The average human lifespan, Oliver Burkeman begins his 2021 megabest seller, Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, is absurdly, terrifyingly, insultingly short. In that relatively brief period, he does not want you to maximize your output at work or optimize your leisure activities for supreme enjoyment. He does not want you to wake up at 5 a.m. or block out your schedule in a strictly labeled timeline. What he does want you to do is remind yourself, regularly, that the human life span is finite that someday your heart will stop pumping, your neurons will stop firing, and this three-dimensional ride we call consciousness will just... end. He also wants you to know that he's aware of how elusive those reminders can feel-how hard their meaning is to internalize.
Burkeman's opening sentence, with its cascade of unexpected adjectives, is the prelude to his countercultural message that no one can hustle or bullet journal or inbox-zero their way to mastering time. Such control, and the sense of completion and command it implies, is literally impossible, Burkeman argues. In fact, impossible is one of the words he uses most frequently, though it sounds oddly hopeful when he says it. He is perhaps best known for the idea that "productivity is a trap" that leaves strivers spinning in circles when they race to get ahead. In Burkeman's telling, once you abandon the "depressingly narrow-minded affair" that is the modern discipline of time management, you can do justice to our real situation: to the outrageous brevity and shimmering possibilities of our four thousand weeks. That is, you will find that an average 80-year life span is about far more than getting stuff done.
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Denne historien er fra November 2024-utgaven av The Atlantic.
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The Dark Origins of Impressionism
How the violence and deprivation of war inspired light-filled masterpieces
The Magic Mountain Saved My Life
When I was young and adrift, Thomas Manns novel gave me a sense of purpose. Today, its vision is startlingly relevant.
The Weirdest Hit in History
How Handel's Messiah became Western music's first classic
Culture Critics
Nick Cave Wants to Be Good \"I was just a nasty little guy.\"
ONE FOR THE ROAD
What I ate growing up with the Grateful Dead
Teaching Lucy
She was a superstar of American education. Then she was blamed for the country's literacy crisis. Can Lucy Calkins reclaim her good name?
A BOXER ON DEATH ROW
Iwao Hakamada spent an unprecedented five decades awaiting execution. Each day he woke up unsure whether it would be his last.
HOW THE IVY LEAGUE BROKE AMERICA
THE MERITOCRACY ISN'T WORKING. WE NEED SOMETHING NEW.
Against Type
How Jimmy O Yang became a main character
DISPATCHES
HOW TO BUILD A PALESTINIAN STATE There's still a way.