Is It Time to Pivot from Time Management to Time Economics™?
When to pivot from time management to time economics.
Three questions to help you decide if your team’s productivity strategy needs a redesign.
In business, “pivoting” has become a familiar word. A recent article from Harvard Business Review explored how leaders are rethinking not just projects or products, but the very strategies guiding how their companies grow.
That same thinking applies to how we manage productivity.
For decades, we’ve been told that success depends on managing time; e.g., color-coded calendars, morning routines, and inbox optimization. Those tactics may have worked in a simpler era, but they no longer match the complexity or pace of today’s work.
Time is fixed.
What’s flexible—and what actually drives results—is how effort is used inside that time.
That’s the foundation of Time Economics™.
Question 1: Are you managing time or directing effort?
Time management is about control, fitting more into each hour. Time Economics is about allocation, directing effort where it creates the greatest return.
In my experience, most leaders don’t struggle because they lack systems; they struggle because their systems focus on managing hours instead of directing effort.
Ask yourself:
Am I investing my best effort into work that produces meaningful outcomes?
Do I end my day feeling accomplished or just depleted?
Does my team equate “being busy” with being effective?
Most leaders realize they’re managing their hours but not their effort, making them work reactively.
Question 2: Is your team moving faster or moving forward?
Speed and progress aren’t the same thing. Moving faster without direction just accelerates inefficiency.
I’ve witnessed, the leaders who struggle most with progress aren’t short on drive, they’re short on pause. They move at full speed but rarely step back to ask if their effort is creating real return.
That’s why I often teach what I call the 60-Second Rule, a brief pause before reacting, replying, or deciding. It’s a small habit that protects effort and directs effort toward better outcomes.
Ask yourself:
Are we pushing to do more, or pausing to decide what delivers the greatest return?
Does “urgent” drive your day more than future-focused work?
When deadlines are met, are we proud of the results or just relieved they’re done?
When effort is directed at speed, teams confuse motion with momentum.
Question 3: Have your productivity tools simplified work or created new costs?
We’ve layered on dashboards, apps, and AI helpers, yet work feels heavier. That’s because tools can’t fix effort misallocation; they often just make it more visible.
In my experience, many leaders assume more visibility means more control, but it often reveals a deeper issue, how much time is being misspent instead of invested.
Ask yourself:
Have new systems improved output, or simply reorganized the same workload?
Are meetings, emails, and alerts misspending more time than they save?
Does your team know what success looks like beyond “getting through the week”?
When tools manage time but not effort, productivity flatlines, no matter how sophisticated they are.
The Case for a Pivot
As Harvard Business Review points out, the smartest leaders know when it’s time to pivot. And right now, one of the most valuable pivots isn’t strategic or operational, it’s behavioral.
Shifting from time management to Time Economics™ doesn’t mean doing less. It means working in a way that gives effort a return, and gives time its true value.
Now What?
I’ve seen first-hand, leaders don’t need more time, they need better ways to direct the effort already available to them.
That’s the focus of my Time Economics Workshop. In one onsite session, teams learn to spot where time and effort are being overspent, incorrectly invested, or underleveraged, and redesign work so progress compounds instead of stalls.
Because in today’s world, success doesn’t come from controlling time, it comes from learning how to use effort inside it.
FAQ
-
Because time is fixed. Leaders can’t add more hours to a day, but they can redesign how effort flows through those hours. Time Management often leads to packed schedules; Time Economics™ helps leaders prioritize work that actually moves the business forward.
-
If your team is busy and overwhelmed, despite new tools, or consistently reactive, those are signs that Time Management alone isn’t working. These are strong indicators that a shift toward Time Economics™ would bring clarity and better outcomes.
-
The 60-Second Rule is a simple habit that supports Time Economics™. It helps executives pause before reacting, which protects time and ensures effort is directed where it makes the greatest impact. It’s a small behavior with a big return.
-
It gives executives and teams a clear view of where time and effort are being overspent, incorrectly invested, or underleveraged. Then, it guides them through a practical redesign of workflows, decisions, and collaboration so progress compounds instead of stalls.