The Dark Side of Being Obsessed With Productivity

Plain English with Derek Thompson

The Ringer

News Commentary, News

4.8 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 31 January 2023

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

"Productivity is a trap. Nobody in the history of humanity has ever achieved work-life balance. The real problem isn’t our limited time. The real problem—or so I hope to convince you—is that we’ve unwittingly inherited, and feel pressured to live by, a troublesome set of ideas about how to use our limited time, all of which are pretty much guaranteed to make things worse." That's how Oliver Burkeman, the author of 'Four Thousand Weeks,' explains our relationship to happiness and time. In this episode, he and Derek talk about his philosophy, the downside of constantly living for some future achievement, goals versus habits, and making peace with our finitude. Host: Derek Thompson Guest: Oliver Burkeman Producer: Devon Manze Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey there, humanoids. This is David Chumaker here with a very exciting announcement.
0:06.0	Your favorite wrestling podcast feed, The Ring of Wrestling Show, is now going daily.
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0:15.0	And you can join me, Peter Rosenberg, alongside Stack Eye Greg and Dip, every Tuesday with Cheap Eat.
0:21.0	And on Fridays, I'll welcome a friend or special guest from the world of wrestling.
0:25.0	Now Wednesdays, we have a very special new show called Wednesday Worldwide
0:29.0	that you're going to want to check out.
0:31.0	Pay-per-view reaction, one of a kind interviews, fantasy booking, talking about bagels.
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0:38.0	Follow the show now on Spotify.
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	...

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