Time management: A guide to more sanity and less anxiety

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“What you can do is not buy into the idea that more and more efficiency, and processing more and more tasks, is the path to happiness,” says Oliver Burkeman. Graphics by KCRW’s Gabby Quarante

Oliver Burkeman, journalist and author of Four Thousand Weeks; Time Management for Mortals, explores our relationship with time and the modern obsession with time management, efficiency, and making the most of this valuable resource. Depressing as it may sound, Burkeman says, the average person has about 4,000 weeks. Drawing on history and philosophy, Burkeman offers a sane and sensible approach to how we spend our time, and suggests that we “not buy into the idea that more and more efficiency, and processing more and more tasks, is the path to happiness.”


Oliver Burkeman, pictured here, says that rather than stressing about not doing enough “you have to learn to tolerate your anxiety, so that you can leave those things aside for a while and focus on something that you really want to do.” Photo by Nina Subin. In Four Thousand Weeks; Time Management for Mortals, author Oliver Burkeman argues that, “It's really a matter of embodying a different approach to time and reminding yourself that there will always be too much to do, and therefore trying to get it all done is an unwise investment of your time and energy.”

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Producer:

Andrea Brody