10 Productivity Tools That Lean Into Your Limited Time On Earth
Oliver Burkeman's Four Thousand Weeks offers an alternative approach to doing more of what matters
My perspective on productivity has flipped significantly over time.
It’s gone from getting as many things done as humanly possible to focusing on the ones that matter and staying healthy.
I still struggle with the balance, but accept that my to-do list will never be complete, and that compromise is the most important skill.
After revisiting Oliver Burkeman’s 2021 best seller, Four Thousand Weeks - Time and How To Use It, and as often occurs with age, the message landed deeper for me this time around.
Oliver is an award-winning writer who has written about neuroscience, psychology, productivity, and building a meaningful life for years.
What interested me about this book was that it was written by a recovering productivity obsessive.
He used to research and deploy every tool, technique, and approach to become super productive, often at the detriment of his health or what mattered to him.
This resonates with many of us.
We try so hard to do and be better - just so we can keep up, get more done, and feel like we’re on top of all the stuff that means we’re winning at life.
Unfortunately, we usually realise that something has to give and we can’t do all the things, all the time without feeling tired and despondent.
Sure, there are those superstars that seem to tick all the boxes, but I’ve realised they are the exception, not the norm.
It’s great to be inspired by them, and test what works, but we’re better served if we accept these three uncomfortable truths or rules:
Our time on Earth is finite - Four Thousand Weeks is around 80 years - the average lifespan
Our ability to control time is limited - we’re generally not consistently good at it and our energy is finite
Getting all the things done doesn’t guarantee we’ll achieve or feel what we think we will i.e. I’ll feel happier when…. (insert task that needs to be done). Postponing fulfilment sometimes never occurs.
That doesn’t mean we don’t bother trying to get anything done. It just means we approach it from a different angle.
When we accept these rules exist in the game and adjust how we build a strategy and play, we’re more likely to create a life well lived.
I recommend you read Oliver’s book, Four Thousand Weeks.
It offers a detailed and fascinating exploration of these concepts drawing from research, ancient wisdom and Oliver’s own life and experience.
To give you a taster, I’ve summarised the 10 tools Oliver shares at the end of the book so you can choose what works for you right now.
Keep it simple and take small steps towards doing more of what matters within these new rules of the game.
Oh and carve out some time to read the book!
1. Adopt a ‘Fixed Volume’ Approach to Productivity
This sits upon the false belief that if we could only be more efficient, energised, organised (insert productivity-related adjective) etc, and struggled to get all the important things done, then we’d be happy, successful, wealthy (insert desired adjective).
This only results in us being busier and on the hamster wheel for life, never reaching the unrealistic goals we’ve set ourselves.
Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT) principles, a research-based psychological framework with great wellbeing-related outcomes, promote acceptance of a constant level of discomfort in life, and that we’ll inevitably have difficult choices to make (because we can’t have it ‘all’).
If that’s the case, we might as well make the tough decisions in as focused and aware way as possible.
Try these to create a ‘fixed volume’ of tasks:
Create 2 to-do lists - one open and one closed.
The open one has the brain dump of all the things you need to do (the one you won’t humanly achieve).
The closed one has a finite number of slots, e.g. 10, and those are what you focus on.
You don’t add from the open list until you get one done and off the closed list.
Limit your available time - create clear boundaries for tasks or the working day and make your time-related decisions within the predetermined limits.
If you commute, use train times, or missing heavy traffic as a way to incorporate physical boundaries.
If working remotely, schedule a class or meet up you can’t cancel so you have to stop.
2. Serialize, Serialize, Serialize
This tool follows on from number 1 where you prioritise one big, essential project to focus on at any one time.
I’ll admit this one feels tricky to me if you’re in a hectic role or business as it’s rare to be able to focus on one thing, and one thing only, in reality.
If you’ve ever managed a global change program, you’re literally spinning multiple plates in parallel.
That said, many successful entrepreneurs seem to adopt a fixed timeframe for their one big project to make this more achievable e.g. Dan Koe creates a new product every quarter.
The other key here, that also relates to ACT principles in my opinion, is to increase your ability to tolerate the anxiety/discomfort of focusing on one big project and not on the other things you are being called to do.
Get into the habit of postponing the less important tasks, and upping your discomfort tolerance so you prioritise working on your one big project.
Once you start seeing progress, the discomfort will be worth it and you retrain yourself that putting the effort into the essential projects has meaningful rewards.
This contrasts with choosing the tasks that make you anxious, but are less important.
Be driven by the importance, not by reducing the feeling of discomfort.
