This chapter examines how accountability-driven policy agendas have reshaped temporal governance in education, intensifying time pressures on teachers and contributing to workforce attrition. Using time-use data from over 1600 Queensland government school teachers, we analyse how daily disruptions—such as administrative tasks, staffing changes and student behavioural management—create cascading effects that heighten time poverty. We challenge policy solutions that focus solely on reducing teachers’ hours or implementing minor efficiency improvements. Such approaches overlook the complexity of ‘heavy hours’, which are periods of high-stakes, cognitively intense and emotionally demanding work. We argue for a shift in policy framing, where meaningful interventions must address both the volume and intensity of teacher responsibilities. By rethinking how time is governed in schools, policymakers can move beyond narrow workload metrics to create sustainable conditions where teachers can engage deeply in the work that matters most to them.