Why Our Obsession With Productivity Is All Wrong - Oliver Burkeman - #772

Modern Wisdom

Chris Williamson

Health & Fitness, Society & Culture

4.6 • 5.9K Ratings

🗓️ 18 April 2024

⏱️ 74 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Oliver Burkeman is a journalist, a writer for The Guardian and an author. We often find ourselves caught in a productivity spiral, feeling as though we aren’t accomplishing enough and scalding ourselves when we fall short of impossibly high bars. What drives this constant pursuit of perfection? Is it truly beneficial to continuously seek efficiency? Expect to learn why so many of us have a ruthless obsession with being productive, the problem with trying to optimise efficiency as much as possible, why control is such a point of tension in our lives, what the relationship is between productivity and emotions, whether there is power in embracing your limitations instead of trying to fix them, why it’s so hard to cut ourselves some slack, how we can make writing less hard and much more... Sponsors: See discounts for all the products I use and recommend: https://chriswillx.com/deals Get 10% off all Legendary Foods purchases at https://EatLegendary.com/modernwisdom (use code MODERNWISDOM) Get 10% discount on all Gymshark’s products at https://bit.ly/sharkwisdom (use code MW10) Sign up for a one-dollar-per-month trial period from Shopify at https://www.shopify.com/modernwisdom (automatically applied at checkout) Timestamps: (00:00) The Modern Mental Health Crisis (05:21) Are Therapists the Problem? (08:53) Do We Just Need to Connect to Our Feelings More? (14:39) Does Therapy Make Mental Health Worse? (22:17) Gen-Z Are Learning to Be Avoidant (27:31) Finding a Sweet Spot With Therapy (33:27) The Paradox in Depression Treatment (37:47) Therapy Culture Vs Bad Therapy (43:19) Are Smartphones & Climate Change to Blame? (51:23) The Impact of Single-Parent Households (55:04) Schools Making Parents Into Enemies (01:01:28) Overuse of the Word ‘Trauma’ (01:05:57) Is Mindfulness a Better Way? (01:14:34) Kids Are Too Over-Medicated (01:19:31) A Better Way Forward (01:23:35) Where to Find Abigail Extra Stuff: Check out Oliver’s BBC Maestro Course - https://www.bbcmaestro.com/courses/oliver-burkeman/time-management Get my free reading list of 100 books to read before you die: https://chriswillx.com/books Try my productivity energy drink Neutonic: https://neutonic.com/modernwisdom Episodes You Might Enjoy: This Is How To Master Your Life - David Goggins - #577: ⁠⁠⁠lnkfi.re/SN-Goggins⁠⁠⁠ How To Destroy Your Negative Beliefs - Dr Jordan Peterson - #712: ⁠⁠⁠lnkfi.re/SN-Peterson⁠⁠⁠ The Secret Tools To Hack Your Brain - Dr Andrew Huberman - #700: ⁠⁠⁠lnkfi.re/SN-Huberman⁠⁠ - Get In Touch: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chriswillx Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/chriswillx YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/modernwisdompodcast Email: https://chriswillx.com/contact - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello everybody, welcome back to the show.
0:02.8	My guest today is Oliver Berkman, he's a journalist, writer for the guardian, and an author.
0:08.0	We often find ourselves caught in a productivity spiral, feeling as though we aren't accomplishing enough and scolding ourselves
0:14.7	when we fall short of impossibly high bars, what drives this constant pursuit of perfection and
0:20.4	is it truly beneficial to continuously seek efficiency.
0:24.1	Expect to learn why so many of us have a ruthless obsession with being productive,
0:28.6	the problem with trying to optimize efficiency as much as possible, why control is such a point of tension in our lives,
0:35.8	what the relationship between productivity and emotions is, whether there is power in
0:40.2	embracing your limitations instead of trying to fix them, why it's so hard to cut ourselves
0:45.0	some slack, how we can make writing less difficult, and much more.
0:50.7	I love Oliver's work. He is like the productivity equivalent of a Landerboton.
0:56.2	Brilliant, self-derigating British writer. It's just, he's fantastic. I really appreciate his insights and I think that they, they see
1:08.0	the human condition very accurately and very purely and it should make you feel very reassured.
1:15.6	I know that I do when I read his work or listen to him speak.
1:18.8	It kind of reminds me that I'm not broken for having the wants that I have for my life and yet the guilt around having those
1:26.2	wants to get more out of my day and he's great I really think that you're going to take
1:30.7	tons away from this so if you do share it with a friend there will be someone who probably desperately needs to hear this and you could very well help them if you send it to them.
1:40.0	I've become absolutely obsessed with legendary foods lately.
1:43.1	They make the best protein sweets I've ever had.
1:46.4	Their cinnamon, protein, sweet roll and strawberry protein pastry
1:49.5	are literally like crack and each of the snacks are between 150 and 200 to 20 calories and have 20 grams of protein and 2 or less
1:58.2	grams of sugar. Your average cinnamon roll is more than 400 calories and has 60 grams of sugar, and almost zero protein.
	...

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