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Simplify Your Time Management With the ‘Rule of 4’
Simon Sinek has spoken about how much value he’s gotten from studying the work of his longtime professional rival Adam Grant. Watching another person do very similar work but with his own unique strengths on display, Sinek claims, both frustrated him and helped him grow. For me, the person who very often makes me feel that way is Oliver Burkeman.
A former Guardian columnist and author of several books, Burkeman is not only obviously more accomplished than me, he also covers similar topics around psychology, success, and productivity. That means very often I read something he’s written and realize we’ve seen the same studies or referenced the same author. Burkeman just frequently manages to boil that wisdom down in a more compelling and cohesive way than I do.
The most recent example is the latest edition of his excellent newsletter, The Imperfectionist, which offers an incredibly powerful approach to time management.
Four a day is all you get.
In it, Burkeman writes about one of the few hard-and-fast rules of time management he’s discovered. “You almost certainly can’t consistently do the kind of work that demands serious mental focus for more than about three or four hours a day,” he declares. “It’s positively spooky how frequently this three-to-four-hour range…
