Why Time Management Doesn't Work — And How My Team Doubled Their Productivity Once I Started Doing This Instead Time management is killing your productivity – here's why and what you need to do to increase your productivity instead.

Time management has been a productivity buzzword in the workplace for decades. Since the industrial revolution, people have been trying to find ways to maximize their output and efficiency, by focusing on the clock.

As a successful business owner since 2008, I did everything I could to maximize productivity and encouraged my team to manage their time. I implemented tactics like instilling a 4-day workweek, hoping it would help my team manage their time better. They loved the shorter weeks, but we found that they still felt like they were in a constant state of racing the clock.

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Time management is killing your productivity

In the midst of the major shifts I made for my business during the pandemic, I noticed a huge side effect: we were all actually more productive. It wasn't working remotely — it was that I loosened up my tight grip on schedules and time cards. I stopped worrying about the number of hours team members worked and placed more emphasis on the quality of the work.

I shifted from being time-oriented to being task-oriented. And that changed everything.

The funny thing is: humans are actually designed to not focus on the clock. I recently gave an Oxford Talk sharing how time management is an outdated model that actually makes us shockingly unproductive.

Why focusing on the clock doesn't work

For thousands of years, our ancestors measured time by the sun, moon and seasons. Without electricity, we worked in rhythm with nature and the seasonal shifts in available daylight hours. Because of this, work was task-oriented — the focus was primarily on getting the job done (and getting it done extraordinarily well). For most of our history, humans have had a harmonious relationship with time.

All of that shifted, though, with the rise of the Industrial Revolution. We began prioritizing punctuality, time management and efficiency. Time became a commodity to be measured and managed.

Workers were expected to align their schedules with the frenzied pace of the factory machines. The rigid 40-hour workweek introduced a mere 100 years ago, required pushing back on thousands of years of evolution. It's no surprise that this has led to burnout, stress and even a lack of productivity.

In today's fast-paced and dynamic business environment, it is becoming increasingly clear that time-oriented ways of working are no longer effective. We need to move away from the obsession with time and focus instead on the quality and impact of our work.

Related: You Should Let Your Team Decide Their Approach to Hybrid Work. A Behavioral Economist Explains Why and How You Should Do It.

A new model for work and productivity

Returning to the task-oriented work model is a more effective approach to productivity —especially when integrated with clear deadlines. This modern hybrid approach creates a more flexible and adaptable way of working that allows for creativity, collaboration and innovation.

To implement the task-oriented approach, business leaders should put an emphasis on outcomes rather than time. Instead of focusing on the number of hours worked or tasks completed, focus on the results they want to achieve. When consulting with businesses, I've found there are a few key shifts any leader can do to move to a more task-focused work culture, making everyone on their team more productive:

Set clear goals for projects

With task-oriented work, it's important to communicate what success looks like and what outcomes they are hoping to achieve. This helps to give employees a clear sense of purpose and direction. One of my favorite ways of doing this is by creating a project charter when setting quarterly objectives and goals.

A project charter helps delineate jobs and creates an outline so all team members understand their roles and responsibilities within the scope of the project. During an initial kick-off meeting, the charter is created to outline the scope of work and clearly define what success looks like.

Leaders need to set clear measurable metrics for success and track progress towards those metrics. This allows your team to see the impact of their work and make data-driven decisions. By having a clearly defined finish line all team members understand expectations and desired results, eliminating confusion and wasted resources.

Create OKRs in addition to KPIs

When it comes to metrics, one of the most important (and yet most neglected) metrics is for individual team members. Too often Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are set during the initial job transition and never revisited or revised. Have your team revisit their KPIs to see if the outcomes outlined are focused on results — not time.

Make sure to connect the quality of their work to job performance. Too often KPIs are tied to seat-filling activities that don't actually drive performance. Seat fillers are a job for Hollywood award shows — not your business.

KPIs are great for measuring day-to-day job success, but when it comes to quarterly initiatives, consider adding in some OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) that are tied to the success of specific projects and initiatives. I've found that, by having both — KPIs and OKRs — team members are very clear on what tasks need to be prioritized. This approach allows employees to take ownership of their work and empowers them to achieve great things.

Keep priorities the focus

I often tell business leaders that you cannot over-emphasize the current priorities for the business. Too often a quarterly meeting is called four times a year, employees are gathered and new initiatives are introduced with no follow-up. And we wonder why team members are not aligned with company initiatives! Without constant connection points, it's easy for the team to feel disconnected from the bigger goals.

I instilled a regular Monday Momentum Meeting at 10 am every week for my team. This meeting is a quick snapshot of the progress we are making toward quarter goals. It's an intentionally short meeting with a streamlined agenda focused on revisiting the current initiatives and sharing progress. As a team, we rate each quarterly goal for progress made. Because this happens weekly, it ensures we are catching anything that might push us off track.

It also allows me time to provide feedback and support to make sure all my employees are doing work aligned with the priorities of the company. This type of check-in meeting should be no longer than 15 to 20 minutes and can happen through Zoom or Slack if team members are remote.

It's time to rethink time management and shift towards a task-oriented approach. By prioritizing the quality of our work and empowering team members to take ownership of their tasks, we can achieve better outcomes. Let's create a work environment that supports deep work, communicate priorities and celebrates successes. Let go of time management and choose to focus on quality - that's you build stronger, more productive teams.