How to Stop Managing Time and Start Collapsing It

A solopreneur's guide to thinking beyond the clock

There’s a peculiar thing about time that nobody talks about… It's not really scarce.

I learned this while studying Charlie Parker.

The jazz legend would practice the saxophone for 11-15 hours a day, completely absorbed in the music. Fellow musicians would find him in dark basement clubs at 3 AM, still playing, sweat dripping from his brow.

When they'd ask how long he'd been there, he'd look genuinely confused. "I just got here", he'd say, even though he'd been playing for eight hours straight.

But when he tried to sit through a business meeting about record contracts, twenty minutes felt like agony. He'd fidget, check his watch, and tap his fingers impatiently. Same man, same brain, same hands.

Completely different relationship with time.

Time isn't the variable. Your relationship with what you're doing is.

Charlie Parker doing his thing.

Think about the last time you were completely absorbed in something you loved. Maybe you were writing, coding, designing, or having a deep conversation. Hours collapsed into what felt like minutes. You produced more in that flow state than in entire days of "productive" busy work.

Now think about the last time you were doing something you dreaded. A difficult phone call, tedious administrative work, or confronting a problem you'd been avoiding. Minutes stretched into eternity.

Time is relative, both scientifically AND experientially speaking.

Your brain doesn't experience time linearly. MIT neuroscientist Dr. Ann Graybiel's research shows that different brain regions process time differently.

When you're fully engaged, your prefrontal cortex, the part that's constantly monitoring time, quiets down. This creates what researchers call "flow state".

This is powerful. And once you understand it, you can work with it instead of against it.

Why Traditional Time Management Fails

I spent years trying to manage time like it was a finite resource to be allocated. Fifteen minutes here, thirty minutes there. I'd slice my day into neat little boxes, believing that if I just organized my time better, I'd somehow become more productive.

But time isn't a resource you can save or spend. It's a dimension of experience. And the quality of that experience depends entirely on your state of consciousness.

Every minute you spend "managing" time is a minute you're not spending creating value.

When you say "I don't have time", what you really mean is "This isn't important enough to me right now". We find time for what we really want to do.

I had to face this about myself. I was using time management as a sophisticated form of procrastination.

I was organizing my avoidance.

Thinking in Energy Units

This is where everything shifted for me. Instead of thinking in time blocks, I started thinking in energy units.

Every task you do costs energy. Some tasks are energy vampires… they drain you completely. Others are energy multipliers… they leave you more energized than when you started.

Let me give you an example. A fifteen-minute email might cost you 1 energy unit. A fifteen-minute difficult conversation with a client might cost you 5 energy units. Same time investment, completely different energy cost.

This is why you can spend an entire day in meetings and feel like you've been hit by a truck, or write for six hours and feel like you could conquer the world.

Why You Feel Exhausted All the Time

Your brain uses 20% of your body's energy despite being only 2% of your body weight. Every decision you make depletes this finite resource through what psychologists call "ego depletion".

Dr. Roy Baumeister's research shows that willpower operates like a muscle. It gets fatigued with use. The reason you feel mentally exhausted after a day of "nothing" is because your brain has been making thousands of micro-decisions.

Think about your morning routine. You wake up and immediately start making decisions:

• What should I wear?

• What should I eat for breakfast?

• Should I check my phone?

• Which emails should I respond to first?

• What should I work on today?

By 9 AM, you've already burned through precious mental energy on decisions that don't move your business forward.

How I Started Thinking in Energy Units

Let me show you exactly how I shifted from time management to energy optimization.

Step 1: The Energy Audit

I tracked not just what I did, but how much energy each activity cost me. I used a simple scale:

• 1 unit: Mindless tasks (filing, organizing, scrolling, routine data entry)

• 2 units: Routine tasks (standard emails, basic admin, scheduled calls)

• 3 units: Focused work (writing, designing, analysis)

• 4 units: Creative work (strategy, problem-solving, content creation)

• 5 units: High-stakes work (client presentations, difficult negotiations, major decisions)

I also tracked activities that gave me energy back. Exercise. Deep conversations. Time in nature. Certain types of creative work.

Certain activities can actually restore mental energy by increasing BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor) and reducing cortisol. You need to identify what these are for you.

Step 2: Mapping My Energy Patterns

I noticed that I had the most energy in the first 2-3 hours after waking up. This is what chronobiologists call "peak circadian alertness". But I also discovered subtler patterns.

I was more confident after exercise. More creative after long walks. More analytical before lunch. More strategic in the evening when my analytical mind was tired, but my pattern recognition was still sharp.

Your energy signature is as unique as your fingerprint. Stop trying to fit into someone else's productivity system.

Step 3: Energy Matching

I started matching my highest-energy times to my highest-value activities. Never use a 5-unit energy state on a 1-unit task.

