Dear Friends,
Last week, I wrote about my travel reflections — from the history that lives in the UK to the future imagined in Dubai.
This week feels like a natural continuation. Between those two worlds, one sentence I saw on a London Underground poster stayed with me:
“Time is money, but money takes time.”
It sounded witty at first, but the more I thought about it, the more it captured what we all wrestle with — the balance between urgency and patience, speed and depth.
In Chinese philosophy, time isn’t something we can control; it’s something we flow with.
Laozi wrote, “Nature never hurries, yet everything is accomplished.”
Maybe that’s still the best advice for the modern workplace — to move with rhythm instead of panic.
Yet today, our “rhythm” is increasingly shared with machines.
Technology now promises to help us reclaim our time — AI calendars that protect focus blocks, automation that clears the small stuff, reminders that nudge us before chaos begins.
They can’t stop the clock, but they can give us space to think.
And in that space, we get to decide what truly matters.
But tools alone don’t define our priorities — they only make them more visible.
AI can help us measure impact, but it can’t measure trust.
It can predict outcomes, but not relationships.
That part is still on us — to know when to lean on data, and when to lean on people.
Still, no algorithm replaces human judgment.
A faster tool doesn’t mean a wiser choice.
Before saying yes, I’ve learned to pause and ask,
“Will this still feel right tomorrow?”
That pause inspired a framework I now use myself.
Over the past few busy weeks, I’ve been testing a way to prioritise not just by urgency or importance, but by impact × relationship × time — because work isn’t just about tasks; it’s about trust.
Priority Flowchart — Managing Time, Tasks & Relationships
A framework to balance what truly moves outcomes and trust — not just what feels urgent.
Because in real work, “urgent” often just means “visible,” while the real priorities hide behind relationships and impact.
Priority | Focus Area | What It Means | Action Strategy |
🟢 1. High Impact + High Relationship | Key sponsors / senior stakeholders / critical clients | Work that directly drives outcomes and trust — the people or projects that define success for your team. | Respond personally. Deliver early. Keep visible communication. Protect quality even under pressure. |
🔵 2. High Impact + Low Relationship | Strategic, analytical, or technical work that matters but may not be visible to decision-makers | Core value-creation tasks that build credibility through results, even if not everyone sees them. | Block focus time. Avoid distractions. Communicate progress concisely. |
🟣 3. Low Impact + High Relationship | Requests or favours that maintain goodwill but don’t move business outcomes | These moments build connection and culture — small “quick wins” that support relationships. | Acknowledge quickly but don’t over-invest. Delegate or schedule around higher-impact work. |
🟠 4. Low Impact + Low Relationship | Routine admin, copied emails, repeated reports, or reactive “noise” work | Activity that fills time but rarely changes results or relationships. | Batch or defer. Simplify or automate. Release guilt for not treating everything as urgent. |
When a new request arrives, I give myself a short pause — just 30 seconds — to ask two questions:
1️⃣ What’s the real impact?
2️⃣ Whose relationship does this touch?
Plotting it mentally into one of these four quadrants helps me decide whether to act, delegate, or simply breathe.
It’s not about being rigid; it’s about being conscious — spending time where it earns the highest trust and return.
Managing time, I’ve realised, isn’t about control; it’s about co-operation — between pace and purpose, people and process, human and machine.
The most effective leaders aren’t those who work the fastest, but those who choose their rhythm with clarity.
Because time will always move forward; the real question is whether we move with it or against it. Hope you enjoy Lydia’s Time Management Metrix
Until next time —
Lydia
P.S. If this letter found you at just the right moment, I’d love to hear about it. Join my weekly letter list and let’s figure it out together — one AI-shaped step at a time. Join the weekly letter list.
☕💌 If you’d like to fuel my next cup of coffee and keep this journey going, you can:
- 💳 Buy me a coffee via Stripe
- 🅿️ Buy me a coffee via PayPal
Your support keeps the ideas flowing and the coffee brewing ✨