How to manage your time in 2024? Cut yourself some slack

Oliver Burkeman, author of Four Thousand Weeks, says the first step is to realise you can’t do everything

Four Thousand Weeks author Oliver Burkeman recommends setting a fixed number of hours for work, among other techniques. ST PHOTO: LIM YAOHUI
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Suffering from endless to-do lists? If so, one solution, found widely in LinkedIn posts and motivational podcasts, is to become more efficient.

You can wake up at 5am. You can divide your schedule into 15-minute blocks and answer emails in rapid-fire batches. You can learn Mandarin while training for an Ironman. With discipline, you will squeeze in more meetings, more networking coffees and still be there for all the important family moments.

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