Manage Energy, Not Time

Dear Sir,

“Time is money,” Benjamin Franklin famously said, and Bangladesh’s corporate world seems to have embraced it fully. However, the constant focus on to-do lists, calendars, time tracking and productivity apps may overlook a more important factor: energy.

The Harvard Business Review article “Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time” by Tony Schwartz and Catherine McCarthy notes that companies often push employees to work harder and utilise every second. Moreover, their experiment at Wachovia Bank found that employees given structured time for rest and sleep produced better results than those constantly fighting against the clock. Productivity, therefore, cannot be measured simply by the ticking hands of time.

Even with AI, Bangladesh’s industries still rely on desk time and overtime. AI can handle repetitive tasks such as data entry and routine reporting, allowing employees to focus on work requiring human judgement.

The lesson is clear: in the AI era, workplaces should preserve energy, not merely count hours.