“What you pay attention to will define, for you, what your reality is.”
– Oliver Burkeman
I adored this book. I’ve been putting off writing about it because I just want to quote the entire thing. I found it to be this beautiful blend of philosophy and psychology. Heartwarming, inspiring and uplifting but also practical, with concrete words of wisdom.
I very much did not want a book on productivity or time-management. I once borrowed a book called “168 hours” from the library and it was all about, well, fitting as much into our 168 hours as possible, which was overwhelmingly to say the least. (I have several to-do lists, they work just fine, I seem to be adequately occupied.)
I’ve read a lot of non-fiction.
A lot of self-help.
This book was unlike anything I’ve ever read.
It’s about our relationship with time.
And how so many of us are living for the future, with the hope that, if we could just get on top of our to-do lists, feel a bit more in control, everything will be okay.
Burkeman argues that this moment will never come. This nirvana. For as long as we’re alive, there’ll always be another to-do, another problem, another unfinished project.
So instead of fighting the passing of time, anxiously trying to do absolutely everything under the sun, we must accept our limitations, know what means the most to us, and make time for THAT.
He explains it far more eloquently, and there’s so much more to it, go read the book.
“In order to most fully inhabit the only life you ever get, you have to refrain from using every spare hour for personal growth.”
– Oliver Burkeman
“The day will never arrive when you finally have everything under control—when the flood of emails has been contained; when your to-do lists have stopped getting longer; when you’re meeting all your obligations at work and in your home life; when nobody’s angry with you for missing a deadline or dropping the ball; and when the fully optimized person you’ve become can turn, at long last, to the things life is really supposed to be about. Let’s start by admitting defeat: none of this is ever going to happen. But you know what? That’s excellent news.”
– Oliver Burkeman
The Colourful Kind 