Journalist Oliver Burkeman is the author of Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, an important book that addresses the cultural focus on productivity in modern life. Burkeman begins with the premise that the current heightened attention to optimizing time and the proliferation of efficiency hacks have largely been a recipe for simply being busier and constantly living in the future – which has resulted in an anxious relationship to time, illusions about our capacity to control time, and a tendency toward perfectionism and procrastination. Tim Adams, in his review of Burkeman’s book, observes that productivity is “revealed (by Burkeman) as a fairly dubious modern virtue.” Because our time and our lives (i.e., roughly “four thousand weeks” in duration) are finite, as Burkeman argues — an emotional reality we try to avoid, we must come to accept our finitude and ultimately raise our awareness of how we decide to use our time. We simply cannot get done everything that is on our plates, no matter what time management techniques we use. Burkeman’s approach to this conundrum involves transitioning from trying to “do it all” (an aspiration many of us unconsciously collude with) to “doing what really counts.” One reviewer of Burkeman’s book observes that “Every choice we make is both an affirmation and a sacrifice,” a reflection that Burkeman suggests involves “ceaselessly waving goodbye to possibility.” Burkeman opposes a literal view of conceptualizing time as a commodity, or merely as a pragmatic consideration (i.e., I can accomplish this task on Thursday after I do some other tasks on Wednesday), but instead champions a liberation from time.  In the next virtual meeting of the Men’s Group Seminar on Saturday, August 20, 2022 (10:15 to 11:30 AM), we will consider Burkeman’s perspective on time. Specifically, we will discuss an interview of Burkeman published in The Atlantic and additional video-recorded interviews with Rangan Chatterjee, M.D. (“Life Is Short”) and Robert Wright.

*Registration Directions: If you would like to attend the next virtual meeting of the Men’s Group Seminar on Saturday, August 20, 2022, 10:15 to 11:30 AM, please RSVP to me at 949-338-4388 or jt@jamestobinphd.com no later than Thursday, August 18, 2022. The fee is $25.00 (payable before entering the virtual meeting) and informed consent for participation in this telehealth event must be completed prior to the seminar. Please note that the Men’s Group Seminar is psychoeducational in nature, not therapeutic, and does not constitute psychotherapy or counseling.