Week 1, Day 1

Week 1: Being Finite

         Day 1: Summary: We are all going to die before we have either the time or opportunity to do everything we want or even everything we need to do. This may sound depressing, but Burkeman would beg to disagree. He argues that the acceptance of our own certain failure can even help us to relax and start to think about prioritizing what matters to us right now, instead of trying to find the optimal ways to squeeze more out of our to-do list.

          As an annoying control freak, I have struggled to find a way to get on top of my life for many years. I would like to say that I’m in recovery from my attempts to control the universe and everyone in it, but that would not be true. I have, however, improved, although it’s a “one day at a time” process with frequent failures. My work habits have long been a particular target for my efforts. I was convinced that I would one day be able to find an optimal method for being more efficient and productive only for reality to thwart me at every turn. Nevertheless, I’ve long been convinced that I would be able to identify the most efficient way of writing a novel and when the I inevitably fail, I spend time beating myself up.

          Homework: Accept that my writing process is slow and that there is no universal tool to make it go faster.