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An honest look at time management through three practical lenses – systems, skills, and story – with examples, reflections, and permission to keep evolving your approach.

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Recently, I was invited to speak to a group of staff about time management. I had spoken to them previously on procrastination and clearly given them the impression that I was competent and capable (whoops!)

I was both excited and unsure about presenting on time management. You see, I’ve never formally presented on the topic. That space has mostly been held by our brilliant Student Learning Support Service (SLSS) (check out their time organisation guide here).

Still, I’ve been quietly collecting time-related resources and ideas for years, writing the occasional blog post, testing different strategies myself, and having lots of conversations with students and colleagues about how hard it can be to feel “on top” of time.

Here are some of the time-related posts I’ve shared along the way:

• Energy Management Instead of Time Management
• Some Musings About Time Management and Prioritisation
• Principles of Time Management

With the invitation to speak however, I needed to organise my thoughts better:

• What do I actually think about time management now?
• How do all these ideas fit together?

That question became the start of a bigger reflection, helped along by an extended back-and-forth with my silicon supervisor ChatGPT, in which we worked to organise the scattered tools, insights, and perspectives I’d gathered over time.

What emerged was suitable for my presentation but also seemed relevant to share here.

Basically, you can look at time management through at least three different lenses, each of which is associated with practical actions you can take.

 

📍 The Three Lenses of Time Management

[note: these are by no means the only lenses through which to view time management, but they’re the major ones I’ve encountered thus far]

 

📂 1. Build Better Systems for Processing Tasks

Your average modern study task (like writing an essay) involves a whole suite of steps: finding references, reading them, taking notes, organising those notes, drafting, editing, submitting. Each of these steps relies on tools and processes: library databases, Word docs, digital notebooks, reference managers, Canvas.

Running all these tools and processes takes time. And that’s just one task. You’re probably juggling several at once across different topics. Some of your systems might be humming along smoothly. Others might be clunky, outdated, or missing altogether.

This lens is about trialling, selecting, and refining the external processes and tools that help you get things done. It’s the intellectual equivalent of a carpenter investing in better tools and updating their workflows with the aims of saving time, reducing friction, and improving quality.

You’re not trying to change yourself here (although that might happen as a result). Instead the focus is on upgrading your workflows.

You’re answering the question: Could I make the doing of my work smoother or smarter?

Study-related examples include:

• Creating a checklist for essay writing or lab report stages so you don’t forget a step under pressure

• Using reference managers (like EndNote or Zotero) instead of manually formatting citations

• Scheduling all key assignment dates from your topic outlines into your calendar at the start of semester

• Batching similar tasks (e.g. doing all your discussion posts in one sitting, or replying to all uni emails in a block)

• Organising your notes by topic/module instead of by week (if it helps you revise more effectively)

• Reducing tab overload and app-hopping by keeping a focused workspace

• Developing templates for recurring assignments (like weekly reflections or practical write-ups)

 

🧠 2. Develop Internal Skills and Habits

This lens turns inward. Here, the focus is on how you manage aspects of yourself such as your energy, attention, emotions, habits, and strengths.

• Maybe you’re not sleeping well and your energy tanks by mid-afternoon.
• Maybe you say yes too often and don’t leave time for your own work.
• Maybe you procrastinate when a task feels overwhelming, or you freeze when things don’t feel perfect.

This part of time management is more personal and sometimes more confronting, because it involves acknowledging areas where we might need to grow as a person. But it’s also empowering as these are almost always skills you can learn and practise: focus, boundary-setting, emotion regulation, decision-making.

This lens also includes using your strengths strategically.

Maybe you’re highly creative and full of ideas, keeping a running ideas log could make future brainstorming faster and more focused.
Or maybe you’re a natural collaborator, blocking time with others could help you stay accountable and energised.

The key question here is: What internal patterns are helping or hindering how I use my time and how might I work with them more intentionally?

Study-related examples include:

• Realising that you procrastinate most when starting large tasks, so you use the “just 10 minutes” rule to get going

• Blocking out your best energy times for focus work (e.g. morning = readings; afternoon = emails or discussion posts)

• Setting limits on how long you’ll spend perfecting small tasks (e.g. “I’ll revise this paragraph for 20 minutes max”)

• Working on reducing task avoidance when you feel self-doubt (e.g. approaching a tutor instead of disappearing)

• Practising saying no to social plans when an assignment is due—but also saying no to guilt once it’s submitted

• Turning your creative strengths into reusable assets (e.g. using mind maps or drawing flowcharts for study)

• Noticing that you overcommit and actively checking “do I have capacity for this?” before saying yes

 

🔍 3. Reframe the Story

Sometimes, no new tool or tactic will help because the problem isn’t what you’re doing, but how you’re thinking about time in the first place.

