PREMIUM: "The Fallacy of Productivity" with Oliver Burkeman
Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps
Josh Szeps
4.6 β’ 863 Ratings
ποΈ 17 February 2025
β±οΈ 39 minutes
ποΈ Recording | iTunes | RSS
π§ΎοΈ Download transcript
Summary
Productivity tips. Life hacks. Calendar apps. Magic mornings. Brain supplements.
None of it will free you from the sense that there's more to do than you possibly can. That's because you're finite. Your time is finite, your focus is finite, and you're going to die. No productivity hack can change that.
It's a liberating idea, if you look at it the way Oliver Burkeman does. Oliver was the second-ever guest on this podcast, at the height of the Covid pandemic, to discuss how to ignore the news. He returned in 2021 to discuss his profound book, "Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals" (four thousand being the number of weeks in an eighty-year life).
Oliver was a columnist for The Guardian in New York before decamping to the English countryside from where he writes his marvellous blog, The Imperfectionist. Today, Oliver and Josh discuss ambition, anxiety, the hedonic treadmill, self-help, Elon Musk, distractedness, boredom, and snorkelling in Yorkshire.
Oliver's latest book is "Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts".
Be sure to check out even more terrific chats on the Substack page at Subscribe to Uncomfortable Conversations with Josh Szeps
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Gahey, humans. |
| 0:03.5 | Welcome to the safe space for dangerous ideas. |
| 0:06.6 | Here's a dangerous idea for you. |
| 0:09.0 | There will always be more to do. |
| 0:11.7 | There is no productivity tip or life hack or AI calendar app or magic morning routine or brain supplement or project management practice |
| 0:24.4 | that if you find it and implement it will leave you feeling like you're actually on top of all |
| 0:30.4 | your shit. You will never feel like you're on top of all your shit. It will always be more to do. If you're anything like me, |
| 0:39.3 | that is both terrifying and also somewhat consoling, because maybe you kind of like productivity |
| 0:45.0 | hacks and feeling like you can get on top of stuff and feeling like if you just deploy this |
| 0:49.2 | method or that method, you'll find a way, you'll find a way to have a mind like water and to just walk through |
| 0:57.5 | your days with a sense of effortless completion and purpose and validity in this crazy world. |
| 1:04.7 | Sadly, for most of us, that is illusory, unless you become like a Zen Buddhist monk. |
| 1:11.3 | Instead, what we have to grapple with is the fact that we are finite. |
| 1:15.5 | We have a finite amount of time. |
| 1:18.2 | We have a finite amount of focus. |
| 1:20.5 | We have a finite amount of things we can do. |
| 1:23.3 | We are going to die. |
| 1:26.0 | And there is no productivity hack that will change that fact. |
| 1:30.4 | That is a liberating idea, according to Oliver Berkman. |
| 1:34.7 | Oliver had a column in The Guardian for almost 15 years. |
| 1:38.8 | He's a journalist. |
| 1:39.9 | He's reported from exotic locales such as London and Washington and New York City, where he used to |
... |
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