Why You Can't Do It All

In his book Four Thousand Weeks, Oliver Burkeman points out an important paradox that I hadn't considered before: by trying to get everything done, we can actually end up doing mostly small, easy, unimportant things while neglecting the larger, more challenging things that are truly important to us. Only by accepting that we can't do it all can we really focus on what matters most.

"This big important thing is going to take serious time and thought," we think. "I can't do it now when I have all this other stuff to do. First, I'll just clear my plate of the other todos; then when I'm done, I'll have the time and brainpower for this big important thing. Voila!" 😁

That sounds nice, but in reality we never "clear our plates" of the smaller todos because they multiply faster than we can cross them off the list. 📈

Weeks, months, and years go by while we're clearing our plates, and the important things remain undone.

So how can we make progress on this problem? 🤔

Step 1, Burkeman says, is to realize that we'll never truly get it all done. That's just life! There's always more to do, because the possibilities are endless. When we're done with the dishes, we might realize that the stove needs cleaning. After the stove is clean, we might notice that the floors are dirty. After the floors... ⏳

So—we must give up on the idea that we'll ever get "it all" done. That idea is a lie—an illusion. 🪄✨

That leads to Step 2, which is actually starting on one of your big important things, to the exclusion of other things on your todo list. At some point, "some day" must mean today. That big chunk of focused time is never going to magically pop into existence by itself—you're going to have to intentionally carve it out of your day. 🗓️

So my question for you is—are you doing lots of little unimportant things to try to "get it all done", while leaving your important things collecting dust?

If so—maybe it's time to switch that up a bit, and let the little unimportant things collect dust while you turn to bigger and better things. ❤️