What if I told you that mastering time is a myth?
That all the apps, the systems, the productivity hacks… They’re not making you freer — they’re making you busier.
In Four Thousand Weeks, Oliver Burkeman offers a radical — and honestly, freeing — perspective:
You’ll never master time. And that’s okay.
Let’s talk about why chasing control over your time might keep you from living it.
The Productivity Fantasy
From the moment we start school, we’re trained to believe that time is something to manage.
Something to dominate. Something we should master.
So we buy planners. We block our calendars. We listen to podcasts on how to squeeze every last drop out of every hour.
But Burkeman says this is a trap — the efficiency trap.
The better we get at doing things quickly… the more things we’re expected to do.
I was like that when writing my books. I was trying to write faster and faster. But instead of focusing on the book I was writing, I was making a list of ten books I could (and should) be writing too.
It was like pouring water into a leaking bucket. You never feel caught up, and the chase never ends.
Four Thousand Weeks – The Big Idea
Here’s the big idea from Four Thousand Weeks:
You don’t need to master time. You need to make peace with it.
Because time isn’t something you control. It’s something you experience.
Trying to “get on top of everything” is like trying to hold back the tide with your hands. You can try. But you’ll always lose — and you’ll feel exhausted in the process.
And it’s not your fault. You’ve been sold a vision of productivity that treats time like an opponent.
But time was never the enemy.
A Better Relationship With Time
What if instead of trying to dominate your time, you started to partner with it?
Instead of asking: “How can I do more?” Ask: “What’s truly worth doing?”
Burkeman reminds us that we only have about four thousand weeks on this planet.
Trying to optimise every second isn’t noble — it’s missing the point.
Meaning doesn’t come from cramming in more. It comes from choosing less and going deeper.
The Stress of Chasing Time
Let me share something personal. There was a time in my life when I was obsessed with mastering time.
When I had a meeting, I tried to judge it so that I turned up at that meeting exactly on time. If the meeting was at 10 am, I was there at 10 am and not before.
I didn’t want to waste time sitting around waiting for a meeting to start.
Then one day it dawned on me that this was insane.
I was getting anxious and stressed, and tense for a handful of minutes. And guess what I felt when I walked into the meeting? Yep, I was still uptight from racing to get there on time.
Now I plan to be early to meetings so I can arrive calm and relaxed. I love the 5-10 minutes of waiting time because I can chill out.
Reading Four Thousand Weeks helped me breathe again. It gave me permission to stop chasing… and start living.
How to Use Your Time
So what can you do instead? Here are three general principles for using your time wisely:
- Let go of the idea that you’ll ever “get everything done.” You won’t.
- Choose a few things that truly matter — and go all in.
- Allow the rest to fall away.
Because your worth isn’t defined by how efficient you are. It’s defined by how intentionally you spend the time you do have.
Burkeman puts it beautifully:
“The real measure of any time management technique is whether or not it helps you neglect the right things.”
Stop Chasing Time
So if you’ve been trying to master time, maybe it’s time to stop.
Not because you’re giving up.
But because you’re finally ready to stop fighting the clock… and start living by it.
Focus on meaning, not more.
You only get four thousand weeks.
Use them to build a life, not just a schedule.
Time isn’t a problem to solve. It’s a gift to embrace.
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