Better procrastination
Helping Friendly Newsletter 10.01.21
GM! ☕️
Here’s what you’ll find in today’s email:
The truth about time
Better procrastination
Death positive, life affirming
Second sleep
Tiny book reviews
1. The truth about time
Oliver Burkeman’s Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals is the rare time management book that tells the truth. My clients should recognize the premise, since I beat the drum often: There simply isn’t time for everything you want to do. You must choose. This may not seem like good news, but it’s medicine we need. “The average human life span is absurdly, terrifyingly, insultingly short.”
And in exchange for accepting all that? You get to actually be here. You get to have some real purchase on life. You get to spend your finite time focused on a few things that matter to you, in themselves, right now, in this moment.
—Oliver Burkeman
2. Better procrastination
I made this sketch note of Burkeman’s chapter on procrastination. The point is to stay in the blue zone. It’s harder in the moment, but better where it counts.
3. Death positive, life affirming
October is the spooky season and an excellent time for practicing memento mori. I’ll be sharing a death education feature each week this month.
First up: learn about the death positive movement from The Order of the Good Death founder, mortician, and educator Caitlin Doughty. The big idea is that “by hiding death and dying behind closed doors we do more harm than good to our society.” (Bonus: Doughty is legit funny, and thank goodness because this stuff gets heavy.)
See these and other death positive titles on Amazon.
4. Second sleep
If your mind has its own agenda at 3am, you’re not alone. Many folks experience this annoying phenomenon, including yours truly. It’s not just modern anxiety; there is a historical precedent for “bimodal” (first and second) sleeps. “For thousands of years, humans slept in two shifts.”
5. Tiny book reviews
See my reviews and ratings for these books.
Thank you for reading
This newsletter is a labor of love. 💌 If you would like to show your support, you can forward to a friend, venmo me a coffee, or engage my services. If you’re seeing it for the first time, you can access the archive or subscribe here.
Thank you to CW, RK, AJ, TM, and FS for the coffee love last month! 🙏🏼
Treasure chest
I bet you find a gem ➔ o Mary, conceived without white supremacy, pray for us to dismantle this shit1 | reckoning: protest. defiance. resilience.2 | do you have productivity dysmorphia? | real-time bird migration maps | Greek and Roman mythology retellings are 🔥 | how Dolly Parton is literally like a cougar | libraries and pandemics | speaking of libraries, this week I rediscovered an old happy place👇🏼
Have a great weekend! I’ll see you again soon.
Jenny
Via Jonathan Malesic.
Via Avalon Consulting.