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How to Manage Your Time Better When Workplace Anxiety Is Eating Your Lunch

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Right, so I'm sitting in my car outside a client's office in Parramatta last month, and I've got exactly seven minutes before I need to walk in and pretend I've got my life together. My hands are doing that weird shaky thing they do when I've had too much coffee and not enough sleep, my mind's racing through seventeen different scenarios of how this meeting could go sideways, and I'm honestly wondering if I should just drive home and become a hermit.

Sound familiar?

Here's the thing about workplace anxiety that nobody talks about in those glossy corporate wellness seminars: it doesn't just make you feel rubbish. It absolutely destroys your ability to manage time effectively. And when you can't manage time, everything else falls apart like a house of cards in a cyclone.

I've been running my own consultancy for nearly two decades now, and I can tell you that the intersection between anxiety and time management is where careers go to die. But it's also where they can be completely transformed if you know what you're doing.

The Real Problem Nobody Wants to Acknowledge

Most time management advice treats anxiety like it's just another distraction you can schedule around. "Just prioritise better!" they say. "Use the Pomodoro Technique!"

Complete bollocks.

When your brain is stuck in fight-or-flight mode, traditional time management strategies work about as well as an umbrella in a bushfire. Your prefrontal cortex – the bit responsible for planning and decision-making – basically goes offline. You're trying to organise your day while your amygdala is screaming that everything is an emergency.

I learned this the hard way during my first major project disaster back in 2009. Had a massive retail rollout planned for a client in Melbourne, everything mapped out beautifully on paper. But the anxiety about potential failures meant I spent three weeks checking and rechecking details that were already perfect, while completely ignoring the actual problem areas.

Result? We missed our launch date by six weeks, and I nearly lost the contract.

The breakthrough came when I stopped fighting the anxiety and started working with it. Sounds counterintuitive, but bear with me.

The 73% Solution (And Why Most People Get This Wrong)

Research shows that 73% of workplace anxiety stems from uncertainty about outcomes we can't control. But here's what most people miss: the remaining 27% comes from uncertainty about outcomes we absolutely can control – we just don't realise it.

That second category is pure gold for time management.

When you're anxious about a presentation next week, sure, you can't control how the audience will react. But you can control how prepared you are, what backup plans you have, and how you structure your preparation time. The trick is identifying which pieces of your anxiety puzzle actually have solutions.

I started something I call "anxiety auditing" with my clients. Sounds fancy, but it's just writing down everything that's making you feel panicky, then ruthlessly categorising them into "can control" and "can't control" columns.

The can't control stuff? You acknowledge it exists and move on. The can control stuff becomes your actual to-do list.

Revolutionary? Hardly. Effective? Absolutely.

The Melbourne Method (Because Everything Needs a Name)

One of my clients – let's call her Sarah because that's actually her name and she's brilliant – runs operations for a major logistics company in Melbourne. Classic perfectionist, brilliant at her job, but completely paralysed by the fear of missing something important.

Sarah's anxiety was creating what I call "time inflation." Every task expanded to fill whatever time she allocated, plus about 40% extra for worrying about whether she'd done it right. A 30-minute report became a 2-hour ordeal. A quick team check-in stretched to 90 minutes because she'd prepared for every possible question they might ask, including ones they'd never think of.

Here's what we implemented, and it changed everything:

The 60/40 Rule: For any anxiety-inducing task, spend 60% of your allocated time doing the actual work, and 40% on a structured worry session. Yes, you read that right. We scheduled her anxiety.

During the worry time, Sarah would write down every possible thing that could go wrong, then create contingency plans for the realistic scenarios and acknowledge the unrealistic ones.

Sounds mad, but it worked because anxiety hates being ignored. Give it dedicated time and space, and it stops hijacking your productive hours.

Why Traditional Time Blocking Fails Anxious People

Everyone loves time blocking. "Just put everything in your calendar!" they say. "Schedule your priorities!"

But when you're dealing with workplace anxiety, rigid time blocks become psychological pressure cookers. Miss one block, and suddenly your entire day feels ruined. Your brain starts catastrophising about the domino effect, and you're paralysed again.

Instead, I teach what I call "flexible scaffolding." You create loose time boundaries with built-in buffer zones and alternative pathways.

For example, instead of "Write quarterly report: 9 AM - 11 AM," try "Report writing session 1: 9 AM - 10:30 AM, Buffer: 10:30 AM - 11 AM, Alternative session 2: 2 PM - 3:30 PM if needed."

This approach acknowledges that anxious brains need escape routes. When you know there's a backup plan, you're less likely to need it.

The Confidence Paradox

Here's something that'll probably annoy half of you reading this: confidence isn't a prerequisite for good time management. It's a result of it.

I see so many people waiting until they feel confident before they start implementing proper time management systems. They think they need to sort out their anxiety first, then tackle their scheduling issues.

Wrong way around.

When you start managing your time in a way that actually works with your anxious brain instead of against it, confidence naturally follows. Every small success builds evidence that you can handle whatever comes next.

Companies like Atlassian and Canva have figured this out. Their internal time management training focuses on building systems that accommodate different cognitive styles, rather than forcing everyone into the same productivity mould. Smart approach.

The managing workplace anxiety training I've been running has shown similar results. When people stop treating their anxiety as a character flaw and start treating it as useful information about their work environment, everything shifts.

The Three-List System That Actually Works

Most to-do list systems fail because they don't account for energy fluctuations. When you're anxious, your energy levels aren't predictable. You might have laser focus for two hours, then feel completely drained for the next four.

Here's what works better:

High Energy List: Complex tasks that require deep thinking. Do these when you're feeling sharp.

Medium Energy List: Routine tasks that need attention but not creativity. Perfect for when you're functional but not firing on all cylinders.

