Living Finite Lifespan WELL is about Prioritisation and not Productivity……

It is quite a revelation to relook life span in weeks and the realization that weeks are moving fast, while we continue to prepare for life when all will be done, be in control and at peace, allowing us to live our Life. 

Let us look at Oliver Burkeman take on living the alternate way, through set of insights:

1. The more efficient one becomes, the longer to-do list becomes- same is true for emails as well
2. Distractions are welcome as relief from something we need to do but not like to spend time doing! Don’t blame the social media which is designed to get your attention to provoke distraction.  
3. Forced busyness to get everything done avoids the pain in deliberately choosing where to spend our finite time as humans, and confront loss of choosing what not to do (FOMO syndrome)
4. Self-deception lies in the belief that future version of ours will be more certain, problem-free and in control of time, and one will live well then!
5. Realizing cosmic insignificance of single life liberates one from over attachment to adding meaning to every moment of living and makes it easy to be accept modest contribution and be less hard on self

Some suggestions, worth experimenting with 

6. Put hard upper limit on the tasks one will work on at one time and any addition to the list requires completion or removal of item in ongoing tasks list.
7. Consciously choose where less than excellence is acceptable ie strategic underachievement is ok
8. Consolidate areas wherein one will contribute ie take one cause that you would align with, instead of shuttling between various genuine causes, all being worthy of support
9. Do not postpone generosity, be it praising a colleague, offering help to someone in need, on the pretext that one would do better or more effectively later on- later may never come! 
10. Use the principle of taking out saving first from income and using rest to support whatever expenditure possible, to time as well ie staring with spending time for most essential first and then second essential onwards till the fixed time gets all used up.   

The book rallies around the need to revisit our relationship with time and to let go the quest for being in control and being top of everything.   The essence of time management lies in better, ruthless and guilt-free priority management and accepting that some stuff will never get done.

While the central message of the book is not new nor radical, it is the cogency of the arguments and references to research work, thinkers and relatable analogies to daily experience that make it an interesting read and hopefully influence readers’ mindset as well.