There are all sorts of books, blog posts, white papers, YouTube videos and other sources that are claiming that time management as a discipline has become irrelevant. They are all dead wrong.
Usually the claim comes in the form of a statement;
“It’s not about time management…. it’s about ____________.”
What fills in the blank are things like energy management, life balance, prioritization, self management, etc.
The truth is, there is no such thing as time management in strict terms, due to the fact that time cannot be managed. It’s independent of our attempts to do anything other than observe it. What we commonly call time management is closer to “action management” in which we make decisions about what to do at any point in time. This is, however, beside the point.
The fact is, there is no escaping the management of ones actions in time. It’s a fundamental part of being effective as a working professional who has 24 hours each day, and more demands than can be completed in a human lifetime. Time management is part and parcel of producing results in business and its essential that professionals have the right skills in order to meet their obligations at each point in their careers.
To overlook these skills is to have tasks fall through the cracks, email Inboxes overflow, stress levels to build, physical clutter to accumulate, deadlines to be missed and meetings to start late. Dealing with these problems are mostly a matter of mechanics, which time management is uniquely equipped to deal with.