Quirkbag Collection #13 – 29.08.25
How I Learned Time Management
I recently read the book “Four Thousand Weeks” by Oliver Burkeman and it transformed my original idea of time management and productivity. Several of the concepts raised in the book forced me to confront the limitations we, as humans, have. And I realised that it is only after facing these underlying assumptions and truths that I get a more accurate picture of life and time.
The book itself is a mirror and a spotlight. It reflected to me the habits I (and most of us) have when it comes to poorly spending time under the illusion of ‘efficiency’.
Reading the book made me think a lot about the meaning of it all – our jobs, lives, choices.
What do we really define as important? What is deserving of our time?
It’s easy to write down everything we want to do and then fail to do it, thinking we simply ‘need more time’ or be ‘more efficient’. But unless you really can justify those tasks in life, you might find in your heart that most of them are pointless and trivial anyway.
My Time In The Past
As the stereotypical Singaporean student, my time was spent studying and little was spent on much else, because this concept of ‘time management’ was unheard of. Rather than saying that studying is unimportant, it should not be life-consuming. (Perhaps learning is a better alternative.)
It might start sounding like an existential crisis. But in fact, it’s the opposite. The mindset shift in how we spend our time begins with questioning how our time is spent. We do not have forever.
As Emily Dickinson phrased it, ‘Forever is composed of Nows’, and indeed, all we have is the moment now.
Right now.
Well, I start university soon. And I sure hope this lesson travels with me (and you) forward in time. Rather than being busy, I will try to be productive. It’s easy to be busy, but all too hard to be productive. When I studied for A levels, perhaps a decent chunk of time was spent being busy rather than really being productive.
Regardless of age, this idea of time management is one that applies to all of us, humans, because we are all finite.
How Do We Spend Time?
Maybe ‘what is the meaning of life?’ is the wrong question. More specifically, ‘how do we spend time?’ illuminates our lives better.
Once the latter question has been asked, it leads to the perennial paralysis-inducing problem of choice.
“Our lives are the sum of our choices.”
Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning (2023)
No line better sums up life as a whole better than one of my favouriteime from Mission Impossible. It holds a special place with me.
The centrality of this idea in life has more credit than we give it. Denying and avoiding the truth that we will never accomplish everything nor experience everything creates a false sense of control over our own lives, distracting us from facing the finitude of our time.
Delaying the choice makes us feel like we never have to make it, as though our time never runs out.
But it does.
So what then if we have limited time? Ironically, it simply means we need to have better time management: choose to spend time on what you really consider important and eliminate all other tasks. This includes those tasks, particularly these ones, which are not worth pursuing yet seductive enough to distract you from your top priority.
Yes, easier said than done. But once done, it is far easier and more relieving than you might think.
Time management is not cutting up the hours to fit an insane number of tasks from the never-ending to-do list.
It’s the exact opposite. It’s cutting the number of things from that list and putting them nicely into the time we do have – four thousand weeks, on average.
It’s time to let go. (I keep thinking of this great scene when I see this sentence.)
Let go of what banal, trivial matter you used to meddle with. Start living for yourself.
Living Meaningfully
Embrace your temporary existence. Start choosing what to do. And the only way to start living meaningfully is to accept the opportunity cost in every choice you make.
It is inevitable.
The deliberate choice and intentional use of time give meaning to our lives spent.
Fear not that time has not been used doing other things, because there are an infinite number of things you can do! Just take heart in the things you have chosen to do because they are meaningful to you, in the moment.
This is not a protest against planning for the future, but a relief towards constantly being paralysed with “not knowing what to best do with time”.
Choose.
To conclude, I couldn’t think of a better way than this:
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to decide what is worth your time and dedicate time to it for a meaningful life spent doing things you care about. (Most of us will self-destruct in four thousand weeks😏)
Good luck.
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