Four Thousand Weeks

What the book is about

If you live to eighty, you get roughly four thousand weeks. That’s the starting point of this book, and it changes how everything else looks. Most of us spend those weeks trying to get on top of our inboxes, our to-do lists and our ambitions, convinced that the right system will one day let us fit it all in.

Oliver Burkeman, a former productivity enthusiast, argues that day never comes. Drawing on philosophers, psychologists and spiritual teachers, he shows that accepting your limits is the way to a calmer, more meaningful life, and that many of our habits around time are choices we could make differently.

Who wrote it

Oliver Burkeman is a British journalist and author. For many years he wrote the popular Guardian column “This Column Will Change Your Life”, on psychology, productivity and happiness. He won the Foreign Press Association’s Young Journalist Award and was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize.

His other books include Meditations for Mortals, The Antidote and Help!. Today he writes The Imperfectionist, an email newsletter about productivity, mortality and the power of limits. After a decade in Brooklyn, he now lives in the North York Moors.

What readers are saying

What they love: Readers say the book feels like a weight lifting rather than more pressure to perform. They enjoy Burkeman’s dry humour and his honest stories about his own failed attempts to master his time. Many say it’s a book to read more than once, and the audiobook, read by Burkeman, is praised for his relaxed, thoughtful delivery.

What well-known names said: Mark Manson called it “a much-needed reality check” on how we think about work and productivity. Adam Grant said it will make you rethink your beliefs about getting things done, and Cal Newport and Daniel Pink also recommend it.