Oliver Burkeman

we’ve been granted the mental capacities to make almost infinitely ambitious plans, yet practically no time at all to put them into action.

not only are our four thousand weeks constantly running out, but the fewer of them we have left, the faster we seem to lose them

so many of us are so bad at managing our limited time—that our efforts to make the most of it don’t simply fail but regularly seem to make things worse.

feels like an unstoppable conveyor belt, bringing us new tasks as fast as we can dispatch the old ones; and becoming “more productive” just seems to cause the belt to speed up.

more you struggle to control it, to make it conform to your agenda, the further it slips from your control.

when people make enough money to meet their needs, they just find new things to need and new lifestyles to aspire to

for almost the whole of history, the entire point of being rich was not having to work so much.

Our days are spent trying to “get through” tasks, in order to get them “out of the way,” with the result that we live mentally in the future, waiting for when we’ll
finally get around to what really matters—and worrying

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.

There is an alternative: the unfashionable but powerful notion of letting time use you, approaching life not as an opportunity to implement your predetermined plans for success but as a matter of responding to the needs of your place and your moment in history.