Fleeting Time (Final Presentation Blog Post)

"It’s the very last thing, isn’t it, we feel grateful for: having happened. You know, you needn’t have happened. You needn’t have happened. But you did happen". —DOUGLAS HARDING

Unsurprisingly, Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman is a self-help guide about time management. However, in his first two chapters, Burkeman takes a drastically different view to time management as many other time management authors have. Burkeman discusses how he was a productivity geek and used many time management books to help him "master time". Burkeman came to realize that while he was on "the verge of ushering in a golden era of calm, undistracted productivity and meaningful activity.... it never arrived"(26). He could not master time, and frankly, none of us can. It is a harsh but truthful realization that Burkeman explains throughout chapter one. Moreover, I feel Burkeman is commentating heavily on people's ability to accept or not accept death. The root of all time management issues can be found in human mortality and of our ultimate fate of dying. This is why this is a book for Mortals! I raise the questions to you all: 

Do you think your inevitabledeath plays a role in your definition of happiness? Do you feel that knowing we have a limited time in our life influences many of your day-to-day actions?

              - Epicurus 

Burkeman's emphasis on the necessary ability to accept our fate and limited abilities as humans starkly reminded me of Lucretius's On the Nature of the Universe and Epicurean philosophy as a whole. Burkeman states that "[Greek and Roman philosophers] understood limitlessness to be the sole preserve of the gods; the noblest of human goals wasn’t to become godlike, but to be wholeheartedly human instead"(32). I feel Epicurean philosophy takes on the idea of death head on in an impactful way. This is heavily emphasized by the way in which Lucretius styles his poetic philosophy. Lucretius opens up On the Nature of the Universe by explaining how beautiful life is at birth, and he even invokes the god of love, Venus (which is ironically, very un-epicurean). Conversely, Lucretius ends his book with a lengthy description of a grotesque and horrific death where the book abruptly ends in the middle of a sentence. I feel what Lucretius and Epicureanism wants to convey to us is that the world is ugly, unforgiving, and can suddenly end at any time. This is the difficult pill to swallow in life, it is the hard medicine that Lucretius is prescribing throughout the middle of the book. So, like Burkeman and epicureanism argues, we need to accept our limitlessness as humans and accept our position. 

Do you all feel it is necessary to accept death in order to live a truly fulfilled life of flourishing happiness and wellbeing?

In chapter two, Burkeman focuses heavily on the "Efficiency Trap', which essentially means that one tries to become so efficient in any aspect of life that they enter this endless spiral of more work to do and more work and more work. Ultimately, Burkeman feels this leads to more stress and unhappiness in life. In this aspect I do agree with Burkeman; however, I have issues understanding how to practically apply this strictly to working life. Again, I understand and agree with his sentiment, but in the American culture we have, it is practically impossible to tell your boss "If I do too much work, that will lead to more work, and I do not want that" without getting fired. I definitely feel in our personal lives we can accomplish this feat. Burkeman explains that "focusing instead on what’s truly of greatest consequence while tolerating the discomfort of knowing that, as you do so, the decks will be filling up further..."(45). So, while I can understand how to apply this personally, how do I apply this to my career/ working life? I would love to hear your opinions on chapter two, as maybe I am being too critical or not seeing Burkeman's full vision to make his ideas work in the working world. 

Have you all ever experienced the efficiency trap? If so, how have you overcome this?

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the first two chapters of Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, and I thoroughly appreciate Burkeman calling out the common time management trope that can be found in many other self-help books. Burkeman is calling for us to face the realities that are in front of us, whether we want to or not, we must. I definitely can see many issues Burkeman has discussed within my own life, and I think this book has already helped to give me ideas to improve on some time management issues I have. I leave you all with a quote by Burkeman, "in the long run, we're all dead"(8).