MBA2284 Must Read: Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman

0:08Heyo! Welcome to the$100 MBA show, powerful business lessons delivered every single day with our daily 10 minute business lessons for the real world. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher, Omar Zinhome. I'm also the co-founder of Webinar Ninja, an independent software company. I started with my co-founder back in 2014. And today's episode is a must-read episode. On our must-read episodes, I share with you a book that I've read that has influenced me as an entrepreneur. I share with you its takeaways, its insights, and why you should read it too. Today's must-read is 4 ,000 Weeks by Oliver Berkman.

0:41The subtitle of 4 ,000 Weeks is Time Management for Mortals. This is one of the most unique books I've read on time management, and in my opinion, it's been the best one I've read so far. In fact, it's one of the best books I've read in the last 12 months. It's had such a great impact on me. It had me pondering and thinking about what I just read, putting the book down, and really just reflecting on the wisdom that was shared. In today's episode, I'm going to share with you why this book is so special, and why I think this is an absolute must-read book, and also why it's such a challenging book to read.

1:16The author, Oliver Berkman, created a masterpiece here. A well-researched, well-written book on how to see your life and how to manage the time you have here on earth. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business. Time management and productivity is probably one of the top genres of nonfiction books. People want to get the most out of their time, whether it's at work, in their business, in their life, people are aware that they only have 24 hours in the day. Now, while other productivity books talk about strategies and tactics and really go in the micro, 4 ,000 weeks really talks about the macro, looking at the big picture and changing your mindset when it comes to time management productivity.

2:00Now, the book is called 4 ,000 weeks because the average lifespan is 80 years, and that equals 4 ,000 weeks. And it's an interesting way to look at it because when you take a look at yourself, if you're middle-aged in your 40s, you're probably like, I have less than 20 ,000 weeks. That's not a lot of time. I have maybe 40 summers left. And as soon as I express this, our minds start racing. We start thinking about all the things we want to get done, right? All the things we want to do. We got to get everything done. We have bucket lists and we have goals and we have ambitions and we have places we want to be and stations in the life we want to get to.

2:35And right from the start, this book flat out tells you this is a myth. It's impossible, not virtually impossible, it's impossible to do everything. You will not get everything done. You will not be able to do everything you want. And unfortunately, in our pursuit to do everything, whether it's in one day or in one week or one year or one lifetime, we don't actually enjoy the process. We don't actually enjoy the moment, which is life in itself. We actually let life pass us by trying to achieve one thing after another. Now, I can definitely relate to this because I look back at the last year, two years, 10 years, and it's a blur.

3:13It just flew by because I was just chasing the next thing. Now, does this mean we don't do anything? No, of course not. But it means we have to understand everything is a trade-off. The more we understand this, the more we understand how valuable time is. How would I want to spend my time. And by the way, in the book, he discusses even this whole notion of 4 ,000 weeks is really a myth in itself because there's no guarantee you're going to live a full life or up to 80. Essentially, he's saying we're all living on borrowed time. Every time we wake up in the morning, it's a gift because we can die in any moment.

3:47And I always found it very interesting. It's one of the mysteries of the human existence is that no matter how much we're exposed to death, People die every day. We see this in the news. Our own family members, our friends, young and old, accidents, medical situations. Even though it's all around us, we just don't think it's going to happen to us for some weird reason. Maybe it's our survival instincts or our optimism. But the point here is that this is a reality. And most of us don't have this in our mind. Many of us are living and planning and spending our time or allocating our time as if we have unlimited time.

4:22Now, this book talks about a lot of practical things when it comes to changing your mindset, when it comes to productivity. It's very counterintuitive, in fact. One of the things that he shares is that if you want to boost productivity, you should incorporate procrastination. Meaning, you need time to rest and recharge and take a break and allow your brain to simmer on ideas. Whether it's throughout the day or throughout the week or throughout the year. We can't go full speed, full velocity, full energy and be at our best always. We can do it in spurts, but we need breaks in between. This is why we find it hard and we kind of procrastinate sometimes between tasks.

5:01Well, Oliver is saying, the author, he's saying, hey, this is our nature. So let's incorporate actual breaks so we don't feel guilty about it, right? Where we actually take a break after a certain period of time in the day to recharge, to have a cup of coffee, to read a book, to sit outside and get some sun and then come back at it, knowing that we can't go full tilt constantly. And instead of feeling guilty that we get distracted on our phones, we actually have healthy ways to recharge. One of my other favorite lessons in the book, takeaways, is how you spend your spare time. You have spare time.

5:30How are you spending it? And he's a big believer in spending it with family, friends, doing your favorite hobbies, activities, fun, basically. He says that the best memories we have in our life involve these aspects, people that we enjoy spending time with. Think about it. Think about the last year or some of your favorite memories sitting and watching Netflix. Probably not. Some of the best memories maybe might be going out to dinner with friends, game night, maybe a weekend holiday you did with your family. This is when we feel most alive is when we're with our favorite people and enjoying our favorite activities.