Low Energy List: Administrative stuff you can do while your brain's in neutral. Email sorting, filing, basic data entry.

The genius is in having all three lists ready to go. When your energy crashes unexpectedly (which it will), you don't waste time figuring out what you can handle. You just switch lists.

I learned this from watching my mate Dave, who runs a plumbing business in Brisbane. On days when job stress was getting to him, he'd switch from complex installations to basic maintenance calls. Same skills, different cognitive load. Brilliant.

Why "Just Breathe" Isn't Enough

Don't get me wrong – breathing techniques, mindfulness, all that stuff has its place. But when you're staring at a deadline that's breathing down your neck like a hungry dingo, telling someone to "just breathe" is about as helpful as a chocolate teapot.

What actually works is what I call "tactical anxiety management." Instead of trying to eliminate anxiety, you harness it.

Anxiety creates urgency. Urgency can drive focus. The trick is channelling that energy into productive action instead of spinning your wheels.

When I feel that familiar anxiety spike, I don't fight it. I ask it: "What are you trying to tell me?" Usually, it's highlighting something genuinely important that needs attention. Sometimes it's just my brain being dramatic, but even then, the energy can be redirected.

Think of anxiety as a poorly calibrated smoke alarm. Sometimes there's actually a fire, sometimes it's just burnt toast. But the alarm itself isn't the problem – it's the inability to distinguish between the two scenarios.

The Perth Project (And Why Context Switching Is Your Enemy)

Had a project in Perth a few years back – major retail chain rolling out new customer service protocols across 40 stores. The regional manager, brilliant woman, but she was drowning in context switching.

Every time her phone buzzed with a store query, she'd drop whatever she was working on to address it. Sounds responsive, right? Customer-focused?

Actually, it was creating massive anxiety because she never felt like she was making progress on anything substantial. Her days were fragmented into tiny reactive chunks, and the big-picture planning never got done.

We implemented "batch processing" for communications. Specific times for checking emails, dedicated phone hours, and – this was crucial – auto-replies that set expectations about response times.

Within six weeks, her stress levels dropped dramatically, and the project actually finished ahead of schedule. Turns out, the stores didn't need instant responses as much as they needed consistent, thoughtful ones.

This is where time management training really pays dividends. Learning to protect your cognitive resources isn't selfish – it's strategic.

The Feedback Loop Nobody Talks About

Here's the thing most productivity gurus miss: workplace anxiety and poor time management create a vicious cycle that feeds on itself.

Bad time management leads to missed deadlines and last-minute rushes. Those create stress and anxiety. Anxiety impairs decision-making and planning ability. Poor planning leads to worse time management.

Round and round we go.

Breaking this cycle requires intervention at multiple points, not just "better planning." You need to address the anxiety symptoms AND the time management systems simultaneously.

I've seen people transform their entire careers by recognising this connection. One client went from chronic overwhelm to running her own successful marketing agency in Perth, simply by implementing systems that worked with her anxious tendencies instead of against them.

The Imperfect Action Principle

Perfectionism and anxiety are best mates. They hang out together, reinforce each other's worst habits, and convince you that anything less than flawless execution is complete failure.

But perfectionism is a time management killer. It turns 30-minute tasks into 3-hour ordeals and creates paralysis around anything important.

The antidote isn't lowering your standards – it's understanding that "good enough to ship" and "completely finished" are different things. You can always iterate and improve, but you can't improve something that doesn't exist yet.

I started applying this to my own business planning. Instead of spending weeks crafting the perfect project proposal, I'd create a solid draft and schedule specific times for refinement. The first version was never the final version, but it existed, which meant we could actually move forward.

This approach has saved me literally hundreds of hours over the years, and more importantly, it's reduced the anxiety associated with starting new projects.

The Adelaide Revelation

Sometimes the biggest breakthroughs come from the most unexpected places. I was running a workshop in Adelaide – lovely city, terrible airport – and one of the participants shared something that changed how I think about workplace anxiety entirely.

She said: "I used to think anxiety was my brain being dramatic. Turns out, it was my brain being realistic about a genuinely toxic work environment."

Boom.

Sometimes workplace anxiety isn't a personal failing that needs to be managed – it's valuable information about systemic problems that need to be addressed. If your time management struggles are rooted in unrealistic expectations, poor communication systems, or genuinely overwhelming workloads, no amount of personal optimisation will fix the underlying issues.

This is why companies that invest in proper emotional intelligence training for their management teams see such dramatic improvements in overall productivity. It's not just about individual coping strategies – it's about creating environments where good time management is actually possible.

What This Means for You (The Practical Bit)

Right, enough theory. Here's what you actually do starting tomorrow:

Map your energy patterns for one week. Note when you feel sharp, when you feel scattered, and when you feel completely cooked. Don't try to change anything yet – just observe.

Create your three-list system based on these energy levels. Be honest about what you can handle when you're running on fumes.

Implement the 60/40 rule for one anxiety-inducing task. See what happens when you give your worry time dedicated space instead of letting it hijack your entire day.

Practice flexible scaffolding instead of rigid time blocking. Build in buffers and alternatives.

Most importantly, stop treating anxiety as the enemy. It's not. It's information. Sometimes accurate, sometimes not, but always worth listening to before you decide what to do with it.

The goal isn't to eliminate workplace anxiety – that's neither realistic nor necessarily desirable. The goal is to develop systems that work effectively even when anxiety is present.

Because let's be honest, if you're doing anything worthwhile in your career, anxiety is going to be part of the package. Might as well learn to work with it instead of against it.

And if all else fails, remember what my old mentor used to say: "The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now."

Same applies to fixing your time management. You can't change the systems that weren't working last year, but you can absolutely change what happens next week.

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