Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management For Mortals
As I dove into this novel by Oliver Burkeman, one of the first thoughts that came to mind was Tim Urban’s infamous post “The Tail End”. Time in the perspective lens makes you often realize it goes by fast, there isn’t much of it in your control, and holy shit I might only be able to X activity another one or two times realistically in my lifetime. I would be remiss if I also didn’t mention Naval Ravikant, who so eloquently articulates numerous quotes on time. “You won’t get rich renting out your time.”
4,000 weeks is the average amount of time someone today will live. For me, I have already lived about 1,550 of those or about 39% being 29.5 years old. How can I strive to maximize those 2,450 weeks I may have left?
What I enjoyed most in reading this book is that it debunks many of the time management and productivity hacks and instead offers proven methods and mental models that frame time more clearly.
Oliver’s main argument is that the real problem isn’t our limited time. It is that we have inherited and feel pressured to live by a set of ideas about how to use that time, which guarantee to make things worse. It becomes then impossible to ever feel as though you are doing well enough.
As you hack your way to productivity or manage your time “masterfully”, management expert Jim Benson says that the more efficient you get, the more you become a “limitless reservoir for other people’s expectations.” I know I can definitely relate to that.
Burkeman argues instead that the real measure of any time measurement technique is whether or not it helps you neglect the right things. I think this is an interesting framing, as our minds tend to gravitate towards the opposite, how can I do the most amount of things in the least amount of time? Narrowing the focus to only have a few big priorities and most importantly avoid everything else helps.
What are some time management principles to follow then?
- Work on your most important project of the day in the first hour and protect your time by scheduling meetings with yourself. If you don’t protect your time, others will see it open and take it.
- Limit your “work in progress.” Instead establish an upper limit of 3 items you allow yourself to work on at any one time so that you do not end up with a high volume of small items in progress that likely all never will see themselves to completion.
- Resist the allure of middling priorities. Seeing a quick task or project to complete in some down time can be tempting, but avoid. Warren Buffett advises making a list of 25 important things to do and focusing on the most important 5 and then avoid at all costs the other 20.
- Spend some of your leisure time “wastefully”. In order to live the most fulfilling life, you can’t spend every open hour of time on personal growth (I probably should tell myself this more). Instead, enjoy the pleasure of experiences and that is it.
The next part of the book made me chuckle when I read it but certainly paints a humbling picture of how each of your lives on the spectrum of the universe is infinitesimally small. Or what is quoted as “The Universe Doesn’t Give A Flying Fuck About You.” This realization is actually liberating because it lifts off the unrealistic definition of a life well spent and you are then free to consider that there are more ways to think of what a meaningful life may mean to you.
How else can you ensure you meet your definition of this “life well spent”?
- In any significant decision in your life ask yourself “Does this choice diminish me, or enlarge me?” And choose the uncomfortable enlargement over comfortable diminishment where you can.
- Ask yourself: Where in your life or work are you currently pursuing comfort, when that’s called for is a little discomfort?
- Are you holding and judging yourself by standards of productivity or performance that are impossible to meet?
- In what ways have you yet to accept the fact that you are who you are, not the person you think you ought to be?
- In which areas of life are you still holding back until you feel like you know what you are doing? Fake it till you make it, as many do with their job they are currently in. Put bold plans into place and stop erring on the side of caution.
- How would you spend your days differently if you didn’t care so much about seeing your actions reach fruition?
As Carl Jung simply puts it, “quietly do the next and most necessary thing.”
10 Quick Techniques to Implement A Life-Embracing Philosophy in Daily Life
- Adopt a fixed volume approach to productivity. Keep an open and closed to-do list. Feed tasks from the open list to the closed, but only when something is completed.
- Serialize, serialize, serialize. Only one project at a time.
- Decide in advance what to fail at.
- Focus on what you’ve already completed, not just what’s left to complete.
- Consolidate your caring.
- Embrace boring and single-purpose technology.
- Seek out novelty in the mundane.
- Be a researcher in relationships.
- Cultivate instantaneous generosity.
- Practice doing nothing.
In summary, I really enjoyed the fresh perspectives brought from this book and tend to apply some of these principles into my day to day. I find myself continually reworking my task/project management methods and trialing software products, but never have found a bulletproof solution. Perhaps part of this is because I was thinking about it all wrong. I hope that this framing also helps you rethink how you view time, productivity, and how you ultimately lead your way to meaningful life.
-John
