The HBR Work Smart Collection (4 Books)

12 Stop Trying to Manage Your Time

by Amantha Imber

For all of us, 2020 was quite the year, but for Adore Beauty cofounder Kate Morris, work was particularly stressful. Not only was she managing one of the largest online retail businesses in Australia through a pandemic, but she was also preparing to list her company on the Australian Stock Exchange.

“I remember looking at the schedule our bankers had created,” Morris told me. “I said to them, ‘There must be a mistake, because you have me on back-to-back Zoom calls for 12 hours every day for weeks.’ They just nodded and said it was a standard roadshow.”

Morris knew then that the key to making it through this period with her mental health intact would be managing her energy—her time was ...