When Frederick Taylor conducted his time and motion studies back in the early 1900s to boost productivity in the steel industry, little did he know that he was planting the seed for a modern-day obsession with efficiency. Fast forward to today, and many of us are caught in this never-ending race to do more, achieve more… but to what end?
In our current world, managing information is vital. Yet, the sheer volume of information we receive in just one day now would have been unimaginable a century ago. With this deluge of data, it’s no wonder that time management has become a buzzword, with the average person juggling up to 13 different methods just to stay on top of their to-do list. And still, we often find ourselves not quite hitting the mark.
Google it!
A quick Google search for “time management” yields over 13 billion results in less than a second. That’s 13 billion pieces of advice, 101 best practices, top 10/20/30 steps, and countless “one-size-fits-all” solutions. Let’s not even get started on the shiny AI tools that promise to save us time but often end up as distractions themselves.
We’re bombarded with courses, classes, tips, and tricks that can leave us feeling overwhelmed—and sometimes even like failures—because the systems designed for someone else’s brain just don’t work for us. It’s exhausting trying to keep up.
So, how’s all of this working out for you?
What’s often overlooked in the time management conversation is you. Your unique brain, your experiences, your values, and how they all shape your relationship with time. This is what I call your ‘Time Personality’—a mix of your upbringing, culture, successes, failures, and the quirks of your executive functions.
Executive Function and Time Management
Executive functions are the mental skills that help us manage daily life. They include working memory, flexible thinking, organisation, and self-control. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses in these areas, and when it comes to time management—prioritising, predicting, sequencing, transitioning, and readjusting—these weaknesses can show up in different ways.
Maybe you’re someone with a sharp sense of time, or maybe it’s more of a blur. Perhaps you’re great at starting projects but struggle to finish them. Or maybe you’re a night owl trying to function in a world built for morning larks. We all have our own rhythms, our own tolerance for consequences, and our own ways of dealing with time.
Remember the famous marshmallow experiment? Our ability to delay gratification plays a big role in prioritising, and it’s different for everyone. Procrastination, that familiar foe, often comes from something deeper—fear, boredom, or even ADHD. Understanding what drives your behaviour is key to finding a strategy that works for you.
Mindset is everything. How you view your tasks, how you perceive time, and how you handle the consequences of your approach all come into play. The typical “10 steps to being a time management superstar” won’t account for any of this.
If you want to accomplish everything on your list and feel good about it, you need a system that works with your brain, not against it.
Working with your brain
So, maybe it’s time to try a different 3 step approach. Here’s a simple process to finding a time management system that fits you:
- Mindset Shift
If your current way of doing things isn’t working, it’s time to introduce new information and change your thinking. Author Oliver Burkeman reminds us in 4000 Weeks: Time Management for Mortals that the average lifespan is just 80 years—or 4,000 weeks. We can’t do it all, so let’s stop trying. Instead, focus on what truly matters. Embrace the idea of a fixed volume approach to productivity. Limit your work in progress, create a “not to do” list, and decide in advance what you’re okay with letting slide. Maybe the lawn doesn’t need to be perfectly manicured after all.
- Get to Know Your Time Personality
Identify your weak links in executive functioning. What are your beliefs about time? When do you do your best work? Along the way, you’ll uncover your procrastination triggers, core values, and true needs.
- Create Your Time Management System
People often ask me, “What’s the best time management tool or strategy?” My answer is always, “For what purpose?” If you struggle with a sense of time, analogue clocks and countdown timers might be your best friends. If you have future myopia, visualisation could be the key. Easily distracted? Maybe you need to declutter your environment or use AI tools to block out distractions.
Your approach to time isn’t just about managing hours and minutes. It’s about managing your energy, honouring your values, and meeting your needs in a way that supports you. So, before you jump on the latest time management bandwagon, take a step back. Get to know your time personality. From there, you can start building a system that works with your unique brain wiring, allowing you to manage your time with ease and grace.
If you’re tired of trying to fit into someone else’s time management mould, why not uncover your own time personality? Join me for The Science of Time Management and start creating a system that works for you.
