Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals

Ironically, while modern technology has reduced wait-times, we are more impatient than ever, frustrated about our inability to make arduous or manual tasks be completed in the time that we would wish. Burkeman speculates that we experience such frustration because each timesaving advancement “seems to bring us closer to the point of transcending our limits” and that we might have more control over our time (163). However, with this increased efficiency, the fact that we do not have complete control becomes even more unpleasant.

It is not just individuals who have grown more impatient, but society as a whole, meaning that expectations of efficiency in fields such as work have gone up, putting pressure on employees. This is even when we know that impatience and rushing often mean that the satisfactory completion of a task takes longer, as we make more errors when we hurry and may have to repeat our work.

Reading, a formerly favored pastime, is an area that has suffered due to modern impatience. Although people complain that they do not have time to read, often the problem is that they grow frustrated that the text dictates a timespan of its own and that to fully grasp it, we have to surrender our own unrealistic expectations of instant satisfaction.