Oliver Burkeman on Modern Time Management

Mar 20, 2019

In this discussion, Oliver Burkeman, an award-winning writer for The Guardian, dives into modern time management. He argues that technologies designed to make us efficient can often lead to more stress. Burkeman suggests that the endless to-do list is here to stay and that having emails in your inbox isn’t necessarily a bad thing. He reflects on the simpler times and emphasizes that true peace of mind requires difficult choices about how to spend our time, encouraging a reevaluation of productivity in our lives.

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INSIGHT

Efficiency Paradox

Increased efficiency doesn't reduce busyness, it often increases workload.
Technologies of efficiency don't necessarily create peace of mind, they can amplify the feeling of being rushed.

INSIGHT

Empty Inbox Paradox

Empty inboxes and to-do lists represent a cessation of activity, not success.
We strive for emptiness, but it signifies a lack of engagement with life.

INSIGHT

Precarity & Control

Modern precarity fuels the drive for self-reliance and control.
Economic and social anxieties create pressure to become an 'omnipotent master' of one's life.

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Oliver Burkeman is an award-winning writer for The Guardian and his book, The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking explores the upsides of failure, difficulty, and imperfection – which we discussed in our first interview with Oliver several hundred episodes ago. Each week in his column in The Guardian, “This Column Will Change Your Life”, he writes about social psychology, self-help culture, productivity, and the science of happiness. In this interview, he discusses his take on time management in today’s world.

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In This Interview, Oliver Burkeman and I Discuss…

His take on the modern time management world
That technologies of efficiency don’t seem to bring peace of mind
How your to-do list is never going to go away
That having emails in your inbox is not necessarily a problem
Time management whispers of the possibility of true peace of mind
Thinking of “a simpler time”
How processing through your inbox is like climbing up an infinitely long ladder
That tough choices have to be made when deciding what to do with your time – no matter how many productivity assists you have
How it’s often easier to spend time on trivial stuff than the big projects
David Allen’s book, Getting Things Done
How no one beats them self up for not being able to jump a mile in the air because they never thought they could in the first place
Similarly, accepting the real limitations in how much time you have and how much you can get done is incredibly liberating
Productivity advice from Warren Buffet
The role social media plays in our expectations about how productive we could or should be
How digital distractions help us numb out

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