The L.E.A.P. Framework

Once I understood energy units, I needed a system to optimize them. That's when I developed L.E.A.P.:

L - Leverage: Finding Your 10X Activities

I asked myself: What activities create outsized results?

For me, it was:

• Writing content that worked while I slept

• Having conversations that led to multiple opportunities

• Building systems that operated without my constant input

• Learning skills that enhanced each other

The leverage test I use: If I did this activity perfectly for a year, would it fundamentally change my life/business?

If the answer is no, I'm probably optimizing the wrong thing.

E - Eliminate: The Courage to Disappoint

This was the hardest part for me. I had to eliminate activities that seemed important but created no real value.

The test I use: If I stopped doing this activity for a month, would it greatly affect me?

If the answer is no, I eliminate it. If the answer is "maybe", I eliminate it. I only keep what would cause real problems if removed.

But I also learned that elimination isn't just about tasks. It's also about eliminating ways of being that don't serve you.

I had to eliminate:

• The need to be perfect (there aren’t many things out there that will slow your growth like trying to be perfect)

• The need to please everyone (It’s 100% impossible to please everyone)

• The need to stay busy to feel valuable (motion isn't progress. Remember that)

Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is absolutely nothing.

A - Automate: Building Your Freedom Machine

I started thinking of automation not just as technology, but as systems thinking. Could I create a process that handled tasks without my direct involvement?

I automated:

• Standard procedures for routine tasks

• Information filtering and prioritization

• Decision-making through pre-set rules

I automated my decision-making. I created rules that eliminated the need for decisions:

"I only check email at 2 PM and 6 PM." "I only work on client projects in the morning."

The goal isn't to automate everything but to automate anything that doesn't require your unique genius.

P - Prioritize: The Final Filter

After leveraging, eliminating, and automating, I was left with what really mattered.

I started asking: What version of myself do I need to be to accomplish this goal? What energy state does that require? When am I most likely to access that state?

Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's 1990 book, Flow: The Psychology of OPtimal Experience shows that peak performance occurs when challenge level matches skill level, goals are clear, and self-consciousness disappears. I started designing my work around these conditions.

Time isn't linear when you're in flow state.

During flow, the prefrontal cortex partially shuts down in what neuroscientist Dr. Arne Dietrich calls "transient hypofrontality". This creates the "timeless" experience where hours feel like minutes.

This is collapsed time. You’re transcending time instead of managing it.

The Philosophy of Collapsed Time

(You just knew I had to throw in some philosophy. Haha. I can’t resist it.)

Philosopher Martin Heidegger distinguished between "chronos" (clock time) and "kairos" (experienced time). Chronos is quantitative; minutes and hours. Kairos is qualitative; moments of significance.

Maybe the real goal isn't to manage time at all but to create more kairos, more moments of deep meaning and presence.

The Uncomfortable Truth I Had to Face

This approach will isolate you sometimes. When you start optimizing for energy instead of availability, you'll disappoint people. You'll say no to things that seem reasonable. You'll appear less accommodating.

The price of collapsed time is other people's approval.

I lost some friendships. My family sometimes thought I was selfish.

But learned that your obligation is to be valuable, not accessible.

People respect boundaries more than they respect constant availability. They value your best work more than your immediate response.

Psychologist Dr. Harriet Braiker's research on people-pleasing shows that chronic accommodation leads to decreased self-esteem, increased anxiety, and reduced life satisfaction.

I had to stop being a people pleaser and start being a value creator.

Your Next Step

Energy optimization is really about developing the courage to be yourself.

When you honour your natural rhythms, you're exercising self-respect. When you protect your peak energy, you're claiming your value. When you eliminate low-value activities, you're asserting your worth.

Most people are too scared to claim their own lives.

Don’t be most people.

I've given you the framework. You understand energy units. You know L.E.A.P.

But here's what I've learned about change: Most people will read this, nod their heads, and change nothing.

Once again, don't be most people.

Start with one week of energy auditing. Map your natural rhythms. Apply L.E.A.P. to one area of your life/business. Then watch what happens when you stop managing time and start collapsing it.

Time management is about doing things right. Time collapse is about doing the right things. But even deeper, time collapse is about becoming the right person.

The choice is yours. I hope you choose to stop managing time and start collapsing it.

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Most people will read this and nod.

A few people will actually change how they operate.

One group will keep managing their time.

The other will collapse it.

That’s why I built the LEAP Framework Implementation Guide.

It’s the exact system I use to buy back time while scaling faster.

You’ll get:

• The exact Notion dashboard I use to run a freedom-first business

• Templates and automations to offload mental load immediately

• The process map to stop managing chaos and start building systems that do the work for you

The framework is done. The templates are built. The dashboard is ready.
All you have to do is start.

Now the only question is:

Do you want to keep running the same loop, or are you ready to escape it?