Why Traditional Time Management is Dead (and what to do instead)

Happy Thursday, Reader

You don’t have a time problem.

You have an energy problem disguised as a to-do list.

I speak to a number of founders on a regular basis, and I’ve found that every time management system out there seems to fail eventually.

People either get burnt out, fall into old loops, or self-sabotage.

I then looked at my own work,

how am I able to remain consistent with my output,

despite not using traditional systems?

I realized, you could plan every minute of your day, wake up at 5AM, and still feel behind - why?

Because time means nothing if the energy behind it is depleted, scattered, or misaligned.

You don’t burn out because you don’t have enough time.

You burn out because you’re spending your energy in ways that don’t replenish you.

Most productivity advice assumes you’re a machine; it doesn’t take into account the millions of micro actions you take daily that affect your mental state and energetic baseline.

For example: The food you ate yesterday, the movie you watched, the song you listened to...

The truth is you’re a biological and emotional organism with peaks and valleys, cognitive sprints and emotional crashes.

And that's okay.

These things seem trivial, but in fact, compound and affect your baseline energy, and therefore your productivity.

If I’ve learnt anything from working 1-1 with high-level founders,

it’s that humans don’t run on time.

We run on energy, emotion, attention, and meaning.

And the truth is, not all hours are created equal.

1 hour of focused, emotionally aligned energy is worth more than 5 hours of drained, distracted output.

All gain in life comes from gathered consciousness

All loss in life comes from scattered consciousness

So your priority should be on tracking what ‘gathers’ your energy and doesn’t scatter it.

I designed a system you can use (steal this)

I call it: Energy Allocation.

I spoke about this at length

with NY Times Best Seller Sahil Bloom Here...

But essentially, it means structuring your day around your:

Cognitive peaks and dips

Emotional bandwidth

Creative rhythms

Energetic sensitivities

When you make this shift, it’s no longer about tracking every minute of the day,

but rather mastering momentum and allocating tasks according to your energy at the time.

The Framework

Track your energy, not just your tasks

For 3 days, rate your energy levels (1-10) every 2–3 hours.

Notice your focus windows vs lazy zones.

For me, 7am-12pm is peak focus, 2-5pm, my energy dips.
Identify task alignment

Use peak hours for creative + strategic work (I call these priority tasks - where you move the needle forward.)

Use mid-energy hours for admin or calls

Use low-energy hours for rest, recharge, or physical movement
Build energy anchors

Not habits, anchors that recharge you when you’re feeling low.

These could be:

Cold showers
Breathwork
Solitude
Nature Maxxing

In the book ‘how to make a few billon dollars’ the author describes a meditative practise that involves closing your eyes and allowing your consciousness to float in and out of your control and then deeply visualising scenarios that bring you joy.

Sounds woo-woo, but it works.

I get out of low energy ruts by moving, walking, speaking

(even if it’s just mentally)

See your energy is sensitive, and at all times

it is either being generated, depleted to maintained

this is the art of energy management.

Becoming conscious of what contributes and what subtracts

from your energy is a game of awareness.

But keep in mind - once you start playing, you can’t stop.

You can’t help but notice how environments, people, conversations and more affect you energetically.

This could become a burden, but a blessing nonetheless.

The highest performers don’t just protect their time.

They engineer their energy.

[I go into exactly how to do this at length here where I breakdown the time mastery framework used by 8 figure creators]

They know momentum isn’t built through force,

it’s channeled through rhythm.

Time is a static measurement. Energy is the real currency.

The question isn’t “How much time do I have today?”

It’s:

“What’s the best use of my energy today?”

Awareness → Alignment → Action

Awareness of your current state,
Alignment between task + energy type
Action taken only when the energy matches the intention

It’s not about working harder. It’s about managing the source.

P.S - This is part of the Time Mastery module inside The Conscious Co-Creator -

my system for rewiring your mind, habits, and internal state to break out of old loops and build a life that actually fits your soul.

If you’re tired of burnout cycles and want to upgrade how you live, create, and lead,

I walk my 1-1 clients through this and much more so they can see real results in their business and life just like Bara did and immediately landed a 6-figure contract.