· By Eddy Hood
Deep Reading Notes: Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman
Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman is one of the best books I've read on valuing time. Here's the problem: Time is always running out, I'm too busy, and when I finally get some free time to myself, I don't know what to do with it. Let's do some deep reading analysis to see what this book has to offer.
I've read lots of time management books, but they all focus on getting more done. They're stuffed with strategies on booking my calendar, holding better meetings, and batching emails.
This book isn't about that stuff. Instead, Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals is about accepting the truth - that time is limited and I can't afford to waste it.
Below, I share five of biggest ideas that captured my attention. This article isn't meant to replace reading the book, but rather to inspire you to pick it up and value your time in a whole new way.
Deep Reading Lesson 1 - Existential Overwhelm
The first concept that leveled me in Four Thousand Weeks was the idea of Existential Overwhelm. Have you ever come home after a long day at work and felt anxiety over how you will spend your evening? That's what Oliver Burkeman is talking about.
"Think of it as 'Existential Overwhelm': the modern world provides an inexhaustible supply of things that seem worth doing, and so there arises an inevitable and unbridgeable gap between what you'd ideally like to do and what you can actually do" (45).
I feel this in my bones. Sorry to be cliché, but I can't help it. We face a new problem which is that there are too many options. We can watch Netflix, read a book, go to dinner, learn to speak French, and more. Today's smattering of activities is so diverse that many of us feel a sense of dread. Where do I start?
I don't want to waste my free time, but which of the thousand things should I tackle? I've spent many an hour of free time agonizing over over how to make the most of it, ironically wasting it in the process.
Tip one is to acknowledge that this existential overhwelm is real. Four Thousand Weeks reminds us that we face some very real psychological problems when it comes to managing time, and that's why it can feel so hard.
Deep Reading Lesson 2 - Baked in Time
We love hacks. When it comes to learning something new, we're all guilty of going to YouTube to find the quickest path to understanding. Show me how to learn French quickly! Teach me to be a better writer in a day! With just this one "trick," you can improve your singing voice immediately. Blah, blah, blah.
The truth, according to Four Thousand Weeks, is that things take time. "Meaningful productivity comes not from hurting things up but from letting them take the time they take, surrendering to what in German has been called Eigenzeit, or the time inherent to a process itself" (33).
If you want to learn French, there are no short cuts. You have to put in the time, do the work, and be patient. If you want to read Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy, you can't do so by getting the cliff notes. You have to sit down with the book, go page by page, and spend time with it.
Whatever you choose to do with your time, the most important thing to grasp is that it's going to take time. You can't become a virtuoso piano player by watching a few internet videos.
Deep Reading Lesson 3 - What Not to Do
I struggle with having too many interests. If you know me personally, you're probably say that I have too many irons in the fire. There I go with the clichés again. Sorry. But it's true. I do have too many things going, and it's critical that I turn off some of the things I want in favor of the things I really really really want.
"The core challenge of managing or limited time isn't about how to get everything done-that's never going to happen-but how to decide most wisely what not to do, and how to feel at peace about not doing it" (71).
Thank you, Oliver Burkeman, for reminding me that I need to get better at this skill. I did that this seriously. My hobbies include playing guitar, cooking, film photography, woodworking, and more. I've had to turn all but woodworking off in order to make time for my most valued interest: books. I want more time to read and write. The only way to get that was to say "no" to other things that I love.
Remember tip #2? Things take time. If I want to read and write, I have to acknowledge that that takes time.
Deep Reading Lesson 4 - Doing Other People's Work
If you're alive, and I assume you are since you're reading this essay, then you can relate to this next issue. In Four Thousand Weeks, Oliver Burkeman deftly points out that we're responsible for deciding how our time will be spent. If we don't take on this responsibility, then other people will happily give us their work to do. Lovely.
If you never stop to ask yourself if the sacrifice is worth it, your days will automatically begin to fill not just with more things, but with more trivial and tedious things, becuase they've never had to clear the hurdle of being judged more important than something else. Commonly, these will be things that other people want you to do, to make their lives easier, and which you didn't think to try to resist. The more efficient you get, the more you become 'a limitless reservoir for other people's expectations,' in the words of the management expert Jim Benson" (49).
Do you feel that? think about you time. Do you spend most of it on other people's problems? In Four Thousand Weeks, Oliver Burkeman argues that you're living this way because you haven't learned to run each task through a filter of importance. Once you learn to do so, you can make people do their own work so that you can finally begin to do your own. It's a revolution!
Deep Reading Lesson 5 - Efficient People
I work with a few people that are expert email wranglers. And do you know what happened for them? They became known as the people in the office who are "super good" at responding to email. That reputation earned them more emails.
Oliver Burkeman points out this insidious pattern. "But the other exasperating issue is that if you succeed in fitting more in, you'll find the goalposts start to shift: more things will begin to seem important, meaningful, or obligatory. Acquire a reputation for doing your work at amazing speed, and you'll be given more of it" (41).
Does this mean you should become the lazy slob in the office so that people no longer trust you to get good work done? No. I means that you should work on things that matter, rather than other people's random to-do lists, and you should work at a pace that encourage high quality. Let the rest burn because most of what the world deems important, is not.
Should You Read Four Thousand Weeks?
Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman is one of the best books I've read on valuing my time. It's helped me to realize that I can't get it all done, and to accept the psychological weight of that reality. That's important because know that I know my time is limited and valuable, I'm more on purpose with what I do at work and at home.
This book is a great read if you're feeling overrun and distracted. It's also a great candidate for deep reading analysis. It helped me get centered when I was teetering on the edge of insanity. If you pick it up at Edgewater, let me know what you think. I'd love to know how you plan to spend your valuable time.
Works Cited:
Burkeman, Oliver. Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals. First paperback edition, Picador, 2023.
