Time Management
How Understanding Our Relationship With Time Helps Us Manage It Better
Time often feels like our most elusive resource. Despite our best efforts to bend it to our will, by chasing productivity and efficiency, our ambitious goals often collide with tight deadlines. We try to fill each day to the brim but often feel like we're just treading water, not making the progress we seek. Our attempts to schedule every minute of the day just push us into a cycle of perpetual busyness.
Often our approach to time management stems from ideas about efficiency that are at odds with the complex nature of modern work. True productivity requires us to move away from trying to get everything done to getting the right things done. The things that truly matter. We have to accept that time is limited and concentrate our efforts on meaningful tasks, rather than just checking boxes on an endless to-do list. Effective time management is about working smarter, not just faster, and finding a balance between what we want and how long we have.
Why We Struggle With Managing Our Time
We mistakenly believe we can control time.
We are constantly attempting to master time. We think that every minute can be meticulously organized to maximize output. That somehow the right time management strategy will give us more control over our schedules and productivity. However, this mindset overlooks the simple truth: we can only do so much within the time we have. When we prioritize speed over strategic, thoughtful work, we create the illusion of productivity without improving the quality of our work.
We are generally bad at estimating how long our work will take.
Often, we incorrectly predict how much effort is involved in completing tasks. We assume that no new variables will pop up to complicate things. However, in reality, we could encounter changing priorities, stakeholder demands, and complex problems. When dealing with unexpected or unfamiliar things, can you really be certain how long it might take to finish your work? You will likely be scrambling to make up for lost time, which delays the rest of the work and disrupts your whole schedule. While we can get better at estimating with enough knowledge and experience, we can never be certain that things will go as planned.
We often overlook all the “invisible” work that goes into execution.
Every project requires a certain number of tasks that we don’t explicitly account for but are necessary nonetheless. These are things such as communicating ideas, clarifying questions, discussing problems, debugging issues, etc. all of which take time. We assume that there will be enough time to do the actual work, while still getting these supplementary tasks done. When we fail to consider the work surrounding core tasks, we struggle to understand the real reasons for the delays and subsequent stress. We have to recognize everything that needs to be done to set realistic expectations, establish feasible timelines, and manage our time effectively.
Our mindset towards time management is not aligned with the nature of our work.
Many of our ideas about time management are rooted in the industrial era’s emphasis on optimizing efficiency. As factory jobs became more widespread, time became tightly linked to outputs, and people’s days were organized around maximizing their productivity. However, work no longer involves just repetitive tasks. Modern knowledge work requires creativity, problem-solving, and deep thinking, which does not usually neatly fit into rigid time slots. While you can certainly get more efficient at the routine work, that’s not always the most valuable work to do.
How Can We Manage Our Time Better
Accept that time is finite.
While there’s always the temptation to keep pushing for more, understanding that time is finite helps us make better decisions about where to invest our efforts. When we stop attempting to fit everything into our days, we make room for what truly counts. This allows us to let go of tasks that don’t serve our larger purpose, set realistic goals, and avoid spreading ourselves too thin. By respecting time constraints and choosing high-impact initiatives, we can focus on quality over quantity, delivering stronger, more meaningful solutions.
Work at a sustainable pace.
Time management should support life, career, and business goals, not become an end in itself. Many people fall into the trap of over-optimization—working faster, longer, and harder in an unsustainable cycle. Trying to work like a machine will inevitably leave us drained and exhausted. While short bursts of intense work may be necessary at times, prolonged overexertion often leads to diminishing returns (burnout, lower morale, reduced creativity, etc.). Instead, you should aim for a balanced pace, focusing on consistent, high-quality work over time.
Limit your work in progress.
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by everything that needs to be done. Instead of trying to tackle an endless to-do list, create a separate, prioritized list of active tasks. Keep this list limited to a fixed number of items that you will devote your attention to. You don’t add new items until the existing tasks are done. Focus fully on one task before moving to the next. For example, if you commit to having only five tasks in progress each week, you can’t take on new work without finishing a task or moving something back to the backlog. This helps you avoid distractions (non-essential tasks, requests, meetings, etc.) that don’t contribute to your current priorities.
Dedicate time for deep work.
Deep work emphasizes focused, undistracted effort on tasks that bring long-term value. In contrast, “shallow work” refers to low-value, often reactive tasks—emails, meetings, and minor requests—that can dominate our day. Ask: What tasks or projects will drive the most value? By honing in on this question, we can dedicate specific periods for deep work, where we can focus on high-value tasks without distractions. For example, allocate mornings for uninterrupted deep work, like problem-solving or strategic planning, and reserve afternoons for shallow work, such as responding to emails or attending meetings. This builds momentum for high-value tasks while keeping necessary but low-impact tasks contained.
Recognize what you can realistically accomplish.
Often, when setting timelines, we have a fixed scope in mind. However, completing all the work within the time available may not be feasible. You have to decide whether sticking to the scope OR the timeline is more important to you. It’s often more useful to produce a finished output by prioritizing what’s important and eliminating things that cannot be completed within the time available. Focus on the completed version of the work that fits into the timeline rather than producing an incomplete version by trying to fit in too many things. Focus on what’s essential to the project while accepting that some things will be left out or deferred to later iterations.
Conclusion
Every day countless tasks are competing for our attention, and every task feels urgent. Time management isn’t about filling every moment with tasks; it’s about strategically using our time to achieve meaningful results. We have to decide what truly matters and invest time in those high-impact tasks. It’s a tool to focus on our most important goals. In a world where demands on our time are constantly increasing, learning to work smarter—not faster—is the key to sustained success.
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