3. Decide In Advance What to Fail At
If we accept these new rules of the game, that means we must accept we’re going to underachieve at some of our goals, domains, or tasks.
Oliver describes a useful term to adopt here: strategic underachievement.
This means you choose in advance what you won’t excel at across parts of your life, and instead use your energy more effectively on other strategic things.
The great aspect about this is that it can be just for now, not forever.
For instance, I’ll admit I’m not the best house cleaner. It’s always ending up on the strategic underachievement list. I do the bare minimum to get me by and then decide when I’ll do a big clear up.
I’m better at tolerating the clutter and mess, and know it’s an activity I’ve purposefully decided not to get distracted by because there are others more important to me.
It shifts work-life balance to a chosen form of imbalance across life and work domains, knowing that you’ll rotate and prioritise these at some point when it makes more sense.
Now if you’re a perfectionist, this will feel awful. That’s why you should do it.
You can’t break that cycle if you don’t prove to yourself that you can be less than perfect, and the world and people around you won’t implode.
4. Focus on What You’ve Already Completed, Not Just on What’s Left to Complete
Another admission - I’m terrible at this. I tend to focus on the negative stuff and forget the positive things I’ve accomplished.
But it’s important to shift the perception so we have evidence for our hard work.
This is especially true based on number 3 and accepting that we’re going to fail at certain things on purpose. You may feel like you’re still not getting the right things done.
So again, let’s give ourselves evidence.
Create a fresh done list of all the things completed each day from your closed list and savour that you’ve achieved them.
This gives you tangible results to help you account for your time. It doesn’t have to include only active actions either. Taking a proper break and restoring your mind and body are valid activities.
Add them to your closed list, and when you’ve done it, stick it on your done list.
Notice how you feel seeing that done list grows. It should give you a motivational, feel-good boost.
5. Consolidate Your Caring
This one has become key for me to minimise what I worry about that is outside of my control. Focus what you expose yourself to on news and social media.
We are at the mercy of algorithms and external parties vying for our precious attention and telling us why their cause is more important than everyone else’s.
For example, I’ve seen a rise in eco-anxiety in younger generations because they are so concerned about what is going on around the world.
But getting twisted up in knots about every cause or issue isn’t a useful activity to preoccupy yourself with. There is only so much we can influence under urgent or longer term conditions.
Prioritise what does matter to you and how you will support it, consciously.
Resist the urge to get swept up in the latest trending topic and frenzy related to it.
Instead, add the relevant tasks and actions, in a timebound way, to your open and closed lists.
Otherwise, you put yourself at risk of compassion fatigue and becoming overwhelmed by all the causes that need you out there.
6. Embrace Boring and Single-Purpose Technology
There’s a reason some people don’t want a smartphone these days and are going back to the old school Nokia.
Smartphones and devices have become sexy, interactive attention machines that consume our precious hours. I do like mine and it allows me to be more flexible with the activities I want to get done.
But I also spent unnecessary time yesterday evening looking at a wild man snake expert handling massive venomous snakes. It was fascinating. And I was sucked in.
There are a lot of venomous snakes and wild man is fearless. That also meant I went to bed later than I wanted to.
Instead, look at ways to remove or limit access to apps that zap your time in unhelpful ways. Turn the grayscale on to bleed exciting colour from your phone.
Make it super boring to look at and use.
Remember, to change a habit, replace it with a new one. In this case, if you want to reduce using your phone, make it less appealing.
Turning off notifications and alerts is also a useful way to make it less sticky.
The variable nature of these means we’re more likely to engage in checking habits - has something come in yet? How about now? And now? What about now?
Remove the temptation and decide when you’re going to check during your day.
7. Seek Out Novelty in the Mundane
Wonder why childhood seemed to last forever, and time now you’re older seems to speed by? It could be because of the number of novel experiences you have.
When we’re younger, we have more novel experiences and are constantly learning and reflecting on them. As we age, our lives tend to become less varied and more routine.
Days are so similar they seem to blend into each other.
It’s easier to go into autopilot and we lose track of time. Instead of adding more to your finite to-do list, bring some mindful awareness into the every day.
This isn’t sitting on a yoga mat if you won’t want to, but being more aware of the everyday activities that take up your time.
A good starting point is making a cup of tea or coffee.
You probably don’t even realise the steps you take to do this, but there are several in a specific sequence that you do each time.
Notice what those are.
Use more of your senses. Be present.
See what new things you can learn or notice each time.
Mix up your activities too - if you go to work a certain route, try a new one.
Pick a new restaurant or bar instead of the usual when meeting up with a friend.
