Hello,

How’s it going?

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Here’s what I have for you today:

• One big thing. Somewhere in midlife, the realization your time is finite hits home. I’ll explore the curious reasons time management is a fallacy. 🪤

• You have to check this out. More resources on time and the illusion of control. ⏰ 

• Tools and tech. Watching TV around the world. 🌏

Let’s jump in. 🦘

1️⃣ ONE BIG THING

On time and attention.

Writing in the year 49, the philosopher Seneca observed:

People are frugal in guarding their personal property; but as soon as it comes to squandering time they are most wasteful of the one thing in which it is right to be stingy.

About 1,650 years later, the English Quaker William Penn said:

Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.

When you grow up, you learn about the world.

The curriculum includes lessons about time. Activities happen in a sequence connected by the concept of time. Some things happen before; others happen after. A bath takes more time than washing your hands. Days can go slowly, while years go fast.

You learn about time with the same frameworks that explain money and possessions.

These are all resources. They sit in accounts, literal and conceptual.

Like money, you learn that time can be saved, wasted, spent, and invested.

Modern conveniences save you time. Commuting to work is a waste of time. Benjamin Franklin said time is money. Steven Covey advised that the key is not spending time but investing it.

Entire sections of bookstores (ahem, Amazon) are devoted to time management and productivity.

The midlife time alarm. ⏰

Time takes on new meaning in midlife, doesn’t it?

Perhaps you had that jolting thought, like I did at one point, that you might be halfway through life. Or you realized you were the age you once considered “soooooo old”. We’ve all been there.

So what should you do when you start getting these “balance low” alerts from the Bank of Time?

Spend the time you have more wisely?

Make a bucket list?

Officially launch your Midlife Crisis Eras Tour? (If you missed my recent newsletter on the history of the midlife crisis, read it here.)

I’d suggest there are two things to consider first:

1. The fact that you deeply feel the preciousness of time is valuable. It’s not something you can fully grasp when you’re 28. When you feeeeeeeel it at 48, don’t bury it or let it slip away. Donald Miller suggests that everyone should write their own eulogy now and read it every morning. Better than a cold plunge. As I wrote in my newsletter Your Life in Weeks, you can buy and use a poster illustrating each week you have left to live. I have 1,300-1,500 weeks left (with some luck). Another ice bath that will keep you alert.

2. Stop thinking about time the same way you think about money. This mental model leads to all sorts of counterproductive responses. Time productivity science is good for factories but bad for life. Getting more done in less time is a fallacy. It’s a defective framework.

Let me explain.

Time is not an external account.

When I said I would explain, a better phrase may have been, “Let me try to explain.” This gets a bit philosophical, so bear with me. 🐻

Money is in an external account. You can look at your balance, add to it, or subtract from it. If you do nothing, the balance won’t change significantly.

One thing we all learn is time is a limited asset. You can’t acquire more of it. And yes, this is true.

But this viewpoint makes it seem like time is sitting in an external account you "have." For example, you might say, “I only have so much time left.”

But you aren’t sitting on a riverbank watching the river of time flowing by.

You are in the river.

You are time.

You, your life, and time cannot be separated.

Martin Heidegger is the philosopher that best framed this line of thinking. In his work Being and Time, he argued that your understanding of being is inseparable from your understanding of time and that "being" is a process of becoming, a continuous unfolding within time.

“Time is the substance I am made of,” the Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges said. “Time is a river that sweeps me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger which destroys me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire which consumes me, but I am the fire.”

I said bear with me, right? Haha. 👀

This is more than a curious thought experiment.

When you view time as external, you get the sense you can control it. This perspective means you then judge your own efforts at managing time as successful (Go me!) or unsuccessful (I suck.).

But you are simply inside of time. You are moving forward together with time. Nothing you can ever do will alter this reality. (Unless you try that trick where Superman flew around the Earth really fast to turn back time, as Cher later sang about.)

I find this concept exceptionally liberating.

It can be hard to understand because the notion of time as an external account we can actively manage is deeply ingrained in our learned worldview.

So, what can you do if you stop trying to control time? After all, the midlife time alarm is still ringing, right?

Can I get your attention?

What if you swap out the word time for the word attention?

You have no control over time. But you can absolutely control where you focus your attention.

Perhaps you have heard the tale of the drunkard’s search?

Where you place your attention is like a flashlight shining in a specific area. Outside this circle of light is darkness. Within the circle, you see details.

Unlike the drunkard’s search (where the streetlight is a fixed beam), you can control where you shine the flashlight of your attention.

Like a flashlight, you can only focus your attention on one thing at a time. In the background, you can do other things on autopilot, like driving, but your attention is a one-thing-at-time specialist.

There is great research documenting the singular nature of attention. Scientists use the term inattentional blindness to describe the fact that we can only see what our attention is focused on.

It’s worth testing your own attention ability with the Monkey Business Illusion. This fun test takes less than two minutes. Even if you think you have seen this before, I’d try it again.

Why does this matter?

Well, where you focus your attention in life is what your life will be.

You can decide to spend more time with the people you love most. But you won't achieve the core outcome you seek if you are distracted by your phone, work stress, or the game score as you do.

Attention is both in your control (unlike time) and far more determinative of your results.

“The ability to focus and attend is the distinguishing feature between those that will succeed in any endeavor and those that won’t,” says Dr. Andrew Huberman.

Unfortunately, there’s a problem.

The entire world conspires to steal your attention, doesn’t it?

Join me next week when I'll discuss:

• How attention works.

• The role of distractions (internal and external) and how to combat them.

• Different ways to align your attention and your priorities.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

See you next Sunday,

Kevin