colour-coded quadrants, the whole nine yards. Sounds fantastic in theory. But when your boss interrupts you every fifteen minutes, three different departments need “urgent” reports by COB, and your email inbox is exploding faster than you can clear it, that nice matrix becomes about as useful as a chocolate teapot.
The first thing I tell clients is to stop buying into the myth that you can somehow become so efficient that you’ll magically have more hours in the day.
We all get the same 1,440 minutes per day, and no amount of productivity porn is going to change that fundamental reality.
Real time management is about managing your mental resources. I figured out this the hard way after burning out spectacularly in my early thirties. Back then, I was fixated with squeezing every second of productivity from my day. Colour-coded calendars, time-blocking, the Pomodoro Technique – you name it, I tried it.
The breakthrough came when I started paying attention to when I really did my best work, rather than when I thought I should be working. Turns out, I’m totally useless after 3 PM for anything requiring deep thinking, but I can smash through administrative tasks like nobody’s business.
Most people are the opposite – they hit their stride in the afternoon and struggle with morning focus. Yet every workplace expects everyone to be equally productive from 9 to 5. It’s madness when you think about it.
Where the productivity industry gets it spectacularly wrong: they assume everyone’s job is the same.
A software developer working in deep focus mode has completely different time management challenges than a customer service representative who’s constantly interrupted by clients and colleagues. Yet somehow, we’re all supposed to follow the same productivity formula.
I was working with a client in Perth last year – brilliant woman running a mid-sized logistics company. She’d been through three different time management programs and felt like a complete failure because none of the techniques worked for her. The problem? She was trying to apply strategies designed for knowledge workers to a role that required constant communication and quick decision-making.
Once we redesigned her approach around managing interruptions rather than eliminating them, everything changed. Her stress levels dropped, her team became more efficient, and she stopped feeling guilty about not following some guru’s perfect daily routine.
The best time management advice I can give you has nothing to do with apps or techniques.
Learn to say no. Correctly.
Not the wishy-washy “I’m really busy right now” nonsense that leaves the door open for negotiation. I mean the clear, confident, guilt-free no that protects your time like a security guard at Crown Casino.
This is where Australian workplace culture works against us. We’ve got this ingrained belief that being busy equals being important, and that saying no makes you look lazy or uncommitted.
Complete bollocks, if you ask me. I’ve watched talented professionals destroy their effectiveness and their mental health because they couldn’t bring themselves to reject requests that weren’t really their responsibility. The result? Critical work gets pushed aside while they rush to complete tasks that should never have landed on their desk in the first place.
This is where I’ll probably lose half my audience: sometimes the problem isn’t external demands – it’s your own inability to let go of control.
I see this especially with middle managers who’ve built their identity around being irreplaceable. They moan about being overwhelmed while concurrently micromanaging every detail and refusing to delegate meaningful work.
Delegation isn’t about dumping tasks on subordinates. It’s about developing capability across your team while freeing yourself to focus on what only you can do. The companies that do this well – think Atlassian or Canva – create systems where success doesn’t depend on any single person being a superhero.
But delegation requires letting go of the illusion that you’re the only person who can do things properly. For many leaders, that’s a harder psychological shift than learning any productivity technique.
Technology deserves a special mention here because it’s both the solution and the problem.
We have more ways to manage our time than ever before, yet we’re increasingly scattered than previous generations. The standard professional checks email every six minutes and jumps between applications over 300 times per day.
Digital interruptions from multiple platforms and communication channels – our devices have become attention-destroying machines disguised as productivity tools.
The productivity app industry has convinced us that the solution to complexity is more complexity. It’s like trying to solve traffic congestion by building more roads – you just create more places for things to get stuck.
Every tool was supposed to make them more efficient, but the cognitive overhead of maintaining multiple systems was exhausting them. We stripped it back to three core tools and saw immediate improvements in both output and stress levels.
The strategies that survive contact with actual workplace chaos:
Start with energy, not time. Map your natural rhythms and design your day around them.
Most people know whether they’re morning people or afternoon people, but they’ve never actually structured their work to match their energy patterns. If you’re strongest between 9 and 11 AM, why are you wasting those hours on emails and meetings?
Block that time for your most important work and watch your productivity soar. The afternoon slump isn’t a character flaw – it’s biology. Instead of fighting it with caffeine and willpower, schedule your routine tasks for those lower-energy periods. It’s not rocket science, but most people never bother to pay attention to their own patterns.
Accept that modern work is inherently interruptible and plan accordingly.
If you’re in a role where people need access to you, stop pretending you can work in uninterrupted four-hour blocks. Plan for the unexpected and use those moments productively when they don’t get filled with urgent requests.
The companies that handle this well create communication protocols that distinguish between truly urgent issues and everything else. At Telstra, for example, they’ve developed clear escalation paths so that frontline staff know when to interrupt senior management and when to handle issues independently.
It’s not about being unavailable – it’s about being strategically available at the right times for the right reasons. Both are equally important parts of their role.
Third, audit your commitments ruthlessly.
Most people have no idea where their time actually goes. They think they’re spending two hours on important projects when they’re actually spending twenty minutes on projects and ninety minutes on email, messages, and random interruptions.
Time tracking sounds boring, but it’s the fastest way to identify the productivity killers that are destroying your effectiveness.
People discover they’re spending three hours a day on activities that add zero value to their work or their company’s goals. The revelation isn’t pleasant, but it’s necessary. You can’t fix what you don’t measure. Once you see how much time you’re losing to pointless meetings and digital distractions, making changes becomes a lot easier.
Finally, stop treating time management like a personal failing.
Most time management problems are systems problems, not people problems. If everyone in your organisation is struggling with the same issues, the solution isn’t better individual time management – it’s better organisational design.
Some workplaces are structurally incapable of supporting good time management. No amount of personal productivity techniques can overcome toxic cultures that reward busyness over results, or management styles that create artificial urgency around everything.
The solution wasn’t more training – it was better systems, clearer expectations, and leadership that actually understood the difference between urgent and important.
Look, I’m not saying personal time management skills don’t matter.
The fundamentals work: focusing on outcomes rather than activities, maintaining boundaries, delegating effectively. But they only work when they’re supported by sensible organisational structures and realistic expectations about what any individual can actually control.
The time management industry has sold us the myth that we can optimise our way out of any problem. Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is change jobs, set better boundaries with unreasonable clients, or have honest conversations with managers about impossible workloads.
True time management wisdom isn’t about doing more – it’s about doing the right things well, and having the courage to stop doing everything else.
That’s the real secret of effective time management. it’s not about managing time at all. It’s about managing yourself, your energy, and your environment to support the work that actually matters.
Everything else is just productivity theatre.