Use a different paint medium to your favourite to see how it feels and moves on the canvas or paper.
Experiment within the boundaries you’ve set for yourself so you deeply experience the only moment you can control - the present.
8. Be a ‘Researcher’ in Relationships
I’ve noticed when I get really busy or am focusing on many things in parallel, people become tasks too.
I’m not proud of this but every interaction and use of my time has a cost/benefit attached to it in an overt way.
Talking to people becomes inefficient when they don’t get to the point quickly enough. I don’t want to delegate as much if I can just do it quicker myself.
Hence the overload gets worse.
I might argue with my mother because she’s telling me about some random cousin’s exploits I don’t care about when I’m exhausted.
It’s easy to get into unhelpful habits and then wonder why our relationships suffer.
We are trying to be so time efficient and in control of our to-do list, that we lose our sense of connection and camaraderie with others.
To challenge this impatience, become more curious about your interactions and the person or people you’re engaging with.
I like the example Oliver brings in here - he refers to self-help writer Susan Jeffers and her book Embracing Uncertainty.
Susan suggests choosing curiosity as a way to counteract worry i.e. wondering what might happen next versus fearing that a certain thing you hoped for may or may not happen).
It’s an interesting reframe to experiment with, and will eventually reduce the frustration that arises from the unknown.
We get to act more in alignment with the type of person we want to be.
9. Cultivate Instantaneous Generosity
Our ever complex world seems to be focused on instant gratification, but Oliver shares a useful habit suggested by meditation teacher Joseph Goldstein - instant generosity.
How many times do you get the urge to do something nice, get distracted, and then kick yourself because you forgot to do it?
It could be anything but the examples in the book include sending a checking-in text to a friend, donating to a charity, or sending an email to someone with positive feedback about their work.
Instead of waiting until a better time, wanting to craft a proper response later, or doing the job when it’s quiet at the end of the day, find ways to do it now when you get the urge.
Done is better than perfect. No one knows our intentions unless we actually express them.
Urgent and more important things will be there and we want to prioritise them. But if you can do something nice now before you forget or get stuck into a longer task, just do it.
Being nice and positive to others also tends to make us, as well as them happier.
Win-win!
10. Practice Doing Nothing
I remember being sat in my garden last year during summer with nothing urgent to do.
It was weird.
I decided to experiment with being bored.
Usually, when I get a tinge of boredom or discomfort, that urge to distract kicks in. I reach for the phone, or internet, or whatever might be close to hand to ‘play’ with.
This particular time, I tried to sit and do nothing. Not even focus on a meditation, notice the garden, or anything.
Just sit.
It was much harder than I imagined. I thought about how spoilt I’d become with instant access to a world of distraction and curiosity.
Yet, finding ways to tolerate discomfort and increase our threshold for acceptable discomfort is such a valuable skill.
So much in life would be improved if we could tolerate anxiety a little longer to do what we would rather spend our time doing.
So what does ‘Do Nothing’ mean?
It means not trying to alter your experience in a meaningful way and sitting with how things are for a period of time, say 5-10 minutes.
Catch yourself when you’re thinking, reflecting, distracted etc, and stop.
This is different to a meditation, where you might focus on noticing your experience, thoughts or breath.
Instead, you prevent yourself from going down too many internal or external experiences, and pause. Live reality as it is and not as you’re trying to alter it to feel better or different.
This will help you manage discomfort in the future and choose how you get tasks done.
Conclusion
You don’t have to implement all of these 10 tools at once.
If you believe you should, go back to the top and read the article again!
Instead, consider your specific circumstances and concerns with being busy, productive, and getting things done.
Are you able to prioritise the things that matter to you and your loved ones?
If not, what is holding you back?
Can one or a few of these tools help you right now?
If so, which one and how?
Here’s a TL;DR reminder of the list if you need a nudge:
Adopt a ‘Fixed Volume’ Approach to Productivity
Serialize, Serialize, Serialize
Decide In Advance What to Fail At
Focus on What You’ve Already Completed, Not Just on What’s Left to Complete
Consolidate You Caring
Embrace Boring and Single-Purpose Technology
Seek Out Novelty in the Mundane
Be a ‘Researcher’ in Relationships
Cultivate Instantaneous Generosity
Practice Doing Nothing
We have finite time and energy available on this planet.
It’s often a futile exercise to push ourselves to be perfect all-rounders who tick every box and get everything done.
It comes at a cost.
Prioritise the things that matter and take a strategic approach to what you will and won’t spend your precious time and energy on. You’ll feel more fulfilled for it!🚀
Which tool or tools will you try out to refocus yourself on what matters?