Book Review: Four Thousand Weeks
Learning to accept that we are truly limited in our time is the first step toward being able to be satisfied with what we are able to accomplish. No time management technique is going to allow you to accomplish everything you want to do, or to be able to say yes to everything that is asked of you.
Some time in the second half of last year I ran across a recommendation for this book: "Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals" by Oliver Burkeman. It came at a time that I was taking a lot of bus trips to work and back, and thus had some extra time to read, so I picked it up, and I'm glad I did.
The main thesis of the book is this: you are human, you are mortal, and you get one life. (The title, Four Thousand Weeks, comes from an approximation of the number of weeks in an average life). The sooner you accept that and the limitations that come with it, the better off you'll be. Thinking that if you just find the right method or process, you'll finally be able to accomplish everything you want is a pipe dream. No productivity trick will allow you to accomplish everything you might want, and accepting that limitation is key to doing the best you can with what you have.
What I enjoyed about the book is its pragmatic approach to productivity. While in a way it's a self-help or productivity book, the main point I came away with was that it's better to be at peace with my limitations than to constantly be seeking the secret that will unlock greater productivity. Similar to the way that acceptance-based therapy can improve weight loss, I found that acceptance of my limitations promoted a healthier mindset toward my own productivity over the months since I read the book.
A couple highlights for me:
This space that has been granted to us rushes by so speedily and so swiftly that all save a very few find life at an end just when they are getting ready to live. – Seneca
Productivity is a trap. Becoming more efficient just makes you more rushed, and trying to clear the decks simply makes them fill up again faster. (p. 13)
I have noticed and often lamented this. One of the "joys" of academic work is that it never ends. If I finishing writing one paper, that leads to more ideas for what to work on for my next paper. Preparing for class is an infinite time black hole that will take as much time as you are willing to give it. There is always more to be done. And frequently I felt that the more I got done, the more I had left to do, because I came up with more ideas, or just was able to move on to other things that I hadn't planned on ever actually getting to. Yes, I was getting more done, but I never felt done, and I never would. The above quote immediately precedes this one:
The day will never arrive when you finally have everything under control—when the flood of emails has been contained; when your to-do lists have stopped getting longer; when you're meeting all your obligations at work and in your home life... and when the fully optimized person you've become can turn, at long last, to the things life is really supposed to be about. Let's start by admitting defeat: none of this is ever going to happen.
So accepting that it will never be done, you'll never be all caught up and have it all under control, you must choose to live your life now. Don't wait for a mystical future day when future you has it all figured out. Knowing that, and accepting that we really don't know how much time we even have, we can't put off our "real lives" until our work life is under control. We have to figure out how to live our lives now in the situation we are in.
The real measure of any time management technique is whether or not it helps you neglect the right things (p. 72)
if you plan to spend some of your four thousand weeks doing what matters most to you, then at some point you're just going to have to start doing it. (p. 75)
Make time for what you want to do, and the things that make you what you want to be. And start now, a little at a time. Make time today, and a little bit every day, to work on the things that matter to you.
Resist the allure of middling priorities (p. 77)
This one hit me hard. I have a middling desire to do a million different things: when I travel, I want to learn the language of the place I'm traveling to; I would love to learn to play a string instrument; I want to be a better programmer; I want to learn to fly a plane; I have ideas for about 30 different websites that would make my life, and possibly other's lives, a little easier; a small part of me feels inadequate because I'm not a woodworker, mechanic, or outdoorsman; and a whole bunch more.
The book cites the possibly apocryphal Warren Buffet two-lists story as an example of advice to avoid the middling priorities. Find the things you want to focus on, and spend your limited time fully focused on those things. For the rest, "avoid at all costs." Because your time is limited, and because you'll never be able to do everything, you have to avoid letting your time trickle away by spreading yourself too thin in dozens of areas. Author Elizabeth Gilbert was once given some harsh advice: "Oh, honey, it’s so much worse than [saying no to things you don't want to do]. You have to learn to say ‘no’ to the things that you do want to do with the understanding that you just have this one life stream, this one energy source, this one brief moment here."
Now, I'm not so sure about the number of things that can go on the list, but I do know that I can't do everything, and I need to learn to say no to things that I would be mildly interested in.
one particularly disturbing side effect of “persuasive design,” which is the twitchiness you start to feel when the activity in which you’re engaged hasn’t been crafted by a team of professional psychologists hell-bent on ensuring that your attention never wavers. (p. 97)
This is one of the major factors that ultimately influenced by mind candy fast. Recognizing that I felt the same twitchiness, the same unwillingness to be bored, and to sit with my thoughts or even enjoy longer, slower content without feeling like I needed more immediately gratifying stimulation.
There's a lot more that I can talk about from this book, but this post has already gotten long, so I'll save it for another day.
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