This book came to me in the exact moment that I most needed it, and spoke directly to my soul. It’s a book about time management, but not in the way many such books are. This one is really more of an anti-productivity, anti-time-management book, at least in the way those concepts are commonly understood. The core message is that you should stop treating your time like a container that you want to shove as much stuff into as possible, or a towel you want to wring every last drop out of. Instead of trying to have time, understand that you are time.
There are two key aspects to this: one is to understand your finitude; to recognize how limited your time really is. You can only do so much in this life. The second is to understand that you cannot do all you think you can or should do; you will never achieve your optimum productivity and complete your to-do list, etc etc, so focus on the things that really matter to you. It seems simple, and a lot of the book is, but somehow it was revelatory.
Especially helpful is how the book helps you see how many of your feelings about time and tasks are bound up with anxiety about finitude — like, struggling to be present in the thing you’re working on because you’re worrying about the next thing you have to do. Or feeling like you have to keep writing when you’re “on a roll” because you’re afraid that you’ll never find the time and focus to achieve that kind of flow state again. It’s counter-intuitive but also deeply persuasive to be told that stopping work not only helps you not get burnt out and exhausted, over time it also helps reassure your anxious brain that you can in fact come back to your work the next day and get back into it; it’s not a magical process.
This book was exactly what I needed, and I want to give it to everyone I know.
Kasia Reads 