Time Management for Mortals

I recently listened to Time Management for Mortals, an audio series by Oliver Burkeman on Sam Harris’ Waking Up app. The series is a more concise version of his book in which he distils some of its insights about how we should manage our time well. As someone who spends a lot of time reading about productivity hacks and techniques, I found this series so refreshing. Unlike most other productivity content out there, Burkeman immediately dismisses the idea that productivity is about making time to do absolutely everything you want to do. Instead, he points out that attempts to do so are a way of avoiding the fact that we, as humans, are more finite and limited than we think we are. This is because the number of goals to achieve, people to meet, places to see and tasks to complete is functionally infinite and embracing the fact that there will always be more things to do than we have time for is difficult. This may seem cynical. However, Burkeman advocates that we embrace our finitude because doing so pushes us to be intentional about what we spend our limited time doing. When you stop thinking of ways you could occupy your time as an endless to-do list and more like a menu to choose from, you’re more likely to pick the things that make you genuinely happy. The series is filled with other great insights that all stem from this central thesis and I highly recommend listening to it if you’re interested in a holistic, thoughtful and insightful take on productivity.