I finished reading Meditations for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman. The book is an expansion of Oliver's essays from his newsletter, The Imperfectionist. Yet, it doesn't flow like a series of separate essays, but rather they build upon one another.
A few lessons stood out to me as they “hit the nail on the head” when it comes to my life.
In the past, I've been the type to have a massive task list, where all of my tasks were neatly categorized and tagged with duration, context, start and due dates. In the end, I spent more time organizing my work rather than doing it. I grew out of this years ago, but I still remember the experience. Oliver talks about this in the book.
"The main point - though it took me years to realize it - is to develop the willingness to just do something, here and now, as a one-off, regardless of whether it's part of any system or habit or routine." - Oliver Burkeman
Oliver also recommends treating your task list as a source of things you could do, not have to do.
"Treat your to-do list as a menu. In the striving towards sanity mindset, a to-do list is always something you've got to get to the end of before you're allowed to relax. But in any context where there are more things that feel like they need doing than there's time available in which to do them — which is the normal state of affairs, after all — a to-do list is by definition really a menu, a list of asks to pick from, rather than to get through." - Oliver Burkeman
He also gets into content curation. I've been caught in the trap of subscribing to a ton of content through RSS and newsletters, then to feel like I need to empty my list. The things I have not read haunt me. I've only recently overcome this, but still struggle with the FOMO.
"Treat your to-read pile like a river, not a bucket. That is to say: think of your backlog not as a container that gradually fills up, and that it's your job to empty, but as a stream that flows past you, from which you get to pick a few choice items, here and there, without feeling guilty for letting all the others float by." - Oliver Burkeman
Oliver has some interesting things to say about decision-making and perfectionism.
"Perfectionists love to begin new endeavors, because the moment of starting belongs to the world of limitlessness: for as long as you haven't done any work on a project, it's still possible to believe that the end result might match the ideal your mind." - Oliver Burkeman
The examples above are a few that stood out to me, but there are many, many more. Overall, the book is structured into 28 days, one lesson per day. Oliver recommends doing one lesson per day, and then let it resonate with you. Think about that lesson and how it applies to your life.
Meditations for Mortals should be on everyone's bookshelf. It is full of advice about how to live life, knowing that we can't get everything done and do everything we want to do.