This year I picked my top five books and Burkeman garnered the number one spot for another book, but he earned the superlative for “most likely to change your life” for this one. I first discovered him (like not that I “discovered him” but that when I became aware of him, you get my meaning) on NPR Life Kit in an episode titled “How to Rethink What You Spend Your Time – And Life – Doing.” This simple 21 minute episode shook me upside down, with the thought that, as said by the host, “The answer to the riddle of time management, says Burkeman, is to first understand that time can’t be mastered at all, no matter how diligently we plan or how perfectly we arrange our schedule.”
Mic drop. There is no time management. Time will NOT be managed! All you can do is choose more intentionally, and intelligently, what you choose to spend your time on. That was largely the premise of “Time Management for Mortals” which I read earlier this year. And when a friend told me Burkeman had a new book out, well, I immediately tried to get it from my library. They didn’t have it, so I requested it for my library to have a copy and wasted no time (heh) ordering one for myself.
I did a podcast episode earlier about meditating and how that is a practice that I have enjoyed, and I thought this book was going to be guided meditations, but that’s not what it is at all. He has written this book to be a 28 day journe where each day he has created a short (2-4 page) essay for you to ponder and learn from. Each essay starts with a short quote from someone, and then he gives you his examination of the topic du jour. And I absorbed and marveled at every single page. I’m going to give myself the rest of the holiday to rest and chill, but I plan in the New Year to just start that book over again, because it gave me so many good ideas about re-examining small things in life.
And also, I got to be honest, I’m a little concerned Oliver Burkeman might have bugged my home, because the number of days I was struggling with something in my noggin, and then I picked up the book, and then whatever was in the book related directly to my experience. It was a lot.
For example, I was supposed to be meeting up with a friend to hang out, and I had not had the chance to clean my house. I was going to my friend’s house to hang out, but my brain was like, “but should you go somewhere if your house isn’t clean?” (I know. Brains. Ugh). I picked up the book that day, and the meditation was called “On Scruffy Hospitality.”And the quote at the top of the essay said, “A well-kept house is a sign of a life misspent.” So Oliver Burkeman, if you can see this, I guess thank you for your book.