You need to start saying no to things you do want to do, with the recognition that you have only one life.Make a top 25 of the things you most want in life. Focus on the top 5 and completely ignore the 20. They distract you from what matters most.

Resist the allure of middling priorities

Develop a taste for having problems(problems are the very substance of life) Embrace radical incrementalism(tolerate the fact that you won't produce much on a daily basis, but produce more over the longterm)(be willing to stop when your daily time is up - help strengthen the muscle of patience that will allow you to return to your work again and again) Originality lies at the far side of unoriginality(stay in the trial-and-error phase of copying others, learn new skills and accumulate experience)(the willingness to stop and be where you are, make the most of whatever part of the journey)

Principles of patience

1.A "fixed volume" approach to productivity (predetermined time boundaries for work + two to do lists (one closed and one open, keep max. 10 items on your closed one, add things from the open one only after completing tasks in the closed one)2.Focus on one big project at a time (postpone everything that you can, but one thing; the satisfaction from completing one big project will make the anxiety seem worth wile)3.Decide in advance what to fail at (strategic underachievement, conscious form of imbalance, underperform in some things on purpose, come back to them later)

10 tools for finitude

Whether it's in time, activity or object of focus, prioritise the things that are really important for you.Start doing that thing that matters most to you.

Pay yourself first

Procrastination has to do not with how much we'll be able to do in the time available, but rather that we won't have enough talent to produce work of sufficient quality.It prevents us from making the work that matters most to us.It's a strategy of emotional avoidance

Procrastination vs Perfection

You can never be truly certain about the future.And so your reach will always exceed your grasp.

We find ourselves living in the future , locating the 'real' value of our life in some time that we haven't yet reached, and never will.

You are here vs 'when-I-finally' mind

10.Practise doing nothing"I have discovered that all the unhappiness of men arises from one single fact, that they cannot sit quietly in their own chamber."Blaise Pascal

At the end of your life, looking back, whatever compelled your attention from moment to moment is simply what your life will have been.

Attention is life, not a resource

Fix a hard upper limit to the things you allow yourself to work on at any given time.Working on everything is simply not an option.

Limit your work in progress

You won't put a dent in the universe.It's a relief to be reminded of your insignificance.The things you are already doing are more meaningful than the things you're supposed to be doing.

You're not Einstein

4.Focus on what you've already completed (keep a 'done' list, the motivating power of small wins, fight the productivity debt and the wish to reach a zero balance by evening)5.Stop caring for too many things (social media, news, logic of attention economy)6.Embrace boring technology (single function)7.Seek out novelty in the mundane (pay attention to everyday things)8.Curiosity in relationships (your goals isn't to achieve something, but figure out who the other human is)9.Instant generosity (if you feel like giving a praise or a gift, act on impulse and do it)

Some Zen Buddhists hold that the entirety of human suffering can be boiled down to this effort to resist paying full attention to the way things are going, because we wish they were going differently, or because we wish we felt more in control of the process. There is a very down-to-earth kind of liberation in grasping that there are certain truths about being a limited human from which you'll never be liberated.You don't get to dictate the course of events.And the paradoxical reward for accepting reality's constraints is that they no longer feel so constraining.

Stop resisting

Hopefully, when the future arrives, we'll have what it takes to weather it.If you're willing to endure the discomfort of not knowing, a solution will always present itself.Rather than race towards a solution, let reality unfold at its own speed.

Keep improvising

... of being in control... that with more work you could meet other people's limitless demands... that painful experiences aren't coming your way... that this isn't really it.The average human life is terrifyingly short and this is cause for relief. Let go of the quest to become optimised. Just roll up your sleeves and start work on what's possible.

Give up hope..

The real problem of time management today, though, isn't that we're bad at prioritising the big rocks. Is that there are too many rocks - and most of them are never making it near that jar. The critical question isn't how to differentiate between activities that matter and those that don't, but what to do when far too many things feel at least somewhat important, and therefore arguably qualify as big rocks.

I've been looking for ways in which to balance  what I want to do with what I need to do. This book puts things in perspective in a mix of self help and philosophical bits. The weeks we live in a life really are finite.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER   “This is the most important book ever written about time management.”  —Adam Grant, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Again and host of WorkLife What if you stopped trying to do everything, so that you could finally get around to what counts? We're obsessed with our lengthening to-do lists, our overfilled inboxes, the struggle against distraction, and the sense that our attention spans are shrivelling. Still, we rarely make the connection between our daily struggles with time and the ultimate time management problem: the question of how best to use our ridiculously brief time on the planet, which amounts on average to about four thousand weeks. Four Thousand Weeks is an uplifting, engrossing and deeply realistic exploration of the challenge. Rejecting the futile modern obsession with 'getting everything done,' it introduces readers to tools for constructing a meaningful life by embracing rather than denying their limitations. Drawing on the insights of both ancient and contemporary philosophers, psychologists, and spiritual teachers, Oliver Burkeman sets out to realign our relationship with time - and in doing so, to liberate us from its tyranny. Embrace your limits. Change your life. Make your four thousand weeks count.

OLIVER BURKEMAN

Similar ideas

Introducing Psychology

Why am I not sticking with my goals?

GIULIO TONONI