Four Thousand Weeks

Time Management for Mortals

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Oliver Burkeman: Four Thousand Weeks (AudiobookFormat, 2021, Macmillan Audio)

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Published Aug. 10, 2021 by Macmillan Audio.

ISBN:
978-1-250-83436-2
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4 stars (3 reviews)

The average human lifespan is absurdly, outrageously, insultingly brief: if you live to 80, you have about four thousand weeks on earth. How should we use them best?

Of course, nobody needs telling that there isn't enough time. We're obsessed by our lengthening to-do lists, our overfilled inboxes, the struggle against distraction, and the sense that our attention spans are shrivelling. Yet we rarely make the conscious connection that these problems only trouble us in the first place thanks to the ultimate time-management problem: the challenge of how best to use our four thousand weeks.

Four Thousand Weeks is an uplifting, engrossing and deeply realistic exploration of this problem. Rejecting the futile modern obsession with 'getting everything done,' it introduces readers to tools for constructing a meaningful life, showing how the unhelpful ways we've come to think about time aren't inescapable, unchanging truths, but choices we've made, as individuals and …

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Review of 'Four Thousand Weeks' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Nothing extra-ordinary in terms of content, but special when you think of the book as a compilation of useful frameworks to think about time.

Alas, I stumbled upon Four Thousand Weeks at such a point in my life where I’ve already been a productivity addict for so long that it’s impossible for me to make a fresh start. The central theme of the book - that you won’t ever get to do all the things you’ve set out to do so you should consciously choose and be happy about your choice - is such an aphoristic statement that no matter how you spin it, it always feels bland.

Having said that, the self-help ocean that this book is a part of, is filled with heaps of garbage books, so stumbling upon this one is like finding a needle in a haystack. Few ways of thinking about time and choices that …