Time Management for Mortals
How often do we feel stressed, overwhelmed or anxious because we have more things to do than there is time for? We think that if only there were more hours in the day, we could get more done. We think that if we get more done, we will then be able to relax and find peace, contentment, and joy. However, in his book Four Thousand Weeks, Oliver Burkeman, a self-confessed recovering productivity geek, goes through the myths that we believe about time management. The biggest takeaway from this book is that there will always be more to do, so if we wait until our to-do list is complete to relax or enjoy life, we will not have fulfillment in life. This is not to say that we shouldn’t make to-do lists or that life and work doesn’t necessitate productivity, but that the mentality that the more we accomplish the more satisfied we’ll feel results in constant moving goal posts and perpetual lack of success. “Time feels like an unstoppable conveyer belt, bringing us new tasks as fast as we can dispatch the old ones; and becoming ‘more productive’ just seems to cause the belt to speed up.”
Defining the problem of human existence, Burkeman explains, “we’ve been granted the mental capacities to make almost infinitely ambitious plans, yet practically no time at all to put them into action.” He presents that in modernity, we treat time like a commodity or a resource to be used rather than the thing that life is made of. For example, we live in a river that is always moving and we can never step out of the river. So rather than trying to make time bend to our will, we should allow things to take the time they take, reducing “joyless urgency”, impatience and frustration when we can’t fit it all in. We actually have little control over most of the things we do in life, because we are working in cooperation with others and at the mercy of forces beyond us.
As such, with an acceptance that we are finite, limited creatures, we will have to make choices about how to spend our time, or let time spend us. “Every decision to use a portion of time on anything represents the sacrifice of all the other ways in which you could have spent that time, but didn’t - and to willingly make that sacrifice is to take a stand, without reservation, on what matters most to you.” The world presents an endless array of options for us to experience, which makes us feel that the more of them we have, the more rich our life will be. However, it leads to an always chasing, never complete feeling when we realize we can’t do them all. Burkeman’s realization is that every choice represents a rejection of countless other options. “Once you truly understand that you’re guaranteed to miss out on almost every experience the world has to offer, the fact that there are so many you still haven't experienced stops feeling like a problem.” Therefore, he asserts, “it’s better to begin from the assumption that tough choices are inevitable and to focus on making them consciously and well.”
Our need to do and plan and control is to help us feel secure that the future will be safe and painless, however the future is not ours to have and will always remain uncertain. “We go through our days fretting because we can’t control what the future holds; and yet most of us would probably concede that we got to where we are in our lives without exerting much control over it at all.” Burkeman rationalizes that while making plans is responsible, a plan is just a “present-moment statement of intent…the future, of course, is under no obligation to comply.” So, we should approach the future with curiosity and wonder what might happen next rather than worry if a certain thing may or may not happen next.
Many people feel that they need to justify their existence by being busy, or at least justify that they are worth their paycheck. In an age of instrumentalization, some might disdain hobbies, however Burkeman encourages us to participate in activities that are only worth doing for their own sake, that don't need to have a result or that you must be particularly good at. Life will always be made up of a series of tasks and we need to feel engaged and motivated, but they don’t all have to be profitable or productive.
We need to learn to live in the tension of not being done, not having the answer, not getting there fast enough, but to keep taking steps forward. Resilience isn’t how fast you can get to the other side of a hard situation, but how long you can tolerate pain, discomfort and frustration. “Life just is a process of engaging with problem after problem, giving each one the time it requires - that the presence of problems in your life, in other words, isn’t an impediment to a meaningful existence but the very substance of one.”
While in some ways, Burkeman’s stoic approach to accepting things the way they are might sound defeatist or hopeless, he finds that it is freeing to realize that we can never do it all. When we are more intentional about how we spend our time, and don’t let all the distractions and unimportant tasks fill up our time, we will have more meaning and fulfillment in life. “Let your impossible standards crash to the ground. Then pick a few meaningful tasks from the rubble and get started on them today.” Four Thousand Weeks is full of takeaways for those of us who feel compelled to maximize our time and get the most out of life, with a gentle reality check and encouragement to embrace our limitations.