One of the more recent time management books you'll find in the bookshops of any self-respecting airport terminal is Oliver Burkeman’s 4,000 Weeks.

It’s not a book which lays out a funky time management system like David Allen’s bestseller Getting Things Done or Stephen Covey’s classic The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

It’s a more relaxed and unconventional take on time management than those.

But it’s still a time management book at its core.

The book's big idea is that the best way to manage your time is to give up on the fantasy that you’ll ever be on top of things. So you’ll always have unread emails, you’ll always have stuff on your to-do list and yes, you’ll always have time management books you haven’t got around to reading. And, according to Burkeman, once you realise this, you'll relax and become more intentional with how you use your time. 

I can see where Burkeman's coming from. I also agree that trying to get everything done is a fool’s errand.

But here’s my problem with this:

Burkeman is treating “accept that life will always be unfinished” as something to DO. Like a sort of mindset you can adopt or a reframe you can use.

And sure, his idea “you’ll never be on top of things” does calm me down. Especially when I’m reading his book at 9pm on a Sunday evening with a whiskey in my hand, stretched out on the sofa here at Chateau Grundy.

However…

Let’s fast forward to 4pm on a workday. That’s when I have three meetings in my calendar which all start at the same time, my inbox has gone into overdrive, my Teams messenger is flashing up like a Christmas Tree and I’ve got an urgent deadline to hit by close of business. I also know that if I don’t leave the office at 5.15pm, I’ll miss my train and miss bedtime with Baby Grundy too.

This sort of situation is common for me.

Yet Burkeman’s wisdom “I’ll always have a load of crap on my plate so I just need to be more intentional with how I use my time” is about as useful as a chocolate teapot. 

In fact, his whole idea that “life will always be unfinished” is like telling someone who’s drowning that the ocean is wet. It doesn't help at all with the real life situation.

This is where my new workshop Reclaim Your Evening speeds into view.

I’ve set up the workshop for anyone who’s fed up with time management tips, productivity hacks and “helpful” reframes (Burkeman’s included) but would still like to make clearer decisions about when to stop working. 

What I'll share isn't a framework or a system. It's something that changed the way I see time itself which once I saw, I couldn't unsee. 

If you’d like to check out the details, here’s where to go next:

Reclaim Your Evening

To fulfilment,

Tom