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What would you do if you knew how much time you have left?

This is less a time management self help book, and more of a philosophical examination of how we prioritize our time, and how we‘ll never actually achieve perfection so it‘s okay to let some things go. Lots of good advice, and I will be buying a copy to mark up, but it didn‘t need to be as long as it was. 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌗

Self-help books hardly ever need to be book length, a lot of filler here. The lowdown: Prioritize. Rest. Do the hard stuff. Rest. Be yourself. Set achievable goals. Embrace your limits. Focus on one thing at a time. Set time limits for work. Rest. Allow for failure. Celebrate achievements. Pick your battles. Control technology, don‘t let it control you. Find ways to make the mundane fun. Be curious. Act on positive impulses. Do nothing. Rest. 2021

This book is much different than I expected it to be (in a very good way). Instead of being a self-help time management book, it's more like an exploration of existentialist philosophy and how we can open up our lives to greater possibility by realizing and embracing the finite amount of time we each have on this planet. I borrowed it through Libby, but I'm ordering a copy to own and read through again.

Photo: Spotted towhee on a coastal hike

"Because children grow up, we think a child's purpose is to grow up...But a child's purpose is to be a child. Nature doesn't disdain what only lives for a day. It pours the whole of itself into each moment... Life's bounty is in its flow. Later is too late."

This was a good one! It‘s kind of an anti-time-management book. Basically, rather than trying to find all the hacks, get it all done, and have the perfect routine, just realize that you‘ll never reach perfection and all you have is the present. Inspirational but also realistic.

A great quote for when life gets overwhelming

I really enjoyed this take on time management. It has a pragmatic view on what is really achievable.

finally got another one of my friends to read FOUR THOUSAND WEEKS, excuse me while i take a victory lap

This book spoke to my soul 🥰 I‘m all for jomo! Burkeman brings up great points about needing to work on saying no to the things we want to do so we can be more present and happier in the fewer activities we do choose. I also liked his point about how deciding not to settle is in itself settling for a life without an imperfect version of X because you‘re waiting for the perfect, which doesn‘t exist.

5/5 - This book changed my life. Basically if we live to be 80 we get 4,000 weeks to live so at 47 I‘ve got roughly 1500 left. What am I going to do with that? What matters really? I‘ll re-read this again because it was that impactful!

National Gallery café reading🫖💛

#bookspinbingo Hello! My April card! I‘m not sure how this month is going to go. Wound up with my four year old grandson for six months to forever - not sure yet. So reading this month could be an adventure! Do kid books count? Lol

Genuinely brilliant. I started this thinking it would be a helpful tool for time management and it turned out to be an engrossing existential examination of the nature of time itself and how to fully live your life. Glad I listened to the audiobook, it‘s read by the author and he has a charming delivery.

I didn‘t mean to finish this before #JoyousJanuary got started. Whoops! This was one of my #AuldLangSpine picks and also my January #TBRTarot prompt. This is actually the perfect book to read at the start of the new year if you feel panicked about your productivity. It‘s not another book of shortcuts to doing more. Burkeman discusses how to examine the why behind how we spend the short time we have.

My Storygraph reading wrap-up!

https://app.thestorygraph.com/wrap-up/2022/sophronisba

(I love all the graphs and charts you get on Storygraph.)

"So in order to be a source of fulfillment, a good hobby probably should feel a bit embarrassing. That's a sign you're doing it for it's own sake"

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. Nobody in the history of humanity has ever achieved 'work-life balance', whatever that might be, and you certainly won't get there by copying the 'six things successful people do before 7 a.m'. The day will never arrive when you finally have everything under control...

Can I put this on the wall?

...we've been deluged with advice on living the fully optimised life, in books with titles such as Extreme Productivity and The 4-Hour Workweek and Smarter Faster Better, plus websites full of 'life hacks' for whittling seconds off everyday chores. (Note the curious suggestion, in the term 'life hack', that your life is best thought of as some kind of faulty contraption, in need of modification so as to stop it from performing suboptimally.)

“The average human lifespan is absurdly, terrifyingly, insultingly short.”

Interesting start for this #firstlinefriday

#currentlyreading

📖 6-17-22 || Philosophy | Hopeful | Time-Management
Ironically, I skimmed this one because it‘s overdue at the library. More philosophical than practical, it offers ideas for letting go of expectations and releasing ourselves from worry about managing our time perfectly.

This was exactly the right book at exactly the right time for me. Instead of hacks for how to be more productive, it offered an opportunity to step back and think about what you most want to do and how to accept that we can only do so much and that to do what matters most to you, some other things will need to slide. Loved it. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I genuinely think this is the only book on time management that I'll ever need to read; very glad I picked it up! Focuses on the freedom and meaning that comes from accepting that you could never get everything you wanted done

I‘m not sure what I thought this book would be about but it wasn‘t what I thought it would be. A good perspective on time, as human beings, however.

This is the one! The 'time management' book we all need AND deserve! Get it, read it, and free yourself from the tyranny of 'productivity culture' for good! (or at least make inroads in that direction - it's a process, at least for me)

“The peace of mind on offer here is of a higher order: it lies in the recognition that being unable to escape from the problems of finitude is not, in itself, a problem.“

I easily could have shared more than three quotes from this incredibly meta book on time management. It's goal is not so much to tell you how to manage your time to fit everything in, and more to help you realize that you're never going to do it all and you need to prioritize what's important to you.

The pandemic showed us a glimpse of how the world could be if we spent less time on the grind and more time thinking of others.

CONT.

I LOVED this. Finally, a “self-help” philosophy read I find instantly applicable to the everyday, and for everyone. It‘s a more appealing and realistic exploration of the cliche, “be here now.” As you read, you feel your mental desktop of anxious “must-do”s getting swept clear. Note: author is former productivity columnist for the Guardian, this is his turning point in realizing “productivity” should become a passe word. More on that in the book.

I loved this book. I'm not usually one for self-help books but I thought that the way this put daily chores and big projects in perspective was really useful.

Tell you how old I am without telling you how old I am- new #audiopuzzle edition. Well, some of these cartoons are before my time but Saturday morning cartoons in the 70‘s were definitely a big part of my childhood. The book is apt as it addresses existential angst induced by the passing of time.

I didn‘t love this one, and I had such high hopes. It was a bit too academic and abstract for me; there weren‘t enough ‘things to try‘ to manage your time better.

I certainly didn‘t find it uplifting, as on the quote. In fact, it was rather depressing and worrying! 😬

A thought that kept running through my head as I read this book was how much the word “should” can really mess with your mind. I‘m making a conscious effort to replace “should” with “could”, giving me permission to choose how I spend my four thousand weeks. 🙂

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
An easy read that encourages a life lived to the fullest at the limited time it is granted to have. Facing your limited self can be freeing.

“The average human lifespan is absurdly, insultingly brief. Assuming you live to be eighty, you have just over four thousand weeks.” So begins this philosophical guide to time management, narrated with warmth and commiseration by the author, a reformed efficiency junkie who will give you all the permission you need to not get EVERYTHING on your checklist done every day. I really appreciated the frame of mind this book got me into while listening.