This lens asks you to zoom out. To question some of your assumptions. To step back from the hustle and ask: What are the bigger forces shaping how I approach time?

For example:

• Maybe your to-do list feels impossible because it actually is – and what you need is not another hack, but permission to let go of perfection.

• Maybe you’re stuck trying to “get on top of things” when what you need is to reframe what “enough” looks like.

• Maybe you’re frustrated that tasks keep piling up but recognising that institutions and workplaces are designed to produce more work than you can finish might soften that frustration and prompt a prioritisation conversation instead.

This lens is about confronting the existential truths of time – that we only have so much of it, that we can’t do it all, and that trying to do it all often gets in the way of doing what matters most.

It’s uncomfortable at first. But it’s also liberating.
This is the lens where we trade anxiety for clarity, and where we begin to let go of the impossible standards we’ve absorbed from our surroundings.

The guiding question here might be: What expectations or beliefs about time are no longer serving me?

Study-related examples include:

• Letting go of the idea that you have to read everything—and choosing what will give you the best return

• Accepting that your study week may never feel fully “done”—and celebrating progress over perfection

• Recognising that comparing yourself to other students (who seem “ahead”) isn’t helping your focus

• Having conversations with your supervisor or topic coordinator when you need to re-negotiate deadlines

• Accepting that sometimes, you’ll need to prioritise rest over productivity—and that’s not laziness

• Understanding that doing uni part-time or at your own pace is a valid and strong choice

• Reframing uni as not just about academic achievement, but also personal growth and resilience

 

📊 What I’m Currently Using

Since starting in this job in 2017, I’ve become more mindful of my time management and productivity strategies. The strategies I use today pull from all three lenses. They help me stay focused, make peace with limits, and work in ways that feel sustainable. Here are some of the main ones:

• Daily goals + Outlook (calendar + to-dos): This helps me keep track of tasks, estimate how long things will take, and make clearer decisions about what’s most important at any given time.

• Accepting that I’ll never get to everything I want to do: I’ve had to make peace with the fact that many good ideas and projects won’t get developed. That acceptance makes it easier to focus on what I can progress.

• Reminding myself that time stress is systemic, not just personal: I work within a system that has its own structures, goals, and expectations. That system inevitably shapes how I spend my time. Recognising that helps me feel less personally responsible for every constraint I experience.

• Protecting my energy through lifestyle habits: I try to maintain a decent level of physical and mental health so that when I sit down to do work, I have enough fuel in the tank.

• Using change in location: When I notice myself getting stale in terms of productivity, I shift locations to mix things up. For example, today I am at the city campus.

• Working with my rhythms (I’m a morning person): I schedule deep or creative work in the mornings when I have more focus, and push administrative or social tasks to later in the day.

• Prioritising collaborative and social projects: I’ve found that the work that brings me the most satisfaction usually involves other people. So I tend to give more weight to collaborative projects when planning out my time.

• Having a personal work strategy or mission: I’ve written a short strategy that helps me align my efforts with both what the organisation needs from me and what I find meaningful. It acts like a compass, helping me focus on the activities that matter most. I’ve made it public in case others want to see how I’ve approached it:
  👉 My Work Strategy

Like many people, I haven’t found a single system that works forever. My time management practices shift as my workload, responsibilities, and energy levels shift. That’s not failure—that’s adaptation.

 

🛠️ Trial and Error (and a Bit of Grace)

It’s tough to say in advance which time management strategies or lenses will be the right fit for any one person. They’re highly context-specific. What works during one semester might not work the next. What works for your friend might feel awkward or useless for you.

So the best advice I can offer is this:

• Try a few things and maintain an experimental mindset

• Keep an open mind

• Check in with yourself regularly

• Adjust as needed

It’s an ongoing process of experimentation. There’s no gold standard, just gradual learning about how you best use your time in the context of your life.

I wish the advice could be more precise than that. But if you treat time management as a conversation (not a test), as a practice (not a performance), you’re much more likely to find something that works.

And if you’re feeling overwhelmed or stuck, don’t hesitate to reach out for support.

You can connect with SLSS (for academic challenges) or speak to someone at Flinders Counselling for more personal stuff.

You don’t have to figure it all out on your own.