6:04This gives more life to our life. It actually gives us more energy throughout the day and throughout the week and month. I also like how this book goes really deep on the history of time, meaning how important time was to people in the past versus today. Now everything is measured by the millisecond. It goes back to a time when people were not obsessed with the clock, but more interested in the activities they do throughout the day. So for example, back in the day, you might've worked on a farm and you know that in the morning you feed the chickens and then you plow the fields and then you break for lunch and then you have a nap and then you do xyz the point here is is that it's about the activities rather than at eight o 'clock i do this at nine o 'clock i have a five minute break we've become a slave to the clock and the more you focus on something the more obsessed you become with it and he argues that maybe our life is not as enjoyable and as meaningful as it was before because it's less about what we do and it's more about how long it takes.

7:02And it made me reflect on my own activities in my business. When I worked on a project that really had no deadline, meaning it really, I didn't put it in a time constraint box. I gave it time to breathe. I gave it time to flourish and these ideas became stronger and more effective and the result was a lot more creative. Now, this is not to say that you should just be totally lackadaisical and have no deadlines whatsoever in your business. The point that the author's making here, Oliver Berkman, is it's a balance. You can't have everything ruled by the clock and throw the clock all together. There's a time for no boundaries and some constraints.

7:39It's when we have an imbalance that it's a problem. But the biggest takeaway I got from this book is questioning what is this all for? Okay, what is all this productivity and time management and efficiency for? What are we trying to achieve? And then I went through the whole five why is exercise. You know, when you ask why over and over. So for example, what is this all for? So I can be successful. Why you want to be successful? Well, I want to be successful because I want to make an impact on the world. Why? Because I want my life to have meaning. Why? Because I would feel like my life was not a waste.

8:12Why? Because I want to prove that to myself. Why? I guess I don't need to prove it to myself. And you start to realize that you're kind of working super hard and doing all these things and you have a shaky foundation. Why am I doing this all? And it's very confronting. It's very challenging because you start to realize maybe I spent a lot of time working on things that I really don't believe in. Now, I'm not talking about the actual products or businesses that you built. I'm talking about the reason behind them. This book really shakes you and makes you challenge yourself and say, hey, maybe I'm feeling disappointed in myself.

8:47I'm feeling like inadequate because the goal I'm setting for myself, this incredible, impactful, crazy entrepreneur is not actually what I want. What I actually want is to make an impact on the world in my small little way while having an enjoyable life that's rewarding and allows me to feel like I'm learning and growing. This changes everything, right? It starts to refactor your goals and you start realizing the pressure that you feel is something that you're producing for yourself. No one's imposing these pressures other than yourself. It's a very, very confronting book. And this is why it's not an easy read.

9:23It's one of those books where I had to put down after a chapter or two because I was contemplating, what does this mean for me? What does this mean for my business, my life? Maybe I agree with that. Maybe I don't agree with that. Maybe that's something that I'll take on. Maybe that's one I'll leave behind. So it's not one of those books you can just zoom through. There's also a lot of research, a lot of case studies. There's a lot of work that was done to compile this book. And whenever you have those things in a book, it takes a bit longer to kind of get through, but it's well worth it. It's well-written, well-researched, and well thought out.

9:55So to wrap up today's lesson, I recommend this book to anybody that's feeling overwhelmed, burnt out, feeling like they lack direction on how they're spending their time, their money, their efforts in their business or life. Maybe somebody like me who's, you know, in their early 40s and realizing that, you know, I've lived more than I have left and time is really not an asset that I can easily squander. I can't just waste it like I was younger, right? It's a wake-up call in a lot of ways, this book. And I can see somebody reading this book and putting it down. Maybe they're not ready for it. Maybe you'll read the book and kind of put it down halfway.

10:29But if you are ready for it and you're ready to kind of shake up the way you perceive productivity and time management and the way you live your life and spend your time every day, then I can't think of a better book. This is by far the best book I've read when it comes to how to use your most valuable asset, which is your time. Thanks so much for listening to The 100 on MBA Show. If you love what you hear, hit subscribe, hit follow on your favorite podcast app or on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher Radio, Overcast, every single app. Go ahead and subscribe right now or hit follow so that you get our next episode automatically and you get access to over 2200 episodes in our back catalog.

11:05If you want to give us extra love, go ahead and share this podcast with your friends on social. Go ahead and send them to 100mba.net and let them know, hey, this podcast is pretty good. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. Once in a while, you'll read a book that kind of shakes you to the core, starts questioning your beliefs that you've held for a while. I think these books are essential in life. One, because if your beliefs are solid, then it's going to prove that they're solid by examining them. Or you're going to realize these beliefs are built on shaky ground. And maybe I need to tweak or refine these beliefs to live a healthier life that's more aligned with your values.

11:41The point here is that you should seek out books that do challenge you. And this is the stage I'm at. I've been reading books recently and I'll share some on the show that have really shaken me, have really got me thinking, so that I can apply some of these new ideas, not only in my life, but in my business, in my team, and in the projects I'm working on. Thanks so much for listening, and I'll check you in tomorrow's episode. I'll see you then. Take care.