How to Make Time Matter

Can you believe it’s almost November?

How do you respond to the inevitable and seemingly faster passage of time?

Is it with an increased sense of urgency to be more productive still?

If so, I think you’ll benefit from exploring this article by journalist and author Oliver Burkeman, which came to my inbox via the Greater Good Science Center this week.

Burkeman writes about “productivity, mortality, the power of limits, and building a meaningful life in an age of bewilderment,” and you can sign up for his twice-monthly email distribution joyfully entitled The Imperfectionist.

In "Ten Ways to Make Your Time Matter", he reminds us that there is a lot we can do to make our time management feel more meaningful if we consciously broaden our thinking about it.

“…..the modern discipline of time management (or productivity) is depressingly narrow-minded, focused on devising the perfect morning routine or trying to crank through as many tasks as possible, while investing all your energy on reaching some later state of well-being and accomplishment. It ignores the fact that the world is bursting with wonder—and that experiencing more of that wonder may come at the cost of productivity.”

When we recognize the shortness of life—and accept the fact that some things have to be left unaccomplished, whether we like it or not—we are freer to focus on what matters. Rather than succumbing to the mentality of “better, faster, more,” we can embrace being imperfect, and be happier for it.”

Unaccomplished, imperfect, and mortal. (Are you squirming?)

There are, indeed, ways to live with a healthy respect for our limited time on this planet and feel more constructive (if a little less productive) and happier for it. Burkeman’s article offers 10 powerful suggestions that are taken from his book Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals.

Have you ever tried to “serialize”, “embrace boring and single-purpose technology”, or “decide in advance what you are going to fail at”?

Have you ever wanted to know why children and adults experience the passage of time differently and how to recapture that feeling of time feeling just right? Then, you may be interested in his suggestion #7 - to seek novelty in the mundane.

"Time seems to speed up as we age, likely because our brains encode the passage of years based on how much information we process in any given interval. While children have many novel experiences and time, therefore, seems slower to them, the routinization of older people’s lives means that time seems to pass at an ever-increasing rate.

The standard advice is to combat this by cramming more novel experiences into your life. That can help, but it’s not always practical. An alternative is to pay more attention to every moment, however mundane—to find novelty by plunging more deeply into your present life. Try going on unplanned walks to see where they lead you, taking up drawing or birdwatching, or playing “I Spy” with a child—whatever draws your attention into the moment more fully."

I am quite confident that something in Burkeman’s piece will resonate with you. Regardless of whether you’ve passed the quarter-century, the half-century, or the three-quarter-century mark, it will help you forge a less urgent, more appreciative, and more meaningful relationship with time.

Plunge more deeply into the present.

Remember the world is bursting with wonder.

In love for all time,

Molly