TBU#27 How to use your time with Intention: Insights from Oliver Burkeman’s Four Thousand Weeks

02-05-2023 • 34 mins

“What would it mean to spend the only time you ever get in a way that truly feels as though you are making it count?”

That’s the question Oliver Burkeman poses at the end of Four Thousand Weeks, saying that it’s the most fundamental question of time management.

To answer that question, he poses five more specific questions, which Rowena and Shelley are diving into in this episode of Two Booked Up. The questions are:

Where in your life or your work are you currently pursuing comfort, when what’s called for is a little discomfort?
Are you holding yourself to, and judging yourself by, standards of productivity or performance that are impossible to meet?
In what ways have you yet to accept the fact that you are who you are, not the person you think you ought to be?
In which areas of life are you still holding back until you feel like you know what you’re doing?
How would you spend your days differently if you didn’t care so much about seeing your actions reach fruition?

Rowena shares lots of ideas and examples of how we can use these questions to help guide our decision-making and our use of time in a more intentional way.

Learn more about becoming a better procrastinator

Part of feeling like you’re making your time count means procrastinating better. Shelley and Rowena discussed this in the last episode of Two Booked Up, Becoming a better procrastinator.

Shelley was so taken with the idea that she’s put together a blog post on how to procrastinate better. You’ll learn her 7-step process for better procrastination and ultimately get the important stuff done. There’s a nice downloadable printable for you there too.

Check out the post here.