@barta0160337
Profile
Registered: 1 month, 3 weeks ago
Time Management Skills Training for Remote Workers and Freelancers
What I know about Time Management
Right, I've been banging on about this for the majority of two decades now and half the businesses I consult with still have their people rushing about like crazy people. Just last month, I'm sitting in this impressive office tower in Sydney's CBD watching a manager frantically jump between seventeen different browser tabs while trying to explain why their monthly goals are in tatters. Honestly.
The bloke's got three phones going off, Slack notifications going nuts, and he's genuinely amazed when I suggest maybe just maybe this method isn't working. This is 2025, not 1995, yet we're still treating time management like it's some complex dark art instead of basic workplace skill.
Here's what gets my goat though. Half the Business owner I meet reckons their people are "simply chaotic" or "lack the right attitude." Complete nonsense. Your team isn't faulty your systems are. And nine times out of ten, it's because you've never attempted teaching them how to actually handle their time well.
The Real Cost Nobody Wants to Talk About
Let me tell you about Rebecca from this creative studio in Perth. Sharp as a tack, really gifted. Could make magic happen with clients and had more innovative solutions than you could poke a stick at. But bloody hell, watching her work was like observing a car crash in progress.
She'd start her day reading emails for ages. Then she'd tackle this huge project brief, get halfway through, remember she had to phone a client, get distracted by someone dropping by, start working on a different campaign, realise she'd forgotten about a meeting, rush off that, come back to her desk absolutely fried. This pattern for the entire day.
The worst bit? This woman was pulling sixty hour weeks and feeling like she was getting nowhere. Her stress levels was off the charts, her work standard was inconsistent, and she was thinking about leaving the industry for something "easier." Meanwhile, her coworker Tom was cruising through identical projects in standard hours and always seemed to have time for casual chat.
Why was Dave succeeding between Sarah and Dave? Dave understood something most people never figure out time isn't something that happens to you, it's something you manage. Sounds obvious when you think about it, right?
The Truth About Effective Time Management
Before you start thinking and think I'm about to pitch you another digital solution or some elaborate framework, hold on. Real time management isn't about having the perfect digital setup or colour coding your schedule like a rainbow threw up on it.
It's about understanding three fundamental things that most training programs consistently ignore:
Rule one Focus isn't shared. Sure, I know that's poor English, but hear me out. At any given moment, you've got one main thing. Not several, not three, one. The moment you start handling "priorities," you've already missed the point. Discovered this the tough way operating a consultancy back in Adelaide during the infrastructure push. Thought I was being smart managing fifteen "critical" projects together. Almost destroyed the Business into the ground trying to be universally helpful.
Point two Distractions aren't inevitable, they're controllable. This is where most Australian businesses get it absolutely wrong. We've created this culture where being "accessible" and "quick" means reacting every time someone's device beeps. Friend, that's not effectiveness, that's mindless reactions.
Had a client this law firm on the Sunshine Coast where the owners were proud that they answered emails within half an hour. Proud! In the meantime, their productivity were falling, client work was taking much more time as it should, and their solicitors looked like zombies. Once we created sensible email rules shock horror both output and client satisfaction increased.
The final point Your vitality isn't steady, so quit acting like it is. This is my favourite topic, probably because I spent most of my younger years trying to ignore energy dips with more caffeine. News flash: made things worse.
Some tasks need you sharp and concentrated. Different work you can do when you're tired. Yet most people distribute work throughout their day like they're some sort of efficiency machine that functions at full power. Absolutely mental.
Programs That Deliver Results
Here's where I'm going to upset some people. Most time management training is total waste. Someone needed, I said it. It's either overly academic all frameworks and matrices that look fancy on PowerPoint but fall apart in the actual workplace or it's fixated on software and platforms that become just one more task to handle.
Effective approaches is training that recognises people are complicated, businesses are constantly changing, and perfect systems don't exist. My most successful course I've ever conducted was for a team of builders in Cairns. This crew didn't want to learn about the Time Management Quadrant or complex frameworks.
What they needed practical strategies they could use on a construction site where things change every few minutes.
So we concentrated on three straightforward principles: cluster related activities, guard your best thinking time for critical tasks, and learn to refuse commitments without shame about it. Nothing earth shattering, nothing fancy. Half a year down the track, their job finishing statistics were up thirty percent, overtime costs had dropped significantly, and worker wellbeing issues had almost completely vanished.
Compare that to this high end advisory Company in Brisbane that spent serious money on comprehensive time management software and complex workflow processes. Eighteen months later, half their team still wasn't implementing the tools correctly, and the other half was spending more time managing their productivity tools than actually being productive.
Why Most Businesses Get This Wrong
It's not that managers fail to understand the value of effective scheduling. Most do. Where things go wrong is they approach it like a one size fits all solution. Put the whole team through identical programs, give them all the same tools, anticipate consistent outcomes.
Absolute nonsense.
I remember this manufacturing Company in Newcastle that hired my services because their supervisors were constantly behind schedule. The CEO was convinced it was a training issue get the section leaders some efficiency education and everything would sort itself out.
What we discovered was the real problem was that head office kept changing priorities without warning, the production planning system was about as useful as a chocolate teapot, and the floor managers lost significant time in sessions that were better suited to with a brief chat.
No amount of efficiency education wasn't going to fix systemic dysfunction. We ended up overhauling their information systems and creating sensible coordination methods before we even looked at individual efficiency development.
This is what drives me mental about so many Australian businesses. They want to fix the symptoms without addressing the underlying disease. Your people can't handle their schedules efficiently if your organisation doesn't respect time as a valuable resource.
A Sydney Eye Opener
Talking about Company time consciousness, let me tell you about this software Company in Sydney that fundamentally altered my understanding on what's possible. Small team, maybe twenty people, but they operated with a level of efficiency mindset that put major companies to shame.
All discussions included a specific outline and a firm conclusion deadline. People actually turned up prepared instead of treating gatherings as idea workshops. Communication wasn't managed like texting. And here's the kicker they had a business wide understanding that unless it was truly critical, business messages ended at six.
Revolutionary? Hardly. But the results were extraordinary. Team productivity was higher than any similar sized Company I'd worked with. Employee retention was practically zero. And Customer happiness ratings were through the roof because the work quality was consistently excellent.
The CEO's approach was straightforward: "We hire smart people and expect them to organise their tasks. Our job is to create an environment where that's actually possible."
Consider the difference from this resource sector business in the Pilbara where supervisors flaunted their excessive hours like badges of honour, discussions exceeded timeframes as a matter of course, and "critical" was the normal designation for everything. Despite having considerably larger budgets than the tech Company, their per employee productivity was roughly half the level.
If you loved this write-up and you would like to acquire far more data relating to Time Management For New Leaders kindly check out our web-site.
Website: https://achievementwise.bigcartel.com/my-thoughts
Forums
Topics Started: 0
Replies Created: 0
Forum Role: Participant