Oliver Burkeman on embracing limitations, stale goals, and unclenching from routine

This week's guest has spent the last few years delving into the topic of limitations through researching and writing his latest book on time.Oliver Burkeman is a British author and journalist living in Brooklyn. He writes a popular weekly column for The Guardian on social psychology, productivity and the science of happiness, called This Column Will Change Your Life and is the author of The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking.In this conversation, we delve into how he has moved through a rut from the book writing process, how goals can become redundant very quickly, the Kanban method, self-control and distraction, parenting, shadow working, insomnia, the difficulty of doing nothing and how we can get out of a rut by breaking our own rules. Extraordinary Findings:– The Summer Day by Mary Oliver– David Cain's newsletter Raptitude– Hofstadter's law– Debbie Millman's ten year plan exercise– Already Free by Bruce Tift – Braintoss app– Kanban method– Self Control app– The Moves That Matter by Jonathan Rowson– Why do we feel so busy? It’s all our hidden ‘shadow work’ article by Oliver Burkeman – Notes from my previous conversation with Oliver Burkeman on not having a routine* * *Thank you for listening to Routines & Ruts, a labour of love fuelled by time and curiosity. If you'd like to support the podcast, please share with a friend, or say thanks with a coffee!To stay tuned, please subscribe or follow the podcast on your preferred listening platform and leave a review on iTunes.You can also sign up to the Extraordinary Routines newsletter, or follow along at @extraordinary_routines on Instagram.Special thanks to: Nelson Dore for the theme music, Scott from Soundmind Editing for the mixing and Ellen Porteus for the cover art.