Where this goes wrong is assuming that research (i.e. the thing one does in grad school) is something that is anywhere near as amenable to "time management" as product development or engineering is.
The whole point of research is to push into the unknown. It's, in some sense, something that consists nearly only of unknowns and things you cannot really plan for. Sure, there's some general tricks like knowing when to take a step back, knowing when to abandon an endeavour that seems doomed, knowing when you've gone far enough, etc., but it's still nothing like where the author seems to be coming from.
The whole point of research is to push into the unknown. It's, in some sense, something that consists nearly only of unknowns and things you cannot really plan for. Sure, there's some general tricks like knowing when to take a step back, knowing when to abandon an endeavour that seems doomed, knowing when you've gone far enough, etc., but it's still nothing like where the author seems to be coming from.