⌛️ Time Anxiety Interlude, Part One
From Chris Guillebeau's new book — a meditation "On the Lack of Success in Duplicating the Productivity Patterns of Famous World Leaders"
“When you’re drowning, you can’t just swim faster.”
—, Time Anxiety
Hello Dohnuts! I am delighted to deliver a special guest post this week—my favorite section from ’s new book (launched yesterday!) called Time Anxiety: The Illusion of Urgency and a Better Way to Live.
This interlude, two-thirds of the way into the book, offers a vulnerable internal monologue on combating the natural compare-and-despair that arises around the two forms of time anxiety Chris addresses throughout:
Existential: “Time is running out in my life.”
Daily Routine: “There is not enough time in the day.”
🎧 Be sure to also check out the Free Time podcast episode we recorded, with epic show notes if I don’t say so myself!
✍️ Last but not least, shout-out to for the brilliant graphics throughout the book (one is featured above :)
⏰ Interlude, Part One: On the Lack of Success in Duplicating the Productivity Patterns of Famous World Leaders
By in Time Anxiety
You say you are writing a book about time anxiety. But what will it include? What advice will you offer? You worry that despite your intimate relationship with this topic, you have nothing to say. Life is hard and then it ends. This is true! But is this logic helpful?
Elena writes you from Paris. She is a documentary filmmaker who has won many awards. She speaks around the world at conferences and companies. She posts regularly on social media. She also has a two-year-old, who is learning to speak three languages at once. Elena wants to know if you’re doing any more time-anxiety courses? She’d like to join—but what, you wonder, could you teach her.
This is what it has come to: a reckoning of sorts. People always thought you were “so productive,” but you know many people who are much more productive. You are impressed with them and also a little mad about their productivity. You think about them when you're supposed to be working on something but end up doing anything other than what you should be working on. Instead of time anxiety, you should write the book on status envy. Working title: The Art of Looking to Others for Validation and Going Away Feeling Depressed.
NARRATOR 1: Should it be The Lost Art ... ?
NARRATOR 2: No. This art has never been far from view.
Perhaps there is one thing you can offer: most of the people you know who are more productive than you are also pretty stressed out. Some more than others, of course, but a general rule is that the more you learn about a famous productive per-son, the more you see that not everything is as it seems. Maybe something is going well in their world, but something else is falling apart. Maybe they’re so high-strung that everyone in their presence walks around on pins and needles.
The less charitable thing to say would be the more you get to know them, the less impressed you are. But you know that the problem is not them! It’s the pedestal they are placed upon in your mind. And to be fair, the one they try to maintain their position upon gets their own wheels spinning and causes them to wonder: How should I spend my time? There’s something I should be doing right now, but I don’t know what it is.
That’s right. They have this problem, too.
For many years you produced an annual event with keynote speakers. Every year, you dealt with the same problem. You had confirmed these speakers in advance, and you had a copy of their travel plans. You were pretty sure they’d show up. But until you had them in the greenroom backstage, waiting to walk out and give their keynote, you never really knew. Though some were incredibly reliable, others were, well, more like you. Push comes to shove, they usually delivered. But you still worried! Because you had seen what the audience hadn’t: sometimes these special people got as stressed out as you did.
You read an article about an American politician known for her books on “miracles” and mindfulness. It turns out she is also known by her staff as dehumanizing, abusive, and frequently enraged. The article alleges that she has thrown a phone at a staff member, criticized staff for their weight and physical appearance, and once punched a car door so hard that her hand required medical attention. In a response to these allegations, she denies some of the charges but admits others. She also says she is “not running for sainthood.”
Carl Jung said that everyone has a shadow. The less your shadow is integrated within yourself—and the more you try to hide it—the darker it becomes.
The article about the politician ends with a quote from a disillusioned staffer, who offers the advice “Never meet your heroes.” You think about the times you’ve been disappointed in someone you met. Then you think about the times it went the other way, when you were the one to disappoint someone who met their hero. The other person went away with the shock that their hero was just an ordinary person worried about all the things he hadn’t done.
🌻
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Jenny! I am thrilled to have your spring time episode with CG in my bluetooth hearing aids while I walk Milo in The Woodlands. Thank you for such a nice gift.