Hello
4000 Weeks by Oliver Burkman was a refreshing read on the philosophy of time management. Burkman argues that our root issue is our belief that we can “get everything done”. This believe leads to what Burkman coins “Existential Overwhelm”, a state that likely everyone has felt when they felt like they were on a conveyor belt of task after task, thinking that the next completion will bring them closer to some arbitrary sense of meaning, but realizing the the completion of one task typically results in the creation of two more.
His argument is to accept this dire fact not as a curse, but as a blessing. We necessarily cannot get everything done, which means that we neccesarily must be free to not get everything done. Therefore we must release ourselves from the guilt of not getting things done, and instead choose what is most important and do what we can to push that forward.
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I learned that if you work hard and creatively, you can have just about anything you want, but not everything you want. Maturity is the ability to reject good alternatives in order to pursue even better ones. ― Ray Dalio
The second main argument is that this striving to get everything done to attain some feeling of having succeeded is a terrible way to live in the first place. We work hard in highschool so we can go to college, we work hard in college to get a good job, we work hard at one job to get a different job so that eventually we can retire, and we retire to be able to do things that we should have been doing a long time ago. He argues that instead we must choose to ditch this lifestyle of future striving and work toward a lifestyle of enjoying the now. Our life is simply a collection of the events we actually experienced. If we went on vacation with our family but were working in the hotel room the whole time, we really didn’t go on vacation at all. We perpetually ignore the present for a future that never comes.
So what is the solution to all this toiling for the future, striving to get everything done and being angry out ourselves when we don’t accomplish the impossible? Here is my practical takeways from Burkman’s book
1. Have a moment (possibly daily) where you realize and accept that you won’t get everything that you would like to done, and that this is okay. Set this frame of mind for the future.
2. Tell yourselft that you will experience today, whatever it is. We plan for the future in predefined times, we live in the moment the rest of the time.
3. Keep a Open & Closed todo list. Ali abdaal calls this a might do and do list.
– One is a long list of things you would like to do. The other is a list of things you are currently doing. Only allow 3-5 things to be on the closed list at any one time. Only move something from open to closed list when you finish on of the things on the closed list.
– This keeps us from teetertottering between tasks and keeps us focused on what our past selves deemed important rather than succumbing to our emotional waves of motivation.
4. Avoid the Efficiency Trap & Practice Strategic Underachievement
– Typically the more Efficient we get at something, the more we do (or are demanded to do) that thing.
– For example, if we become able to answer double the number of emails in an hour, that doesn’t usually cut our work in half, it just doubles the expectation.
– This doesn’t mean efficiency isn’t something to strive for. It certainly is in some areas. But it is not the end all solution and in fact is sometimes a trap.
– Thus we need to avoid trying to become efficient at things that don’t push our ultimate goals forward but are instead going to speed the treadmill of tasks in our lives.
– Strategic Underachievement is the realization that we are necessarily going to underachieve on most things in life. Thus, we might as well choose to underachieve on that thing.
– If you cannot clean the kitchen perfectly, mow the lawn perfectly, and parent your child well at the same time, lets lower our bar and clean the kitchen and mow the lawn a bit less frequently. Only keep the bar high on things that truly matter.
– This is a neccessary decision that is often not made intentionally but executed randomly at the expense of things that matter.
5. Show up. Be present. And choose to experience life now. Plan for the future, but don’t be a slave to it.