Why Your Time Management Training Is Probably Making Things Worse (And What Actually Works)

The bloke in the corner office just forwarded me another email about "maximising productivity through strategic time allocation frameworks." I deleted it faster than a tourist crosses the road in Melbourne traffic.

After fifteen years watching companies throw money at time management consultants who peddle the same recycled nonsense, I've developed what you might call strong opinions about this industry. Most time management training is about as useful as a chocolate teapot, and here's why everyone's getting it wrong.

The fundamental problem? We're teaching people to manage time instead of teaching them to manage themselves.

I learned this the hard way back in 2019 when I was running workshops for a logistics company in Brisbane. Spent three days teaching their supervisors about priority matrices and time-blocking techniques. Six months later, their productivity hadn't budged. Know what did change? Their stress levels shot through the roof because now they felt guilty about not following the "system" perfectly.

Here's my first controversial opinion: most people don't need better time management - they need better decision-making skills. When you're crystal clear on what matters most, the time stuff sorts itself out. But try explaining that to a room full of managers who've been conditioned to believe that being busy equals being productive.

The real game-changer isn't another app or another planner. It's understanding your own energy patterns and working with them instead of against them. I'm a morning person - always have been. Yet I spent years forcing myself into afternoon meetings because that's when "important business" supposedly happens. Absolute madness.

Now, I know some of you are thinking, "But what about discipline? What about pushing through when you don't feel like it?" Fair point. But there's a difference between strategic discomfort and self-sabotage.

Let me share something that might surprise you: the most effective time management technique I've ever encountered isn't taught in any formal training program. It's called "productive procrastination," and it works like this - when you're avoiding one important task, use that avoidance energy to tackle a different important task. Instead of scrolling through social media, clean your email inbox. Instead of reorganising your desk for the third time this week, make those follow-up calls you've been putting off.

Weird how that works, isn't it?

The problem with traditional time management courses for leaders is they assume everyone's brain works the same way. They don't. Some people are linear thinkers who thrive on sequential task completion. Others are systems thinkers who need to see the big picture before they can focus on details. And then there are the chaos surfers - people who actually perform better under pressure and tight deadlines.

I remember working with a graphic designer who was constantly stressed about her "poor time management." Turns out she was trying to force herself into a rigid schedule when she actually did her best creative work in intensive bursts followed by periods of apparent "downtime." Once we adjusted her approach to honour this natural rhythm, her output improved by roughly 40% and her stress levels plummeted.

Here's where things get interesting - and this is my second controversial opinion - some level of messiness and inefficiency is actually necessary for innovation and creativity. Those "unproductive" moments when your mind wanders? That's often when breakthrough ideas emerge. But good luck explaining that to a CFO who's obsessed with billable hours.

The companies that get this right understand that time management isn't about squeezing every second of productivity out of their people. It's about creating conditions where good work can happen naturally. Google famously lets their engineers spend 20% of their time on personal projects. Sounds wasteful until you realise Gmail and AdSense came out of those "wasted" hours.

Now, I'm not suggesting we abandon all structure and planning. That would be equally ridiculous. What I'm saying is that effective time management is deeply personal, and any training program that doesn't acknowledge this is setting people up for failure.

The most practical advice I can give you? Start by tracking your energy levels throughout the day for a week. Not your time - your energy. Notice when you feel sharp and focused versus when you feel sluggish and scattered. Then design your schedule around these natural patterns instead of fighting them.

For instance, I've discovered that I make terrible decisions after 3 PM. Knowing this, I schedule all my important meetings and strategic thinking sessions for the morning. Afternoons are for routine tasks, email, and administrative work that doesn't require peak mental performance.

Another thing that drives me nuts about standard time management training is the obsession with eliminating all interruptions. Sometimes interruptions are the most important part of your day. If you're a manager and someone on your team needs urgent help, that's not a distraction from your "real work" - that IS your real work.

The key is learning to distinguish between productive interruptions and time-wasting ones. A colleague dropping by to discuss a project roadblock? That's valuable. The same colleague wanting to chat about last night's footy match for the third time this week? Maybe less so.

I've noticed that the people who struggle most with time management are often perfectionists who get paralysed by the gap between their ideal schedule and reality. They spend more time planning and reorganising their systems than actually using them. If this sounds like you, try the "good enough" approach for a week. Instead of the perfect colour-coded calendar system, just write things down on paper. Instead of optimising every minute, focus on completing your three most important tasks each day.

You might be surprised how much more you accomplish when you stop trying to optimise everything.

One more thing that really bugs me: the assumption that being busy equals being important. I've worked with executives who wear their packed schedules like badges of honour, as if having back-to-back meetings somehow proves their value to the organisation. Meanwhile, the most effective leaders I know protect their time fiercely and say no to everything that doesn't align with their core priorities.

Warren Buffett supposedly keeps his calendar almost empty so he can think clearly about important decisions. But somehow we've created a business culture where empty calendar space is seen as laziness rather than strategic thinking time.

If you're serious about improving your relationship with time, start by getting clear on your actual priorities - not the ones you think you should have, but the ones that genuinely matter to you and your organisation. Everything else is just busy work dressed up as productivity.

And please, for the love of all that's holy, stop buying productivity apps every time you feel overwhelmed. The problem isn't your tools; it's your approach. Focus on the fundamentals first, then worry about optimisation later.

The best employee communication training I've seen always includes a module on time boundaries - how to communicate your availability clearly and how to respect others' time constraints. Because ultimately, time management is as much about managing relationships and expectations as it is about managing tasks.

Look, I could go on, but you've probably got better things to do with your time. The point is this: stop looking for the perfect system and start working with your natural tendencies. Stop trying to be productive every minute and start being strategic about when and how you apply your energy.

And if you're running time management training in your organisation, please consider focusing on principles rather than rigid systems. Teach people how to think about time and priorities, not which app to download or which planner to buy.

Trust me, your people will thank you for it. And their actual productivity might even improve in ways that show up in personal productivity training evaluations rather than just fancy spreadsheets.

Because at the end of the day, time management isn't about managing time at all. It's about making conscious choices about where to direct your attention and energy. Everything else is just window dressing.