Why Our Obsession With Productivity Is All Wrong - Oliver Burkeman - #772 - podcast episode cover

Why Our Obsession With Productivity Is All Wrong - Oliver Burkeman - #772

Apr 18, 20241 hr 9 minEp. 772
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Episode description

Oliver Burkeman is a journalist, a writer for The Guardian and an author.

We often find ourselves caught in a productivity spiral, feeling as though we aren’t accomplishing enough and scalding ourselves when we fall short of impossibly high bars. What drives this constant pursuit of perfection? Is it truly beneficial to continuously seek efficiency?

Expect to learn why so many of us have a ruthless obsession with being productive, the problem with trying to optimise efficiency as much as possible, why control is such a point of tension in our lives, what the relationship is between productivity and emotions, whether there is power in embracing your limitations instead of trying to fix them, why it’s so hard to cut ourselves some slack, how we can make writing less hard and much more...

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Timestamps:

(00:00) The Modern Mental Health Crisis (05:21) Are Therapists the Problem? (08:53) Do We Just Need to Connect to Our Feelings More? (14:39) Does Therapy Make Mental Health Worse? (22:17) Gen-Z Are Learning to Be Avoidant (27:31) Finding a Sweet Spot With Therapy (33:27) The Paradox in Depression Treatment (37:47) Therapy Culture Vs Bad Therapy (43:19) Are Smartphones & Climate Change to Blame? (51:23) The Impact of Single-Parent Households (55:04) Schools Making Parents Into Enemies (01:01:28) Overuse of the Word ‘Trauma’ (01:05:57) Is Mindfulness a Better Way? (01:14:34) Kids Are Too Over-Medicated (01:19:31) A Better Way Forward (01:23:35) Where to Find Abigail

Extra Stuff:

Check out Oliver’s BBC Maestro Course - https://www.bbcmaestro.com/courses/oliver-burkeman/time-management 

Get my free reading list of 100 books to read before you die: https://chriswillx.com/books

Try my productivity energy drink Neutonic: https://neutonic.com/modernwisdom

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This Is How To Master Your Life - David Goggins - #577: ⁠⁠⁠lnkfi.re/SN-Goggins⁠⁠⁠

How To Destroy Your Negative Beliefs - Dr Jordan Peterson - #712: ⁠⁠⁠lnkfi.re/SN-Peterson⁠⁠⁠

The Secret Tools To Hack Your Brain - Dr Andrew Huberman - #700: ⁠⁠⁠lnkfi.re/SN-Huberman⁠⁠

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