TPL#12: This Book Changed How I View Productivity

Welcome to the 12th edition of The Thrive Protocol Letter!

This week at a glance:

“Four Thousand Weeks, Time Management For Mortals” by Oliver Burkeman was a tremendously impactful read for me. It fundamentally changed how I see time and productivity. I’m going to share those profound insights today.

I picked up “Four Thousand Weeks” last year, thinking it would be another self-help productivity book with a few useful tools and hacks for getting more done.

I was wrong — Four Thousand Weeks is anything but another typical productivity book, and it radically challenges the common narrative on productivity.

Most productivity content focuses on how to fit more in, how to squeeze the most out of your days, and cram every last item of your expanding to-do list in your schedule.

Burkemans take is that when we look at our lives with a brutal self-awareness about the limitations of our time and energy, true productivity is about establishing what is most important and neglecting nearly everything else.

You won’t have time to pursue the things that are the most meaningful to you unless you choose what is worth cutting out.

Life is a series of tradeoffs, and to live intentionally while reducing the likelihood of regret, you need to choose these tradeoffs.

Choose your tradeoffs intentionally, or they’ll occur through complacency.

The latter is a dangerous choice.

The tricky part to this is that life isn’t a game of easy tradeoffs — you won’t just be cutting out the meaningless fluff. You won’t have time for all the important things that come up. Choosing your tradeoffs means choosing what important things you’ll cut out to make room for the MOST important things.

I’ve found this to be a significant mindset shift for how I think about my time, energy, and what it means to live a balanced life.

I saw a Twitter post not too long ago that went something like this:

My previous answer would have been that they have smart systems that allow them to optimize their time and allocate the right amount to all of these aspects of life.

My new answer is that they don’t.

Perfect balance is a myth. It kills me to say that because I love the idea of a perfectly balanced life, but I no longer believe it’s realistic, and it certainly isn’t in all phases of life.

The writer and content creator Zulie Rane wrote a piece about balance that hit me hard and influenced my perspective on this. She was speaking candidly about what it took for her to build enough momentum as a creator to transition from working a 9-5 to working for herself.

She put in 20-30 hour weeks on her business on top of her 9-5.

I’m pretty sure she wasn’t training for a marathon or enjoying a thriving social life during this period…

She admits in the article that she was unbalanced during this time of her life, but it had a tremendous payoff for her because it allowed her to branch into working for herself full-time.

My recent experience online has enforced this idea.

I don’t have a success story like Zulie (yet), and I’m still working at content and my coaching business as a side hustle, along with a full-time job.

But I have started to make some real progress this year: I’ve been growing on Twitter and growing this newsletter, and I’ve signed my first few coaching clients.

I do two newsletter pieces per week, several tweets per day, 2-3 Twitter threads per week, repurpose this content for other platforms, DM potential prospects, and do calls and programming for my current clients.

I’m not saying this to flex (I’m only just getting started) but to make the point that it is a decent effort alongside having a 9-5 and a soon-to-be wife that I ideally make some time for.

I wish I could tell you about my sexy system that lets me seamlessly fit in this side hustle with all other aspects of my perfectly balanced life.

That I go golfing with my friends and play on a rec soccer team and volunteer on Saturdays.

But I can’t.

The uncomfortable truth is that to fit this in, the tradeoff has been a social life.

My fiance and I moved across Canada (from Vancouver to Montreal) at the end of last October. When normal people move to a new city, they join groups, sign up for classes, or join a dodgeball team. They go to the office regularly and try to connect with their coworkers.

I have done none of this.

I have not spent 10 seconds investing in creating a social life here in Montreal. It’s partially because we don’t like this city at all, and are moving back to Vancouver at the end of the year (we moved for a job for my fiance ).

But the main reason is that I can barely find time for everything I need to do as it is, and hanging out with friends on the weekend would be a further distraction I don’t need.

This is the part where you say:

And I completely agree.

And I’m not advocating for neglecting a social life at all. Social connections are undeniably important for ideal health.

This is the kicker to the brutal, honest realization of how finite our time is and the implications that it has for our lives.

The hardest tradeoffs will be the important things you need to trade to make room for the most important things.

Since I’ve made the mindset shift of being brutally honest about my bandwidth and limited time, I’ve chosen to prioritize building an online brand and business above nearly everything else.

I still exercise quite a bit — but that is part of the brand I’m building.

I’ll stress again that I’m not suggesting anyone eliminate a social life. I don’t love traditional hustle culture that glorifies struggling, and I’m not attempting to advocate for that here.

I’ve just been ruthlessly realistic about my time and bandwidth, and I’ve chosen to sacrifice something important for what I believe to be the greater benefit.

Zulie Rane’s story has a happy ending: the extremely unbalanced phase she went through opened the door for her to enjoy a more balanced life working for herself than she had when she was working for an employer.

It’s better to think about balance in the long-term sense and to fully accept that life may have seasons of obsession.

You may have to be incredibly unbalanced during one of these seasons of obsession in order to accomplish what you need to get done.

But ultimately, that sprint may provide you the opportunity to live a more balanced life.

I think of this as micro balance and macro balance.

Micro balance is the idea that each small unit of time — each day, week, and month should be perfectly balanced.

The person who wrote that post wondering about how some people fit everything in perfectly is talking about micro balance.

Macro balance is seeing the bigger picture, and understanding that there may be months, quarters, and years spent in an unbalanced way in order to create a more meaningful life and ultimately achieve better balance in the long term.

The traditional productivity tricks and hacks are a distraction. They allow you to believe that if you tweak your schedule — if you optimize a little bit, you can fit everything in.

Honest productivity is initially more uncomfortable: you can’t fit everything in, and trying will dilute your energy for what matters most.

But when you embrace this, it makes your choices for what you do much more meaningful. You’re choosing to do this thing over the infinite other things that you could be doing with your finite time.

If you don’t intentionally choose your tradeoffs, it’s easy to find yourself without enough time to pursue the projects that matter the most to you.

Make time for what matters most to you by choosing the important things that you’ll have to cut out.

Choosing your tradeoffs is choosing your life.

When you’re ready, here’s how you can work with me.

I want to help you build sustainable habits to optimize your health, fitness, & mindset so you can thrive in life.

If you’re tired of spinning your tires, failing to get results, and wondering what you’re doing wrong, apply for 1-1 coaching now.

Results are guaranteed.

You’ll hit your goals, or I’ll work with you for free until you do.

Book a free consultation call below to see if we’re a good fit.