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Your Best Time Management: Knowing What to Let Go with Oliver Burkeman (Episode #83)

There is a fresh – rather freeing – perspective when it comes to “time-management” that can relieve us from stressing over our inboxes and to-do lists.  Our guest, Oliver Burkeman, is just the one to have discovered it. For 10 years, he wrote a column for the Guardian about time-management. And then one day, realized that much of the schemes and advice for managing time were nonsense. Instead, the solution to our overwhelming dilemma with time starts somewhere we might never look. This conversation is both freeing and fun.

Episode Highlights

About Guest

You’re probably not aware of the importance to find value, meaning, and wonder in almost everything you’re doing. We frequently spend a lot of our time doing things that we hate, and we don’t pay close attention to the small things that are bringing powerful and meaningful experiences to our life. You should begin to reflect on how you are spending your time, and if it makes you feel accomplished.
In this week’s episode, we have a special guest, Oliver Burkeman. He is the author of The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking and Help! How to Become Slightly Happier and Get a Bit More Done (2011), a collection of his columns for the Guardian newspaper. We go deeper into his new book Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, and his insights about how to reach a fulfilling and meaningfully productive life.

Let’s jump into how to have a fully productive life!

Resources Mentioned:

Books:

Connect with Oliver on Twitter.  Head to OliverBurkeman.com and have access to all the incredible content he has written and sign up for The Imperfectionist!

Show Notes

[00:01 – 10:10] Opening Segment

  • Oliver introduces Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals
    • How we think and feel about time
    • The need to do social and psychology research
    • Analyze time management techniques and productivity systems
    • Why people should sacrifice projects, goals, and causes to nurture relationships
      • The urgent vs the important
  • The role of social media on your life
    • You should understand the news are not your life

[10:11 – 29:57] Your Best Time Management: Knowing What to Let Go

  • Each day is something you have to go through to a more fulfilling future
    • Have a winning mindset and feel the truth of each situation
    • See the value on the moments you’re actually living
  • Oliver explains the rocks in the jar parable
    • Make time for the things that really matter
    • The challenge is to decide what rock you won’t put on the jar
  • Be on the outlook for things you are doing daily
    • Spend your time with people you have the deepest relationships with and  projects you care about the most
      • Time is precious
  • Oliver’s insights about time management
    •  Start doing new things and value the ones you’re already doing
    • Keep in mind that every experience in life is either a  good time or a good story       
  • There is a place on the internet created to bring out our best impulses and our collective genius. Visit Goodness Exchange and get unlimited access to exclusive news and bonus content!

[29:58 –  44:09]   Every Moment Is the Last Time

  • Oliver shares the role of planing
  • People who compulsively plan are trying to get some kind of certainty
  • The challenge is to hold plans incredibly loosely
    • You don’t want to design a timetable for the day. Be flexible.
  • The struggle people have to turn the future into something predictable
  • Cultivate the thought of being curious about what’s going to occur instead of needing one thing to occur
    • Go easier with yourself and your people
    • You should never marry an outcome
  • We’re full of things we do for the last time
    • Be present with things that are happening 

[44:10 – 47:53] Closing Segment

  • Olivier’s last thoughts and advice
  • Don’t worry about big plans, do the next achievable plan
  • How to connect with Oliver and his work
    • Links below 
  • Give a review and rating, and share this episode with others
  • Final announcements 

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