🚀 The Book in 3 Sentences

1. You’re never gonna get everything done - and that’s absolutely fine.
2. All of our attempts to become more productive and get everything done are
   1. delusional, clinging on to the idea that you won’t die one day not having done a million important things
   2. only making things worse by making us focus on less relevant tasks
3. Your time is not only valuable for its future utility and your self-worth is not dependent on your ability to “productively” use time.

🎨 Impressions

A read of constantly being called out personally. Ever since I got into this productivity rabbit hole, I was feeling this underlying stress of not using my time productively enough, and I blamed myself for not reaching that future state of bliss, where the to-do list is empty and everything is under control. But what Oliver whacked me over the head with repeatedly was this incredibly liberating idea of “That day will never come.”

Along with the calming idea of your own insignificance and finitude, the book systematically deconstructs the notion that your self-worth is inherently tied to your productivity, which is a thought that was implicit but definitely there. Overall, the book was an incredibly liberating experience, while simultaneously energising me by making the tiny timespan we have more salient. Also great “10 Tools” part at the end.

How I Discovered It

Ali Abdaal’s Podcast with Oliver Burkeman

Who Should Read It?

Anyone into productivity, that is feeling that inherent stress that becoming more productive brings with it. So basically everyone somehow interested in productivity.

And for people that are not, this might even be a great way to get into it, but from a healthy POV

☘️ How the Book Changed Me

<aside> 💡 How my life / behaviour / thoughts / ideas have changed as a result of reading the book.

</aside>

• I began to decouple my worth from my productivity
• I understood the value of sequential projects, which makes me feel less bad about not doing a million things at a time
• I started being more intentional about my time as I realised how little of it there is
• I can hold my denial about the shortness of life in check a bit better, sometimes realising when I do something to deny my mortality

✍️ My Top 3 Quotes