I Will Teach You to Be Time-Rich

A guide to making time for life’s big rocks

Luke Mac
Forge

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Illustrations by the author

Prologue

I was hunted by time: a fluffy prey animal in a dark forest of nebulous unfinished business. Constantly over-busy, my weekends had become brief islands of unscheduled minutes: not a time for adventure or rest, but merely some dead time offering a brief respite. I fantasised about some future tropical exoneration, where I would finally be free.

This is a story about how I got out of the woods. And it starts with a once-in-a-multiple-lifetimes opportunity.

Pandemic-proof productivity

I’m writing this by lamplight deep inside a converted subway bunker, a mob of the infected probing the vents for structural weaknesses… at least, that was what mid-2021 feels like. A lot of the world is locked down with a bad case of the spicy cough, but living on an island during a global pandemic has its benefits, and here in Sydney, although currently in lockdown, we’ve been fortunate to remain largely unscathed. And for me, there has been a silver lining to the cloud.

Like many, my professional and social calendars were suddenly wiped clean. In a way, my fantasy had come true: I was as free from obligation as one could hope for outside of prison. But after months of barely…

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Luke Mac
Forge
Writer for

Sex & planes & video games: I write at the intersection of productivity, gamification, personal knowledge management, systems thinking and lifestyle design.