Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals

Oliver Burkeman

Aug 2021 · Macmillan Audio · Narrated by Oliver Burkeman

About this audiobook

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

This program is read by the author.

"Burkeman and his irresistible British accent shifted my paradigm a couple centimeters . . . 'The day will never arrive when you have everything under control,' he calmly whispered in my ear, and I think I believed him." - Vulture

"The philosophical tone of his delivery is perfect for [Burkeman's] thoughtful message: We can enjoy life more if we appreciate the present moment, stay in touch with our deeper selves, and nurture our connections with people and the natural world." - AudioFile Magazine

"Provocative and appealing . . . well worth your extremely limited time." —Barbara Spindel, The Wall Street Journal

The average human lifespan is absurdly, insultingly brief. Assuming you live to be eighty, you have just over four thousand weeks.

Nobody needs telling there isn’t enough time. We’re obsessed with our lengthening to-do lists, our overfilled inboxes, work-life balance, and the ceaseless battle against distraction; and we’re deluged with advice on becoming more productive and efficient, and “life hacks” to optimize our days. But such techniques often end up making things worse. The sense of anxious hurry grows more intense, and still the most meaningful parts of life seem to lie just beyond the horizon. Still, we rarely make the connection between our daily struggles with time and the ultimate time management problem: the challenge of how best to use our four thousand weeks.

Drawing on the insights of both ancient and contemporary philosophers, psychologists, and spiritual teachers, Oliver Burkeman delivers an entertaining, humorous, practical, and ultimately profound guide to time and time management. Rejecting the futile modern fixation on “getting everything done,” Four Thousand Weeks introduces readers to tools for constructing a meaningful life by embracing finitude, showing how many of the unhelpful ways we’ve come to think about time aren’t inescapable, unchanging truths, but choices we’ve made as individuals and as a society—and that we could do things differently.
A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Ratings and reviews

You can only go so far in denying human nature. We are all consumers, even the smallest bacteria has to consume to survive, and capitalism is the system that most effectively harness is this biological imperative to the advantage of all of humanity. The market is merely a system of commerce. You can sell your time and be miserable, or derive your meaning from your labour, or you can generate value. the author obviously chose to do the latter, he invested his time in writing a book and even recording in the audiobook, a book about escaping the former.

An eye opening book. While I wish I read it 2000 weeks ago, I'm thankful for what it taught me today. Thank you Oliver!

Such a good book. It really helps me reframe my outlook on how I spend my time.

About the author

Oliver Burkeman is the author of The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can’t Stand Positive Thinking and an award-winning feature writer for The Guardian, where he wrote a long-running weekly column on psychology, “This Column Will Change Your Life.” His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Psychologies, and New Philosopher. He lives in New York City.