The 996 Grind Gets Time All Wrong — with Oliver Burkeman
Scott Galloway talks with Oliver Burkeman, author of 4,000 Weeks and Meditation for Mortals, about why optimization and grind culture backfire, and how accepting our limits on time and control makes life more productive and meaningful.
The gist
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Burkeman says chasing total control is not just hard but impossible, and accepting that frees you to focus on one or two things that matter.
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Galloway says aiming for about 80 on a scale of optimization, eating well and exercising but allowing occasional indulgence, beats obsessing at 100.
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Burkeman keeps a closed list of 5 to 10 near-term tasks and adds nothing new until one is finished.
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Burkeman's dailyish idea means doing a habit about four times a week, so missing a day doesn't break a perfect streak.
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Burkeman argues that grinding to keep up with AI misreads how meaning works, while Galloway says his best productivity hack is delegating to others.
"I'm always using some version of a closed list. That is the simple one that I've written about. You keep two lists. One is a sort of open list of absolutely everything that's on your plate. And then the second is a closed list that might have five, 10 outcomes, near-term thing..."
▶ Play at 32:39"I just loved when I first encountered it as a guide to how often to meditate, but I think in all sorts of areas of life as well, this idea of dailyish... So you have that kind of window for your consistency that is much more sustainable and isn't going to throw everything off ..."
▶ Play at 25:46What they recommend · 2 picks
"I just loved when I first encountered it as a guide to how often to meditate, but I think in all sorts of areas of life as well, this idea of dailyish... So you have that kind o..."
"I'm always using some version of a closed list. That is the simple one that I've written about. You keep two lists. One is a sort of open list of absolutely everything that's on..."
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